I first heard about the documentary Blinders on photogchic’s blog Equine Mine. Since that time I have kept my eye out for Blinders in the hopes that it would play on TV sometime soon. Sure enough I was looking through the guide on my satellite service when I saw it. Blinders would be playing on the Documentary channel. I DVRed it right away. And I started to watch it as soon as it came in. It was hard for me to watch it so I took a few deep breaths and put on something else. I promised myself when I was ready I would watch. Last night I deemed myself ready.
The start of the documentary is people who have just taken rides in the carriage and taking about the symbolism of taking a carriage ride in NYC. The director lulls you into a false sense of security and then smashes it. It jumps right from stories like, “We saw this in HomeAlone and wanted to do it” to one of the many accidents involving horse drawn carriages in NYC. Before watching this documentary I had thought that maybe once every few years an accident happens. I learned that not only does it happen every year, but is happens multiple times a year.
This documentary is made for its shock value. But the sad thing is that they didn’t even go into all the topics that they could have. Clearly the film wants everyone to go and join the coalition against carriage driving. And the first time through the documentary I felt so impassioned I was teetering on the edge. As soon as I finished watching it the first time I started it all over again and looked at it a bit more rationally.
Some of the problems the film points out with the carriage industry are the hours the horses work, the weights they are allowed to pull, the conditions they live in, how most of them do not make it more then a year in the industry, the lack of a clean water supply (which is shared with so many other things it is just gross), the waste produced, and the politics behind the lack of regulation. And that is just to name a few. One area that they touched on, but didn’t go into depth with, was the shoeing of these horses. All the film said was that they needed rubber shoeing to help take away some of the concussion. I know of a woman who rescued 6 former NYC carriage horses. All were under age 10. And all could hardly walk when she got them because of injuries that were the result of poor hoof care. The “boys” are all living a happy retirement now, but even now, none can canter comfortably.
Seeing the photos of the dead horses lying on the street with the yellow cabs a blur in the background is hard to look at. Those horses have given their lives for a job they never wanted to do in the first place. It breaks my heart. That being said I can think of a lot of parts of the horse industry where horses are just as disposable. I mean, my Appy was born to be a purse. His life was seen in terms of dollars and cents. I think Blinders has it right about the fact that owners of the carriage company’s don’t think about these horses in terms of living breathing creatures. They think about them like the way a mechanic thinks of a lift, or a golfer thinks of a club. There can be a small sentimental attachment while you are using it, but as soon as it breaks you get mad at it for breaking and then throw it out.
So that should make me want to ban carriage driving right? Well, it doesn’t. Not yet at least. I think that it can be a great way to use “unwanted horses” and to teach the general public about these great creatures we love. The film said that most of these horses are Amish Draft horses and Standardbreds. I would love to know what Mary M’s daughter is like as a carriage driver in another large city. I would imagine that she pays attention to the carriage horses she uses and allows them to drink and drink often on hot days. I think that getting people who love horses to work as the drivers is the first and most important step. If you can put in a little bit of heart and take away some of the money aspect it would make a tremendous difference in the lives of these horses.
Another step that needs to be taken is better regulations. I should not be seeing horses with curled over toes and metal shoes working on pavement for 10 hours a day. There is no excuse for this ever. If I, as a private horse owner, took my horses out into public and had curled toes WITH shoes that are shifted in all the wrong ways and clearly painful someone would call the authorities on me and charge me with cruelty. How can thousands of people walk by these beautiful creatures and not try and do something about this? The answer is that they do try, but the system in place to protect these horses is very, very broken.
A single officer at the ASPCA in NYC is assigned the duty of all the carriage horses. There are well over 1oo horses registered and I doubt that is this officers only duty. Another part of the movie that shocked me was that Mayor Bloomberg is so adamant that nothing be changed citing, you guessed it, the loss of tourist money. His daughter, Georgina Bloomberg, is one of the top Grand Prix Jumpers in the country. One would think that he (or his daughter) would have a little bit of empathy for these poor horses. But one would be wrong. I could keep going on all the changes that need to be made, but I want to hear from you all.
