Horses Without Carriages International www.horseswithoutcarriages.org

The New York State Horse Health Assurance Program (NYSHHAP) is a voluntary certification program that is part of New York State Department of Agriculture's Division of Animal Industry. NYSHHAP is designed to promote and teach a pro-active approach (or "an ounce of prevention" theory) to equine health, care, and welfare through the use of certain "best management practices" or standards. The NYC carriage trade does not belong to this program.

NYSHHAP (and other experts) recommends a stall size of 12 feet by 12 feet (144 square feet.) for an average horse and 14 feet by 14 feet (196 square feet. ) for a draft horse. Although horses do often sleep standing up, they also need the opportunity to go into deep REM sleep with the space to stretch their limbs to the fullest extent - hence the recommended sizes. The NYC carriage stables do not have this kind of space. In 2010, a law was passed (with industry input) that increased the minimum size of stalls from a mere 48 square feet to 60 square feet . - a far cry from the 144 square feet they should at least have. This new law was supported by the Council Speaker and lauded as being a big improvement for the horses. It is so sad for the horses that they have no advocates in government.

When uninformed people - and this includes journalists - ask the trade about stall sizes, they are told disingenuously that all the stalls are "box stalls." This is simply a configuration and says nothing about size. So the horses continue to live in stalls that are much too small, with no turnout to pasture, and our legislators continue to look the other way. (the horse shown in this picture taken from a NYC stable clearly shows a small stall. Yes, he is lying down, but he would be hard pressed to stretch out fully. )

You can read the legislation by clicking on the bill numbers, S667 and A997 . Text in CAPS is new. Text with a strike through is deleted.