Ian McKeever and a host of other carriage drivers were yacking as usual on cell phones in Central Park, while a very busy NYRR race was going on. People and trucks and speakers were everywhere.

These jerks might want to at least keep their eyes on the road so that they might be able to deal with every eventuality, including the possibility of a spooked horse.

Mikkeleen - i've about had it with you. You are a liar and an a*s H**e Everyone knows you are a carriage driver so how "objective" can you be. You exploit these horses to make money. Lies, lies, lies. The pictorial dictionary for "liar" has your face as its image. Lol LoL

You fail to answer any questions about the industry's superior record. You did not acknowledge that your colleagues cheat. Do you also cheat? I see, that is why you ignored the question.

You think that by listing horses who need to be rescued that some how it will "shame" people who are against you. Sweetheart, they are much smarter than that.

Oh wait. I saw some of the NYC carriage horses on that list. What ... you are actually rescuing your own horses!!! OMG. West Side Livery throws them away and you rescue them?! Ah - so that is where Ian's horses went. Too funny. You are a scream. I have to go now. I am LMAO.

The people in the carriage horse business are hardly providing a horse rescue service. They buy those carriage horses from kill auctions, work them hard for a few years, and then sell them again. In fact, one carriage horse stable owner was even arrested on charges of trying to bribe an inspector to overlook the violations at his stable.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2007/12/14/2007-12-14_stables_owner_saddled_in_bribe_rap.html

"Yes, our practices ARE acceptable and desirable."

That's very persuasive. . .

No one should blindly accept at face value the claims made by someone whose livelihood depends on the very industry being criticized, particularly when those claims are unsupported. I already asked you to elaborate upon your claim that the industry has a stellar safety record, twice. You've yet to directly address this. You are an industry lackey to the extent you continue to present false dilemmas, make blanket claims, and to not provide any factual support for what you're saying, in the service of an absolute defense of the horse carriage industry as a whole. Owning a carriage and two horses does not change that.

So, Michaleen, reckless overbreeding and the resultant "perfect storm" of neglect is a rationale for endangering the NYC carraiges horses and the public with a silly and irrelevant industry?

also, in nearly 90% of horse spooking accidents, a human is injured.

Our elected government officials would do well to consider the legal implications they will be facing.

Dangerous - can you help any of these horses? They have until 4pm today.

michaleen is a horse carriage industry lackey who is apparently incapable of injecting any substance into this debate and resorts to presenting false dilemmas in an attempt to make the horse carriage industry's practices appear acceptable, even desirable.

This person's weak defense of the industry is symptomatic of the fact that it does not have lasting power.

Ah, Bodega - feeling ignored and left out? lol I knew the ad hominem attacks were on the way...

"Lackey"? I think not. My husband and I have been in the industry for 30 years, we own a carriage and two horses.

"False dilemma"? Nah. Horses need jobs, period. Unwanted horses go to slaughter, period.

Yes, our practices ARE acceptable and desirable.

No "lasting power"? LOL, that's what politicians and C-list celebrities like David Dinkins, Allen Dreyfoos, Carolyn Maloney, Tony Avella, Mary Tyler Moore, Kim Basinger, Alec Baldwin, Peggy Parker, (etc etc ad nauseum) thought, and guess what?

They're all gone, and we're still here.

Been here since 1857, and will be here long after you are dust.

Now - did you contact that horse rescue and donate $10 to help make a real difference int he life of a horse?

Whatever. Keep beating that dead horse.

Hey D-Bag..... no, nobody on a stupid internet blog is gonna buy your horses.... can it already. Go find a legitimate horse buyer, or release them into the wild, or glue-em up, and start fighting for unnecessary breeding of these animals if you care so much about them.

In the meantime, get these thousand pound retards out of midtown and in open sprawing fields or racetracks where they belong.

Poor jles, I can see both your linear and critical thinking skills are impaired.

1) They are not my horses

2) You needn't "buy" them, you can sponsor them through the horse rescue agency

3) The wild horses that are already in this country are under intense pressure from the BLM and ranchers, they are being rounded up and sold, they are on the verge of disappearing.

4) Over 1000 horses have died on racetracks in the US in the last year, and thoroughbreds make up the largest # of horses that end up going to slaughter

5) The horses were in Midtown before you were, and will be here long after you are gone.

Anything else I can help you with?