First of all, has anyone else seen this move? What do you think? I give it 4/5 stars and recommend that you watch it yourselves. If you love horses you need to know how they are being treated all over. You can even host a viewing party and have some friends over and watch it together. Just keep tissues near by because it can be heart wrenching at times.
Secondly, what do you all think about carriage horses in the cities? Do you think that changes can be made? Or do you think it should be banned completely?
and Lastly, does anyone out there think that these horses are being treated well? I am just talking about in NYC, not other places. A small town about 30 minutes from Gen’s barn does carriage rides on the weekends. The horses seem to be very happy, and are most certainly fat! That was the first place I ever saw a rubber horse shoe.
I hate to be naive, but I do think that with love and education things can be fixed. The question is, does New York City and its inhabitants want change to happen?
Website for the movie Blinders…and you can check under the screenings section to see if one is happening near you. Most seem to be centered around NY and NJ, but there have been some in TX, Canada, NC, etc.
I’ll have to DVR it as well, though it will probably break my heart. I can’t help it — my eyes well up with tears every time I see a carriage in NYC. I know there are always two sides to every story, but I can’t get past what I can see with my own two eyes. It is the rare occasion that I see a horse pulling a carriage in NYC who is not underweight and/or lame. Almost all of them are in desparate need of better shoeing and nutrition, especially clean water. I see these oblivious tourists going for a ride while this poor bag of bones with a matted mane and tail and overgrown toes limps along the pavement and I want to just scream.
I did notice when I was out in Denver that there were a couple of carriage horses who were big healthy draft types with thick rubber pads in their shoes. These horses had good weight, shiny coats and bright eyes and didn’t seem to mind their jobs in the least. They also had several sparkling clean water buckets out for them at their “station,” so you’re right, there may be a way to maintain the tradition of a carriage ride through central park in a way that is healthier for the horses through better regulation and enforcement.
I’ve written letters to Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg but have not received a reply. There’s probably a better source I should target. Maybe I’ll look into it and I can do a blog post about it as well. Anyway, good post.
I did see part of the Blinder’s movie. I tried to watch it on my dad’s laptop, but the thing died on me about half-way through.
I drove carriages myself in our nearby city for 1 summer, and for the most part my experience was a positive one. The horses all had regular hoofcare and were in good weight. Water was offered during the shifts (which were short….only about 6 hours in the evening …and then only on weekends). None of these horses lived in the city. They lived on a farm that was about a 45 minute drive out of the city and were trailered in to work. The carrriages where kept at a storage lot and that is where the horses were harnessed and hitched for their night’s work. Water was brought from home in a big tank on the trailer. All our rides were done on streets with low traffic and we used the same 2 routes for all of the rides (the horses knew them better than some of the drivers).
This gal the owned everything worked very hard for her business. The horses always came first and were rotated around to make sure each had adequate time off. She would NEVER use a lame/sick/injured horse. I remember once, one of the Belgian geldings got a hoof abscess and he was out of work for almost a month and a half before being allowed back on the streets. She made sure he was 100% healed before he could work again.
I personally don’t have a problem with carriage horses. Some of the comments made on the Blinders movie were obviously made by people who don’t know horses. One comment was made that the horses should not have to work in rain/snow. The drivers have protection, but what about the horses??? Ok-but guess what, there are lot’s of pastured horses out there that PREFER to stand out in the elements even when they have shelter available (My boy is one of those — rolls eyes affectionately). There are also other disciplines that ride in all different elements of weather. Have you ever shown in the rain??? Endurance riders ride in everything….. You see where I’m going? What’s next — to ban those disciplines because they ride in inclimate weather??? The only objection I have to that is that I DO agree that the horses should NOT be working when the streets have heavy snow or icey spots. Simply put, that’s a safety hazard …not only for the horse, but the passengers as well.
There are 2 things I’d personally like to see changed:
First, horse care needs to be regulated better. Unannounced inspections need to be made to these stables to make sure the horses needs are being met. ALL of the horses should get limits set to how much they can work and MUST have at least 2 days off per week….no and’s, if’s, or but’s. I also think a mandatory retirement age for all horses is a good idea as well. In harness racing, a horse can’t race past the age of 15. That would be a good rule for carriage horses too.
