Horses Without Carriages International www.horseswithoutcarriages.org

The article from DNA offers a good report and also includes video.

This is a quote from the article. "I passed 57th Street and the horse starts acting crazy. He started kicking his back legs. I grabbed the reins and I must've yelled, 'Stop' 15 times," said carriage driver Frank Luo, 43, who works out of the Clinton Park Stables on 52nd Street near 11th Avenue Luo, who said the horse's name is Chris, said he couldn't calm the steed down. "He broke the whole front of the carriage and the fifth wheel. The harness trapped the back legs and he stopped," Luo said, adding, "I didn't do anything wrong. I did my job well. If I had gotten scared and jumped out [of the carriage], it would've been ten times worse."

This comment was offered by an experienced horseperson: " Many of these people are NOT competent enough as horse handlers to be taking these animals out in heavy urban traffic. That is a FACT. Almost ALL of these incidents involving "spooks" "bolts" and "runaways" have been because of driver error. Experienced and competent horsemen do not yell "Stop" or "Hold"-- they say "Whoa" in a commanding tone. They try very hard not to "yell" or "scream" or show fear or panic in their voice. I can't believe this man thought he deserved "credit" for doing what he is supposed to do-- stay with his horse and carriage and try to regain control.

The driver, Frank Luo, is the owner of Manhattan Carriage Company, which lists rides on their web site. The legal rate for horse-drawn carriage rides is $50 for the first 20 minutes and $20 for each additional 10 minutes. The law does not provide for "special" circumstances or "seasonal" rates. They should also not ask people to "call for prices." Most of the rides listed are overpriced. This is a clear violation of the law, which had been brought to the attention of the press and the administration as early as 2009 by the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages and then Council Member Tony Avella. Yet it continues.

So here it is four years later and it does not appear that they did rescue any more NYC carriage horses. And now their recent mailing talks about this same horse, now calling him by his NYC name - Marcello and providing this hoof number - 3287, something they would not give me four years ago. The mailing refers to the auction as the "New Holland Killer Sale." Armed with this ID number, I requested more information from the Department of Health and learned that the horse's owner was none other than Maria Sulla, who was also the owner of Bobby II Freedom, a NYC carriage horse we rescued from the New Holland auctions in 2010 and now lives at Equine Advocates Sanctuary. In a handwritten note to the DoH, Ms. Sulla said she sent the horse back to the farmer because "not good to work in NYC."

Avella said that both de Blasio, a Democrat, and Lhota, a Republican, have pledged to ban horse-drawn carriages if elected. The senator has introduced legislation that would prohibit the operation of the carriages in the city and mandate the humane relocation of horses released from service. [end of article]