Horses Without Carriages International www.horseswithoutcarriages.org

That said - these are two videos to see this week. The first was taken very recently on 10th Avenue on the way to Central Park. The traffic is typical. This is what the horses have to go through every day. Is this anyway to treat a horse? Click here.

The second - click here - is taken at the hack line and shows the concierge from the Ritz Carlton Hotel with a little girl allowing her to feed carrots to the carriage horses. This is both dangerous to the horse and to the child. There are proper ways to feed carrots to a horse and this is definitely not one of them. The driver is not interacting with the child and is on a cell phone. It is dangerous to feed a horse a whole carrot with green carrot tops. It is too big and the horse can choke on the carrot and the greens. The horse is also wearing a bit. Anita Gerami from Chateau Stables comments correctly on the site :

• Anita Gerami - I agree with cheshirecatalys62,treats are best fed in small pieces to horses,especially w/ bits in their mouths,better safe than sorry. [horse-carriage owner]
• Karen Keirstead - This is such a sweet video. Stop knit-picking.[horse-carriage supporter]
• Heather Clemenceau 1 year ago They should instruct the children to let the horse take small bites, especially since they have a bit in their mouth. Yes, choking is a concern when horses are fed whole carrots.
• Anita Gerami - really the carrots should be broken in half to prevent choking.

So let's add this to our growing list of bad horsemanship/driving skills - allowing their horse to be unattended and untethered creating an opportunity for the horse to spook and bolt; pulling the horse by the bit - a common practice when the driver is trying to "park" the horse; leaving the carriage before customers dismount; ignoring how people feed carrots to their horse; dangerously standing up in the box seat throwing their center of gravity off; not paying attention to the road - turning around, being distracted while driving - using cell phones, reading publications, turning around to take pictures while driving; throwing feed for their horses on the dirty streets covered with pigeon feces, glass, and garbage; making illegal u-turns.

Quinn has been trying to spin it by calling those who criticize her as sexist - that if a man displayed this behavior, he would be seen as strong. Some people are buying it. It is just another overused case of identity politics. When former Congressman Anthony Weiner ran into difficulties because of inappropriate photos he tweeted, the NY Times wrote about his disagreeable personality and how his colleagues did not support him because of that. NY1 TV - Road to City Hall discussed this issue on March 26th with the "Wise Guys" - former governor Elliot Spitzer, former Senator Al D'Amato and former Public Advocate Betsy Gottbaum. Click here for video - and listen to what they all have to say - particularly Al D'Amato.

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.