The carriage drivers of Central Park prepare to make their last stand.
The city council is set to pass legislation Thursday that will shut down the industry after more than 160 years in business. Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he would sign the bill, which would phase out the practice by spring 2028.
Animal rights advocates have called for a ban on carriage horses in the city for decades, saying it is inhumane for horses to pull carts through Manhattan’s congested streets. But horse-drawn carriage drivers say they are an integral part of the city’s tourism landscape that is being unfairly forced into bankruptcy.
Robert Boyle, a horse-drawn carriage driver for more than 40 years, drew cheers from a group of toddlers last week as he drove his chocolate-brown horse named Sam through Hell’s Kitchen traffic from the Clinton Park stables on West 52nd Street en route to Central Park.
“You see, the kids love it,” he said. “They have not yet been polluted by TikTok, animal rights activists, land and money grabbers.”
Liam Quigley/Gothamist
Boyle and many other horse-drawn carriage drivers have long argued that real estate executives are behind the push by animal rights groups like NYCLASS to ban the industry. He says developers have their eye on the West Side stables, where 90 horses live and are cared for.
Efforts by previous Mayors Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams to ban the industry both failed in the face of protests from Transportation Workers Union Local 100, which represents carriage horse drivers.
But the political scene changed in June when Romanch Mahajan, an 18-year-old tourist, died in Central Park after being thrown from a carriage pulled by a fleeing horse. His death came weeks after a carriage horse collapsed and died in the park. The incidents reinvigorated efforts to shut down carriage horses, and legislation banning the industry was renamed in the teen’s honor before gaining key support from Council President Julie Menin.
Liam Quigley/Gothamist
People who work at the company said they had become scapegoats in a fleet full of e-bikes and other battery-powered vehicles that cause far more accidents than their slow cars.
Mamdani said he wants to make sure drivers won’t become unemployed once the industry is phased out. But details of how city officials plan to help the roughly 200 people employed by the industry have yet to be determined.
In this void of information, there is a growing sense of betrayal and resentment.
Conor McHugh, 62, started driving a horse-drawn carriage at the age of 21 and became part owner of Clinton Park Stables in 2003.
When Mamdani took office in January, the industry thought the new mayor, who presents himself as a champion of organized labor, could be an ally. McHugh highlighted Mamdani’s forceful defense of the city’s taxi drivers, including joining a hunger strike in 2021 to demand debt relief.
“He gets on his podium and announces that he’s closing all the doors on us, putting us out of business, and not even talking to us,” McHugh said of Mamdani. “So I think this guy is as phony as a $3 bill.”
Before Mahajan was killed in the Central Park crash, Mamdani said he would visit stables such as Clinton Park, where horses are housed. A city hall official confirmed that the mayor never came.
Central Park’s carriage horse industry is poised to be phased out by spring 2028, as city lawmakers move to ban the activity.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Edita Birnkrant, executive director of animal rights group NYCLASS, said the industry was “cruel and dangerous” and the ban was “long overdue.”
According to data from the Manhattan Borough President’s Office, about 40 draft horses have died on the job since 1982, including from heat exhaustion and accidents.
The south end of the Central Park Loop, where dozens of cars pick up customers who pay $72.22 for a 20-minute ride and up to $414.99 for a two-hour “grand ride,” would be reused if the ban takes effect.
Tourists gathered nearby were divided on their stance on the ban.
Ricky Sells, visiting the city from Austin, Texas, said he took a horse-drawn carriage ride on a previous trip and considered it an “iconic” New York experience.
“Tourists love them. They’re a must-see,” he said. “So why not keep the horses here?”
Nichole Babiez, who was in town from Chicago, said she understood the drivers’ plight as a small business owner. But she said she wanted assurance that the horses were well cared for.
“I think everything should be treated humanely,” she said. “They are beautiful creatures and need to be taken care of. »
Boyle, the carriage horse driver, said he wished lawmakers had engaged more with drivers and others in the industry before, in his view, caving to animal rights activists.
“I understand their point of view: ‘Oh, horses shouldn’t have to work for a living,'” he said. “Well, people shouldn’t have to work for a living either.”
“But it’s a reality. And horses and humans have worked together for hundreds of years.”
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