Results tagged “horse”

A police horse named Mr. Biggs is at the center of a lawsuit filed against the city last week. Allegedly the member of the NYPD's Mounted Unit took a bite out of a New Jersey woman last summer, and now that woman is suing.

Yesterday just after noon we reported that a cab had collided with a horse and buggy on the Upper East Side. While we received plenty of photos and video of the aftermath, showing the wrecked car and carriage, there was no sight of the horse.

Oh dear. Word just came in over the newswire that a horse and buggy has been struck on East 60th Street and 5th Avenue. The report says there are "2 aided at this point," and we'll update as soon as more information becomes available. Hopefully the horse is okay, but either way this will surely give animal rights activists more evidence that horses shouldn't be lugging tourists around the crowded streets of NYC.

Madonna was spotted back on her feet yesterday after tumbling from a horse on Saturday. While her publicist blamed paparazzi for startling the pop singer—who was "leaping over hurdles" at the time—a photographer who was there disagrees. The Daily News spoke with Thomas Hinton who said he was taking photographs of Madonna on her horse but left because he didn't have a good spot, but then he got a tip that she was injured, "I arrived more than 10 minutes after she fell, and I was shooting from the street. I don't know what [her publicist] is talking about." Maybe Madonna's publicist is covering up the Material Girl's riding skills? Hinton also told Newsday if a photographer had startled the horse, the police would be on the case, "As far as I'm concerned, the only photographer present when the accident happened was Steven Klein," the fashion photographer and friend of Madona whose horse farm is where the accident took place. Anyway, Madonna, who was suffered bruising from the fall, seems to be doing fine, asking the media who approached her, "Are you the guys that spooked my horse?" and saying she was feeling "better."

Madonna's publicist is saying that the pop singer was tossed from a horse because paparazzi jumped out of the bushes and startled the 50-year-old Material Girl and her horse. The Post reports that she "was leaping over hurdles on a brown steed" at friend Steven Klein's Bridgehampton horse farm" (the Post also has photos). She suffered minor injuries and bruises but will need other tests and observation; according to the Daily News, she is "recovering at friend Gwyneth Paltrow's Amagansett estate." In 2005, Madonna broke her collarbone after falling from a horse on her British estate, an experience she called the "most painful" of her life (it may have also led to the demise of her marriage with Guy Ritchie). But in 2006, Madonna was featured in W magazine in a photo spread by Klein called "Madonna Rides Again."

The New Museum unveiled its new exhibit, After Nature, yesterday. Running through September 21st, they say it's a departure from "the fictional documentaries of Werner Herzog" and instead draws inspiration (and its title) from W.G. Sebald's book...though rapture, ruins and environmental disasters also acted as muses. Bringing together 26 international artists on three gallery floors, expect to take in paintings, photographs, installations, films, writings, and living sculptures. Perhaps the most jarring piece is the headless horse emerging from the wall (created out of taxidermied horse skin). As an aside: Williamsburg clothing label Love Brigade also has a limited edition shirt from their “Love, Kurt” line, inspired by the artwork of Kurt Cobain, for sale at the museum (in conjunction with the exhibit).

After getting spooked and throwing its mounted officer yesterday, Aldo the police horse managed to make its way home to the station house at 6th Ave. and Ericcson Pl. Aldo freaked out at the sound of screeching brakes in Soho yesterday afternoon, causing him to throw his rider, who was taken to St. Vincent's with minor injuries. After getting the cop off his back, Aldo ran free through the streets before ambling about ten blocks home. NYPD spokewman Paul Browne says that Aldo "knows his turf."

Reader Rob J. sent us this photo taken through a window looking out on Sixth Ave between Charlton and Vandam, snapped right after a police officer was thrown from his horse. We're told the officer has a shoulder injury, the horse is okay and was brought to the stable, and there's nothing more to see here, folks.

A plan is afoot to have horse drawn carriages around Central Park replaced by environmentally friendly classic cars, like the Ford Model T. The carriage horse business has come under increasing scrutiny recently as an outdated and cruel practice. Several incidents where horses were killed or injured after bolting in city traffic have galvanized opponents and some politicians to ban the use of horses in New York City. Technology remains a barrier, according to the Post.

One option would be the classic replicas that run on propane and hydrogen currently shuttling tourists around San Francisco. But Nislick said the coalition would prefer electric cars with zero emissions - technology that may not be available until 2010.

Councilman Tony Avella is interested in the possible substitution of cars for horses. He's already proposed a bill to ban horse drawn carriages in the city. Carriage owners insist that their animals are well cared for and think that a car ride won't have the same appeal as a carriage ride. Spokeswoman for the Horse and Carriage Association, Carolyn Daly, told the Post "No one wants to replace clip-clop, clip-clop with chitty chitty bang bang."

We were encouraged to hear a statue would be unveiled in Central Park memorializing the racehorse Barbaro, the Kentucky Derby winner who remained undefeated in all of his races before tragically breaking a leg in the Preakness Stakes (video).

Queens Councilman Tony Avella has introduced a bill that would ban the existence of carriage horses in NYC. Another Queens Councilman, James Gennaro, is looking to preserve the practice of equine cabbies that populate the streets of and around Central Park. Manhattan council members are perhaps showing some political horse sense from bowing out of this particular fight. While wanting to preserve the tradition of the horse-drawn carriage trade, Gennaro is also suggesting a...