HITCHING POSTS for Carriage Horses in NYC - a bad, ill advised, deceptive and desperate idea
Elizabeth Forel
HITCHING POSTS for Carriage Horses in NYC - a bad, ill-advised, deceptive, and desperate ideaanother accident waiting to happen
With the recent tragic death of Romanch, an 18-year-old young man from India - who had a promising life ahead of him – the carriage horse controversy is in full swing. Again. The hearing for Intro 943, Council Member Chris Marte’s bill to phase out the horse-drawn carriage business, is scheduled for July 15th. Time and location are not yet known. This was the first death of a person due to the carelessness of the carriage trade. Many horses have died since we’ve been keeping records, and there have been many, many accidents reported. 123 reported accidents; 30 horse deaths, and one human death. Horses are sensitive, nervous prey animals who can spook at the slightest provocation. They may bolt into traffic, becoming unwitting weapons and injuring or killing themselves or the many passersby they encounter. It is always a terrible, ugly accident. A horse’s nature cannot be legislated! This time it was horrific. Young Romanch and his family were in the carriage when the driver got out to take their picture. This is dangerous because the driver no longer has control of the horse. I’ve seen this happen countless times. But something spooked Samson, and he tore off, running down the path in Central Park with the family still in the carriage. The mother fell out, and Romanch jumped out to save her. He hit his head, was unconscious, and died hours later. Awful and shocking. Tragic images of the crash and the family. Romanch is the young man.
We’ve been warning about this for years – about how dangerous this business was, especially in a crowded, congested city like New York. The City Council refused to pay attention, preferring to be backed by the Unions, especially when they were term-limited and looking for their next job. In 2014, I was interviewed by the BBC: “Every time there is an accident in which a horse spooks, it seems that NYC is once again dodging the bullet if no one is killed. These horses weigh between 1,500 and 2,000 pounds.” And unfortunately for the young man and his family, it finally and sadly came to pass. The drivers and their supporters have not been moved by this and have made selfish, insensitive comments, one of which appeared on CNN and the Associated Press. “Onur Altintas, who owns four horses and a carriage operating in Central Park, was among those worried about an end to their livelihood. He said the industry provides hundreds of jobs to drivers, stable hands, farriers, and others in horse-related trades. “We are sad about what happened. Nobody wants that. But it’s not like this is happening every day,” said Altintas. “Car crashes and plane crashes are happening every single day. One horse makes an accident, and the world is destroyed? Come on.” I wonder how Mr. Altintas would have felt if it were his son or nephew. Many industries have been phased out over the years due to technological progress. People move on and get other employment. Most people who get laid off don’t get government help, unlike the carriage drivers. Currently, there are two bills in the City Council dealing with this issue. In addition to the bill mentioned above, introduced by CM Marte, another bill, Intro 937, was introduced by CM James Gennaro, representing the industry. The “be-all and end-all” solution in the drivers’ bill is to require the city to install hitching posts in the park and elsewhere to secure the horses while the drivers wander off to relieve themselves, shoot the breeze with the other drivers, or look for customers. We’ve seen it all. But where is the horse expertise in all of this? Do the people quoted below have a clue about the dangers involved? Hitching posts to prevent horses from spooking are ridiculous, and here’s why below. These are two quotes from the union.
THE DANGERS OF USING HITCHING POSTS WITH CARRIAGE HORSES
This is an image of a hitching post found in Central Park — no explanation.
Two Horse Experts speak out against hitching posts for carriage horses Some years back, I became friends with a woman who operated a special events carriage company in Louisiana. We came to understand and respect each other, and although she started out siding with the carriage drivers in NYC, she soon changed her views. This is someone who has firsthand experience with horses, and I learned a lot from her about safety issues. These are her comments about hitching posts. “Mrs. Hamilton B Willis. Horse owner, rider, driver, or breeder for more than 50 years. Retired owner/ driver of Elysian Fields Farm Horse and Carriage- a special events carriage livery company that operated 10 years in South Louisiana without a SINGLE ACCIDENT or runaway during its 10 years in operation. Horses and I retired permanently in 2017. In my experience and opinion, hitching posts are not a substitute for human contact and control of a horse put to a carriage in a turbulent, traffic-clogged urban environment. Horses are prey animals, as we all know, but they are also herd animals who look to a leader to make them feel safe and secure. In the ideal horse- human rider or driver partnership, the human is the leader who calms and reassures the horse by his or her presence. A startled or spooked horse can easily break the leather lead while they are tied to a hitching post. If tied using a nylon lead hooked to a nylon halter worn under the leather bridle, as most NYC horses wear, the horse unattended can actually break his neck pulling to get free if frightened, startled, or “spooked” before a driver or groom can get to his head to calm him. Despite what you see the Amish do, it is NEVER safe in the city to tie a horse to a hitching post while he is hitched to a carriage, and leave him unattended. Being in harness and put to a carriage, cart, or buggy is entirely different from being saddled, bridled, and left at a hitching post like in all those cowboy movies. Movies that depict a time before combustion engines and automobiles. Today, Amish horses you see pictured in hitching sheds in a Walmart parking lot are in rural or small-town environments. The NYC horses are not. Also, the Amish horses are hitched inside actual sheds, not tied to free-standing hitching posts. In conclusion, hitching posts along sidewalks, in or out of Central Park, are not a substitute for a driver IN THE BOX IN CONTROL OF THE LINES. Having drivers unaccompanied by a groom or footman is very unsafe and dangerous as the numerous incidents, runaways, injuries, and deaths of horses through the years prove. It is just awful that an 18-year-old young man lost his life all for the sake of a carriage ride that proved fatal.”
My friend, colleague, and horse expert, Susan Wagner, president and founder of Equine Advocates,The idea or even the suggestion of installing hitching posts in Central Park to help deter carriage horses from taking off after being spooked is about as thoughtless and cruel as it is dangerous. It is also even further proof, as if we needed any more, that it doesn’t matter how many horses are used, abused, and die as a result of this antiquated and miserable business - one that should have gone the route of horse-drawn street cars and elevated railways, which were discontinued in NYC back in the mid-twentieth century and 1970’s, respectively. Not long after I founded Equine Advocates in 1996, one of the very first horses we rescued was a two-year-old Thoroughbred filly who had been in training for her first race at Suffolk Downs. Her trainer contacted me to say that she had been tied to a pole when she spooked and dislocated the axis joint in her skull, which resulted in permanent neurological damage. That was the first of many similar tragedies we either dealt with or heard about over these past 30 years. It is common knowledge that tying an equine to a post, a fence, or any strong, stationary object can result in serious and permanent injuries or even death to a frightened horse who spooks and tries to take off. Contrary to what the carriage horse operators, drivers, and heads of the Transit Workers Union (TWU) would have you believe, this is not some kind of quaint and sweet tradition of yesteryear. Sadly, I believe the fate of most NYC carriage horses is a long, slow route to the slaughterhouse, which no one involved with the urban carriage horse trade in NYC wants to talk about. If the truly horrific and deadly events from just the past few years resulting in a tragic human fatality, multiple near human fatalities, human injuries and the deaths and/or injuries of numerous carriage horses are not enough to finally motivate the current City Council and the Mamdani Administration to pass a ban, then they are nowhere nearly as “progressive” or compassionate as they would have us believe.” Last but certainly not least - a tribute to the late Bobby II Freedom, a former NYC carriage horse
© 2026 Elizabeth Forel
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