I agree 100% with you that companies need to find drivers that ARE HORSE PEOPLE….not just some joe schmoo of the street that just thinks it’s a job and could care less about the horse. Its also safer for the passengers to have knowlegable horse people doing the driving.
The other thing I’d like to see changed is providing a better/safer place for these horses to work. If I was shocked at anything in that movie, it was how intermingled those horses got with the traffic. One nearly got clipped by and Ambulance for god’s sake. No No NO!! this should not have to happen. The horses need a reduced (or better yet NO) traffic street to get from their stables to where they work…and they should NOT have to work in the streets. What better reason to preserve our parks then to give these horses a safe place to work. The horrible accidents seen in the movie are nothing short of tragic. If the horses had a “safer” place to work, those risks would go down drastically. The less amount of traffic, the better.
That’s my two cents. I definitely agree that it’s a good movie and I’d still like to finish watching it one of these days..LOL
Hey there, this Mary M’s daughter. She pointed me over here. For those of you who don’t know, I drive a carriage in Boston.
I cannot speak for New York, never having taken a carriage ride there, but from what I’ve seen of Blinders, it’s a lot of sensationalist propaganda. It is also exaggerated. Half the pictures they show were not even taken in New York City. If you actually research the statistics, there have only been a handful of accidents involving horse-drawn carriages, with no higher a ratio than regular car accidents. You just hear more about them than you do about a regular old car accident. I know in Boston there have only been two accidents in the past 30 years. In one, a drunk driver hit a horse. He could just as easily have hit a car, or people crossing the street, but because the horse happened to be there, it was widely publicized. The other was that a healthy horse collapsed on the street. He was rushed to Tufts, one of the leading veterinary facilities in New England, and died there. It was a freak health complication, heart attack or something. Something similar happened with one of my own company’s horses last fall, he was hit by an EPSM attack?? Which never made sense to me, but I don’t think it was related to the nature of his work. He was our healthiest and soundest horse.
In Boston, I think that some companies work their horses too hard. I think that some of the horses are sore and could use some time off. I have called the MSPCA on my former boss, while I was an employee, because she wouldn’t listen to me that her 30 year old horses should not be working 50 hours a week. The MSPCA didn’t do a whole lot though, but it made me feel like at least I was doing something. That said, these horses have been working in Boston for over 20 years, and probably should be retired, but that goes to show that what you said about the lifespan only being one year is not necessarily true. Also, 90% of the horses in Boston are rescues from Amish country, and all of them are 17+ hand draft horses that are capable of easily pulling the weight of a carriage. A carriage actually is not very heavy, I’m 5 feet tall and pull mine around all the time just to prove how light it is.
The company I work for now is wonderful. The horses are never on the streets for more than 8 hours at a time, and only work 1-4 days a week, and only if it’s between 50-80 degrees. They have a rest between every ride, and there’s a nearby spigot and they are offered water every half hour. We carry two water buckets underneath the carriage at all times. Unlike New York, our horses live outside the city, and have a big stall and pasture to go to every single night after work.
As for the shoeing, I do hear some of the other companies’ horses clinking around town now and then. My previous company’s owner has her husband shoe her horses, and he has a hernia and can’t keep up with shoeing 10 horses, which is sad. Those horses go to work with long feet and loose shoes because money is more important to that owner. My current company’s horses have wonderful feet though. They have your typical metal shoes, with borium cleats for traction, and a thick rubber gel pad in between the shoe and the hoof for comfort. They are always shod on time and simply don’t go to work if their feet aren’t in ideal condition. Our horses are happy, healthy, and they practically run onto the trailer every day to get to work.
I think the important thing is that in this economy, at least these horses have jobs. At least they’re not like a lot of horses right now that are on the truck to the big auctions to be bought up by killbuyers. Even the worst-treated carriage horse is probably still better off than that.
You’re right in saying I care about the horses I work with. You get very attached to them. I wouldn’t say the carriage company owners think of the horse as a machine, because that’s not true, but it’s me out there with the horse all day, not the owner. I groom the horse before work and after work and pick out his feet. I’ve turned down rides on busy days so that the the horse can eat his grain and have a break. I make sure he gets a drink after every ride, and I’ve also called my boss and said that I refuse to drive anymore because the horse is starting to look tired/sore/acting funny/whatever. There are certainly drivers who just care about $$$, but that is more the exception than the rule, in my experience. The bigger problem is drivers who just aren’t horse people, and don’t know any better.
