Edfu/Horse-Drawn Carriage
 

From a previous post I read about the horses being mistreated on the carriage ride. According to the post the horses had sores, were beaten and mistreated. Do anyone have any experience with this? We are scheduled for a carriage ride,but I can elect to use a private driver instead. I don't want to see any animal mistreated. Thanks.

The horse which pulled the carriage I was in at Edfu got hit by a car. The driver continued to drive us home. We kept telling him to let us out & take him to the Vet. Hospital ASAP. He promised to do it once we got out.

The woman in the couple who was with me was very upset by it. Her husband and I were just badly shaken.

From a practical standpoint, I'm not sure that taking a private driver would help you avoid seeing the horses mistreated -- there are so many horses around that you'll be able to see it if there is any.

From an ethical viewpoint, it sounds like you'd feel better if you didn't ride in the carriages. But ..... it was a car which hit the horse when we were in it.

Anitas: We were shocked at the condition of the horses in Edfu when we were there last month. We did not see mistreatment, but they looked dreadful. Most in our group were upset and agreed that we would have preferred ANY other mode of transportation to the Temple.

By the way, horses in other cities, such as Aswan, appeared much healthier.

Anitas, from what I saw, the horses in Edfu did appear to be older and thinner than those in Luxor. They were probably not as well cared for, but I can't say that I saw anyone mistreat them. I certainly didn't have an experience as negative as that of sunshine007, as our carriage ride proceeded without incident. A lot of people go to the temple in small vans, but I enjoyed the carriage ride. I can't really draw any broad conclusions about what I saw. I think you'll have to make up your mind when you get there and see the situation with your own eyes. You might be interested in a visit to the horse hospital in Luxor; our tour made a quick stop there (though I was tired and snoozed in the van) so that you had an opportunity to see what kind of veterinary care is avaialble in Egypt.

Hello from Cairo;

Edu people are poor, and for the horse owner, a working day maybe the difference between providing a meal to his wife and numerous children or NOT.

So while animal mistreatment is deplored and unacceptable, I just thought of providing an insight into what could be going through the horse onwer's mind. Not that I like it or encourage it.

I think I will arrange for a car to take us to the temples. I probably will see the horses in their condition, but at least I won't be part of it. Hopefully, the car I am in doesn't hit any horses.

Just returned from Egypt this morning and had the Carriage Ride at Edfu.

I did not see any horses mistreated ,although they could all use some food intake.

Our driver was not whipping the horse, there is really no need to whip the horse, there is plenty of time to get to the place where you tour Edfu Temple.

The main problem was ,that when we arrived at our destination, there was this biggest horse traffic jam you ever saw, carriages bumping into carriages, horse bumping into horse ..what a mess!

I think this Carriage Ride which is part of almost any tour, to the Edfu Temple is not really required, any small bus would do the trick..... but I think they want to give you a bit of something different and a flavour of Edfu.

Many make their living giving Carriage rides and at the end of our tour of the Edfu Temple....the Carriages were all lined up in a neat row spanning about two block.... now go and find the one that brought you !!!!

Percy

I also just returned from Egypt on the 18th and did see the animals at Edfu. They were thinner than in Luxor but I didn't see any of them that seemed to be on their "last legs". Our guide told us that the British has set up vet hospitals all over Egypt and that they didn't charge anything for the services. I don't like to see animals mistreated as you, but also I see the point that Sherif made. My animals are very lucky as I am. The living conditions were, in some places, terrible. But, most everyone I met was really friendly and made me feel welcome. There is one thing I would like to warn people about.
In Cairo, my sister and I struck out on our own to visit the Museum again and was approached by a man that was going to show us a short cut to the Museum. He fed us a line about working at the American Embassy that was behind our Hotel. Well, we should have known better but we followed him a little ways
then he went into a store on the pretense of introducing us to his sister. When we entered (this is on a busy street and the shop was nice)he asked us to look at his perfumes. Well, we knew then that we needed to get out. When we turned around the "sister" has locked us in the store. Scared and wanting to get out we paid the amount he wanted. When we paid he then unlocked the door. I know we shouldn't have went with him, but his story was good and he played it to a tee. Maybe we could have screamed or something but we got out with only paying 400 lbs for the scent and two bottles and learned a great lesson. Other than that, out trip was great! Has anyone else had something to happen to them?

I was the original poster regarding the horses at Edfu.. to my eyes they looked appalling. That being said, the horses in Luxor for the most part seemed much better cared for and there is a free vet that tends to the animals right in the center of town.
I will say that the condition of the horses in Edfu was so poor that we asked both our Aswan meeter/greeter and our tour guide both Egyptian, who agreed with us that they were in poor shape and one gentleman told us that to purchase a carriage is rather expensive for most Egyptians, HE made the point that if someone could afford to purchase the carriage, they should be able to take care of their horses better (that from a native). I think part of the issue at Edfu was the extreme heat and no water being available that I could see for any of the animals, this certainly had a bad impact on their physical state. If I had known this before the trip, I would have opted for a ride in Luxor but passed in Edfu.

According to another forum I was reading, that when you arrived in Edfu the carriages were all lined up and you could choose the one you wanted? I assumed that the cruise line did that for you. Please enlighten me.

anitas, while not exactly answering your inquiry I thought I might share a bit of our experience there during trip in 2000. Before exiting our boat for the ride to the temple our tour guide specifically told us the guides had been tipped and we were not to do so again.
The four of us boarded our carriage. I recall the horse was not in the best of condition but did not see any abuse during the ride. The driver constantly pestered me for extra money first using the ploy of complimenting us on our two attractive daughters and then on us taking pity on his horse which he said was pregnant. We opted to abide by the words of our guide and not tip him. He persisted even to the point of exiting the carriage when we returned to the boat and even following me up the gangplank.

I offer these comments not in any way to dampen your view of an interesting place of Egyptian history but to prepare you for a bit of culture shock. I am sure the standard of living there is such many people are simply attempting to earn a living. Who knows, maybe an extra "tip" would have enabled the driver/owner to take better care of his means to earn a living. Dick