Horse-Drawn Carriage Rides NYC (NYC Carriage Horse Project)

how could I not be........I like so many others accepted NYC horse-drawn carriages as a fixture of Manhattan's tourist scene. I never rode in one and would only see them from afar until last year. My awareness was heightened by a dear soul who is the careful and concerned watcher of that famous Fifth Avenue resident red-tailed hawk "Pale Male." This watcher's name is Lincoln Karim and he is a superb photographer. He peppers his website www.palemale.com with photographs of nature, i.e. other birds, an occasional cute squirrel and a stoic owl. Lincoln is very passionate about the carriage horses, as he is a daily first hand witness of the life these beautiful horses lead, as he positions himself in Central Park nearly every day to photograph Pale Male, et al. Naturally, Lincoln occasionally publishes some harsh and realistic photos of the carriage horses.....it was an eye opener for me. Everything culminated for me when I sat in traffic one night on my way to Lincoln Center. I was sitting in a cab near Central Park and a horse-drawn carriage was along side me. It was a cold artic night in January. The horse was about two feet away. The horse's head was hanging low in line with the tail pipe of a running car directly in front of the animal. The horse's coat was dull and ladened with worn patches from its dressing. My heart just broke and I began to weep. Weep because such alleged abuse, in my opinion, was occurring before my very eyes... before the world and no one at that moment cared enough for that wonderful animal. I knew then that I was going to get involved somehow in the banning of horse drawn carriages in NYC. This atrocitiy only exists because of the power of the tourists' dollars. There must be another way...a substitute for the horse drawn carriage in Manhattan.....a substitute that will attract tourists and not involve the use of a living, feeling animal............