The other thing Blinders doesn’t tell you is that most of the NY carriage companies rotate their horses so that they will work in the city a couple months, then go out to pasture in Jersey or PA for a few months before being rotated back.
Well I tried to give you an idea of my experience as a horse-drawn carriage driver in a major city. I hope that this is informative and helpful. There are definitely some bad carriage companies, but there are some, like the one I work for, that are good and truly concerned with the well-being of the horse. People really love having the horses in the city, and for some kids it’s their first time seeing a horse up close.
I need to go see it! It has been on my list of “must see” for awhile now. We recently had a carriage horse die in the streets of Portland. The city government is working on proposals for regulation as we speak. Thanks for the review…seems you really put a lot of thought into it. Good documentaries seem to do that to us….get the mind going and push us to action. “The Cove” did that for me.
As the owner of my Family’s Horse stable in the midddle of nyc,I personally am responsible for 17 carriage horses,1 pony and a rescue blind appy mare[this app is not a carriage horse],I feel very compelled to confirm some issues that were raised.First ,as I type this 3 Amish blacksmiths are working on every horse in my stable right now trimming and shoeing all the horses.Every horse I have wear steel shoes,with borium to grip the road,just as the 100 plus NYC Mounted Police use on their horses.I have 1 horse that wears rubber shoes in the front,not every horse is comfortable with rubber shoes,to claim this protects the horses feet is untrue.Not everybody wears sneakers,andnot every horse excels in rubber shoes,they are heavy,slippery when wet and wear uneven.These rubber shoes have plus and minus points just like any other type shoe.Speaking for my stable,Chateau,we own our horses,we own our own trucks and trailers and transport them ourselves.When we horses are working they are out a max of 4 times per week,some work 1-2 shifts per week,6-7 hrs is the norm,most of that time is waiting in Central Pk on line waiting for a ride.Personally if any owner in NYC works their horse 9hrs a day,I don’t see a negative to it.Again,most of the time the horses are parked alot more than in motion.The fellow operators I know have 2 horses for every shift,there are spare horses in every stable to work on others days off. There are equine techs that float the horses teeth 1-2 times a yr,and when a new horse arrives.We have unannounced inspections constantly,by the aspca,health dept ,in the stables and on the streets.Every stable passes every inspection!Extremists will have the general public believe the worst,only to gain$$$ ”donations”,this is their business as carriage rides are ours.These horses have boxstalls,automatic waterers,fans,windows and skylights.All stables have 24/7 stable staff on duty,cleaning and monitoring our horses,There are 3-4 vets on 24 hr call.Logbooks & timeclocks in every stable,and can easily prove my point that horses work less than 7 days a week and not near 9 hrs most of the time.As for horses not lasting a yr,it a very unfair statement.Horses are licensed,and when the number is turned in as inactive when the owner doesn’t use the horse,the number is retired,not necessarily the horse.Sometimes horses are brought into the city and don’t work out as a city horse,now they are registered and licensed but the carriage owner feels that its unsafe the horse is returned to its previous owner and the # is retired,.This doesn’t mean,he is ”used up’,it means he didn’t make the qualifications to be a placid carriage horse.Other times our horses are bought by the customers they carried.The passengers were so impressed by the demeanor of the horse they made a agreement with the owner to buy it.Again,thats the right of the horse owner to sell or trade their horse at any time.To claim that because a number is no longer active ,the horse must be in bad shape or not able to work is far away from he truth.Our horses are open to the public to view everyday,besides the governing agencies,if the horses were in any single way,mis used or abused we’d be cited immeadiately.To this day,no owner or stable owner as ever been cited for cruelty,this a lone proves the extremists are as usual way off the normal way of thinking.