3 and everything else you've been saying don't logically align (maybe this is my lack of critical thinking skills...nice diagnosis Dr. Horsetoucher). If they're being rounded up and sold by ranchers....then give these frickin horses your crying over to ranchers! You make it sound like there is a market SOMEWHERE.... but i doubt it's on this blog!

5) not if I have anything to do with it.

anything ELSE!? PAH! Seriously... who have you helped? You're talking to a message board!

In addition to your thinking skills, I see also now that your reading comprehension is sorely lacking. You are in dire need of guidance and instruction, here, allow me:

1) The "ranchers" are cattle ranchers, who want the federal land the wild horses are on for their cattle. They don't want horses.

2) Configuring logical alignment would fall under linear thinking skills, not critical thinking skills.

3) You are also talking to a message board. lol

HTH.

15 horses remain in the feedlot at Camelot. Won't you give one of these beautiful horses a forever home? Please call Frank, in the morning at 1-609-448-5225.

End of day update from Camelot. (kill buyers)

The following 15 horses are AVAILABLE:

#129 Gelding Smoke Gray 5 yrs $275.... See More

#131 STB gelding 2yrs reg $250. (So sweet! A nuzzler!)

#134 STB mare bay 12 yrs $325.

#135 Mare dapple gray 16hh 10 yrs $450.

#137 Arab X or Morgan type gelding blood bay aged $300.

#139 Hafflinger Mare 5 yrs $360.

#140 Pinto gelding white/sorrel 10 yrs $425.

#142 Paint gelding sorrel/white reg 4 yrs $450.

#144 Arab/Warmblood Cross mare bay 10 yrs $600.

#147 Gelding chestnut 6yrs $350.

#149 STB mare black 10 yrs $500.

#150 QH mare bay 4 yrs $425.

#166 Mare seal black 6/7 yrs $225.

#175 Pinto mare black/white 4 yrs $225. (Pretty girl trying to get attention...and help out of there.)

#178 QH mare bay $400.

#1's:

#157 Gelding chestnut 16.2h reg $700.

To all the hand-wringing do-gooders who are so sure of where horses belong or what they should be doing....here is a horse (one of MANY() that WISHES it were a NYC carriage horse.

She's a kill-pen horse, and the deadline is 4pm today.

Who among you can buy her, keep her, and give her a good home for the rest of her natural life?

::crickets chirping in the deafening silence:::

Thought so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJIJT6mzXeg

You keep presenting this as the only alternative for helping horses that are sold for slaughter, but it's not. I am more than willing to donate time and money to an organization that cares for unwanted horses, and to developing organizations that would work on this issue.

So are you going to get into specifics about how the horse carriage industry's safety record is stellar, or am I to take your silence on that question as a sign that you don't have anything to support that claim?

Justsaying - wow, you are a genius LOL, you figured out all by yourself that I am in the industry? I have posted on Gothamist many times, and never hid that fact lol, so good on ya that you gleaned the obvious!

The people in the carriage horse business are hardly providing a horse rescue service. They buy those carriage horses from kill auctions, work them hard for a few years, and then sell them again. In fact, one carriage horse stable owner was even arrested on charges of trying to bribe an inspector to overlook the violations at his stable.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2007/12/14/2007-12-14_stables_owner_saddled_in_bribe_rap.html

Thanks. You're quite the genius yourself.

But you still didn't answer my question. Are you still overcharging tourists who don't know any better?

Michaleen,

What does it matter that a taxi rear-ended a carriage--I rest my case. Hello--anyone home? There is no room in NYC for these 19th-century conveyances. There is no way to make this industry safe for the horses. We know that horses spook easily; a rustling of leaves, an opening of an umbrella, a drumbeat--these are only a few of the things that can cause a horse to spook. Spotty and Smoothie are the more recent victims of spooking accident, may they rest in peace.

Christine Quinn is a crook and slush-fund princess. Watch this space. she will get what she deserves.

Michaeleen Flynn, (and I know your real name but I won't say it here), please do the world a favor and stop cutting and pasting your erroneous drivel about "a perfect storm." The perfect storm is the cycle of abuse that comes from irresponsible overbreeding and dumping of horses at auctions, such as New Holland, where NYC carriage horses have been rescued by some of our own activists. These horses were headed for gruesome slaughter.

And another thing--thank goodness that these horses had I.D. numbers engraved in their hooves. (Sometimes you drivers file off the numbers). The insanely stupid "microchip" idea is pure nonsense. I'm sure at the "slaughter" auctions, the castaway horses are not going to be scanned for a microchip.