Do the carriage rides in Central Park operate during February? The Central Park website doesn't give any start or stop date for them. Do they operate year round?



Thank you for

They do operate year round, and are run by private enterprises, who don't make any money when they don't operate.

There is a campaign afoot to stop the carriage rides, claiming that the horses suffer cruel treatment.

Wouldn't it make more sense to try to figure out a humane and very comfortable arrangement for stabling and caring for the horses, as a historic resource, than just spending money to ban them? I'm probably naive about this and I care a great deal about animals and their treatment. The horses often bothered me when I visited NYC and saw them, but some were clearly better cared for than others.

Are horses elsewhere (Chicago) equally poorly treated?

They do not operate the year round. Operations are controlled by the weather - and if it is very hot and humid - or very cold (don;t remember the minimum temp/wind chill) the horses are required, by city regulation, to stay in their barns.

They will be available most days - but certainly not all.

Many of the carriage horses in NYC are poorly cared for and I hope that the current campaign to ban them succeeds. They will be replaced by eco-friendly horseless carriages.

Agree that many of the poor horses don;t look well card for - I just hope if the carriages are banned the law includes mandatory retirement provisions for the horses.

And, frankly, don;t get why people do this anyway. In the warm weather the horses smell (well, all horses do that don;t get regular baths) and you can see only a small part of the Park from the few roads (often surrounded by cars) you are limited to.

The horses are happy and the owners love them. This talk of cruelty is typical PETA garbage.

And, yes, carriage rides operate in February. I jogged along side the carriages yesterday, and the tourists were enjoying the tour with blankets & hot chocolate.

Speaking of PETA, has anybody stocked up on broccoli?

Waste of money! Don't think your gonna have a leisurely ride through the park wrapped in blankets and feeling like your the only people around! It's more like a traffic jam of horses, one right after the other, only a few feet apart!

tam, did you take a carriage ride on your trip? (I've never had the slightest desire to do so....just curious)

The horses are happy?
When someone can actually speak Horse and get that answer from one of those poor creatures, then I will believe it.

They are not treated well, their living conditions are poor.
The horses do smell, flies bite them and passengers and those blankets they give you for warmth are disgusting.
How do you think they get from Central Park to the Stables? through that horrid traffic with horns and taxis..
Here, look at this and tell me how happy he looks
http://gothamist.com/2007/09/15/scared_by_drums.php

http://www.banhdc.org/

Can you tell I feel strongly about this : - )

sf7307-No, we had no desire to do it either! But as we were leaving Central Park, we walked along the road where they were! It didn't look or smell like fun!

Laim Neeson was on Jon Stewart the other night and claimed the horses are treated extremely well and that PETA does not know what they are talking about.

And what makes Liam Neeson an authority on this subject? Just do a search on this and you will come up with some pretty horrifying photos and information.

Last night reading up on this, I found a remark made by one of the people at the ASPCA or some other organization where they slammed Neeson for his (ignorant) remarks..questioning his involving himself in this ..
I found photos of the 5 story, "stable" the horses are kept in on the West side.. after walking through traffic at the end of a long day, they have to walk up steep ramps ( where staircases once stood) to get to their floor where they stand in small airless stalls with a window at the end of the hall. Must be delightful in summer.. with concrete floors, the winters there must be lovely too..
2009 New York City and its roads and traffic do not need horse drawn carriages ..
If I were a tourist there, I would be so ashamed to go on one!!

Laim Neeson stated that he grew up around horses in Ireland, knew about their care, and visits the NYC stables often.

What I found interesting is that he bucked the trend and the reverential PETA to make such a comment. He was on Jon Stewart to flog his new movie and obviously asked to address the issue.

The horses at the West 45th Street stables are rotated to an upstate farm every 5 weeks.

So much for that whine.

And I too grew up around horses, spending hours in the saddle every day in the summers.

How so I know the horses are generally content? Because when you see them waiting for tourists on Central Park South, their lower lip and chin are droopy, a sign of complete relaxation.

And the claim that it's a "traffic jam"? Wrong (90% of the time). Yesterday the horses we're spread out, happily trotting along, and their passengers had broad smiles on their faces!

Gekko, I read that too ...
http://www.nypost.com/seven/01292009...yer_152563.htm

but I also lived in Manhattan and was sadly witness to more than one horse/taxi incident as well as a horse that collapsed and died from the heat.

As in any debate of this sort, both sides will drag out everyone that they can to speak for their side.
Hopefully, the actual truth and facts will decide this one.
Of course, in tough times, it might be hard to choose a horses well being and life over the tourist dollars they might earn.

Accidents happen. They are tragic.

But there's no evidence the accidents happen at a disproportionate rate over "normal" horse accidents. At my family farm, horses died from accidents and heat, too. 'Tis unavoidable.

To suggest that the carriage horses would live immortal, accident-free lives if not "working" is silly.

They'd probably be made into glue, actually.