I wanted to add something that I left out in my previous post.We own our own farms,and rotate our horses regularly,however in my case there are a few horses that don’t ”thrive on freedom in the country”.These horses are low pecking order ina herd,drop weight,get injured and lose the massive muscle tone they developed as a driving horse.So the concept of all horses ”being set free” is another fairytale that extremist orgs and coalitions try to make the public belive is so wonderful,when in actuality its not true at all.Some horses are far more content in their normal home ,in their boxstall,fed on time several times daily,with constant human interaction.Nobody knows our horses better than us,their owners.These fanatical extremists who think they are faking the public into believing their ”cause of helping the horses”,are only turning the public opinion to our favor.Central Pk is full of healthy strong work horses,use is not abuse,and when not 1 driver or stable owner has ever been even cited for cruelty,only again proves all this propaganda,is false,and they are wearing the Blinders!
I have a friend who owns a carriage horse business here on L.I. He does a lot of weddings, private parties, and used to do carriages rides in town on weekend evenings during the summer. His horses are fat and happy. He watches them carefully for lameness and even trail rides them on their downtime between jobs for a change of pace.
Did the film also cover the lives of the Amish horses? They also do a lot of road work. How many accidents happen with their horses?
Yes, it’s unfortunate when an accident does happen. But how often do these horses get hurt on the job as compared to another horse business such a racing? I’d bet more racers break down and have to be euthanized in a year than carriage horses having accidents on the job.
I agree that the drivers should be horse educated, preferably with years of experience working around horses to have a “feel” for when things are not right with the animal. I don’t know about a retirement age being regulated because an older horse who has been conditioned to the environment over years of work may actually be safer than a younger horse with less time on the job. Soundness and attitude would be the most important requirements to evaluate in any horse.
Tough topic, but worthy of rational discussion.
Horse-drawn carriages cannot be operated humanely or safely in midtown Manhattan. Why? No pasture for daily turn out; Countless stimuli that can spook horses; Multi-story “stables” with small stalls (a combination of small box stalls and standing stalls); nose-to-tailpipe existence leading to heaves; unreported accidents when cars crash into horses or vice-versa; hard pavement that causes concussive injury to their legs, which were designed for softer surfaces; no shade; poor access to water in the winter when the troughs are turned off to prevent the pipes from freezing; no opportunity for physical/social interaction (they are herd animals). These horses have been stripped of the ability to do anything that comes naturally to a horse. Even if the drivers cared about their horses and didn’t treat them like disposable commodities (and many of them do), way too many of the problems cannot be corrected. Bottom line: horse and buggies do not belong in 21st century Manhattan, the most congested area in the country.
i am in chicago. we also have very very lax regulations re carriage horses. they are housed in deplorable conditions, they are subjected to long days in hot weather and cold weather. they are also subjected to the insane and aggressive car drivers that continually try and scare, cut off and run horses off the road. there are drivers who take the horses into areas they are not allowed and where it is dangerous. we have no central park, just very congested automobile and bus traffic lanes. i am all for banning carriage horses in this city. there are not enough inspectors and the ones that do inspect are corrupt. bribe me, and i will look the other way. in the past 2 years here there have been impoundments of carriage horses after serious neglect and abuse claims. the lives these horses live is no life. they are better off dead then on the cruel streets of this city. i compare it to child slave labor. honestly. its no better.
I must strongly dispute that horses”don’t belong in Manhattan”.Our stables pass every inspection by the aspca,dept of health and consumer affiairs.All stables have permits to be open,and would never be issued if there was 1 single thing out of place.We get inspected weekly between street inspections,by a aspca vet and aspca officer,and they also inspect the 5 stables here in NYC.Politically the aspca is against having horses in the city,however even them who must be a biased eye against us,can’t find a violation in the 5 stables.The Dept of Health,inspects us regularly,again on the streets and in the 5 stables,still they have not issued 1 cruelty violation to a driver and or owner or stable owner.Our records are readily available,of blacksmith visits,dental tech visits,vet visits,and farm turnouts.These horses are work horses,use and abuse is not the same.There is a far more non humane issue that attracts controversy in NYC,perhaps the valuable land they occupy.These people pimp out a few extremists to make a humane issue out of a situation that only attacks the honest hard working people who choose to own and make their living with their horses.Our horses ar on display everyday with 8 million people walking the NYC streets,besides the 5 governing agencies that inspect them,we obviously doing something right.