NYC carriage horse industry proposes more regulations, stable in Central Park after old horse collapsed in Midtown

New York City carriage horse owners and drivers want to rein in the fallout from the collapse of an elderly horse on a Midtown street last month.

The carriage industry along with Transport Workers Union Local 100, which represents the people who drive them, on Thursday called for legislation to bring more oversight to the controversial tourist attraction.

They called for the city Health Department to fill an open position for a full-time veterinarian to look over the horses, more training for carriage drivers, and the installation of a new horse stable inside Central Park off the 86th St. Transverse.

The group also called for a new water trough to keep the carriage horses hydrated — and called on the Parks Department to ban cars from Grand Army Plaza on the southeastern corner of Central Park and turn the space over to carriage horses and pedestrians.

The proposal comes three weeks after an old horse, Ryder, collapsed from heat exhaustion while pulling a carriage on Ninth Ave. in Hell’s Kitchen.

The caught-on-camera incident shows the horse’s driver whipping Ryder and yelling for him to get up. Police later hosed down Ryder as he lay on the asphalt before he was taken away by a veterinarian.

The controversy was the latest page in a decades-old debate in New York City over the ethics of operating horse carriages in a dense urban environment covered in asphalt.

The animal rights group NYCLASS insists the industry is inhumane and should be banned, while carriage horse drivers argue they treat the horses well and the carriage rides provide dozens of blue collar jobs.

“Our horses go on vacation to a farm at least five weeks every year right now, while police horses don’t go on vacation at all,” said Christina Hansen, an industry advocate who has driven horse carriages for a decade.

“Our horses effectively have a range of hundreds of acres in midtown. A stable in the park would keep them from commuting in traffic every day,” Hansen said.

NYCLASS representatives have for weeks pointed Ryder’s collapse as an example of inhumanity. They point to a lie from the driver — who said Ryder was 13 years old when he was actually at least 28 — as a reason to not trust horse carriage operators.

“These are the same people who fought tooth-and-nail to oppose any improvements in the carriage horses’ lives, including the city law that removes horses from the streets on extremely hot days,” said NYCLASS executive director Edita Birnkrant. “After falsely claiming the horses have been treated with exceptional care for years, they now produce a long list of recommendations that only proves what hellholes these horses are living in.”

New York City permits 68 horse carriages to operate in the city, and about 200 horses pull them. The rides are primarily targeted to Central Park tourists, and some of the out-of-towners are met by screaming protesters from NYCLASS bemoaning the practice.

Many of the horses spend weeks on end without going out to pasture to graze. Even a stable in Central Park might not give them enough space to roam freely without stepping on asphalt, drivers acknowledged. “Asphalt is still better than concrete,” said Hansen.

Local 100 officials blamed former Mayor Bill de Blasio — whose first mayoral campaign was backed by NYCLASS — for not improving conditions for carriage horses. The ex-mayor refused to build a new stable or improve resources for horses after he failed to make good on a campaign promise and ban the industry altogether, union officials said.

During his final year in office, de Blasio proposed replacing carriage horses in Central Park with antique-looking electric cars. The pitch went nowhere fast — and it also sputtered early in de Blasio’s term.

“TWU Local 100 is interested in protecting blue-collar jobs that help more than 130 families put food on the table, pay their rent, and send their kids to school,” said Local 100 president Tony Utano. “We are just as interested in protecting the health and welfare of the carriage horses, and the history of Central Park, which was designed by Fredrick Law Olmsted specifically to be enjoyed first and foremost from a horse-drawn carriage.”