Lots of people see carriage rides as a romantic throwback to a simpler era and an opportunity to slow the pace of everyday living.
The experience was idealized for many in the 1967 film of the Broadway play, "Barefoot in the Park," which opened with newlyweds Jane Fonda and Robert Redford snuggling in a carriage rolling gently through New York City's Central Park.
Others argue the rides should be consigned to the last century.
"Carriage rides used to be only in tourist cities such as New Orleans or Charleston, but in the last 10 years or so we see them now in almost every city," Lisa Wiesberg, vice president of government affairs of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, told United Press International.
According to Amy Rhodes of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, several cities including Toronto, London and Paris have banned carriage rides, however.
"We urge people not to take carriage rides and to work to have them banned because even where there are regulations it's impossible to constantly enforce them," Rhodes told UPI. "PETA doesn't feel that horses should be used as work animals where their well-being is not being considered for those who exploit them for profit."
Yet those who work with horses say some of the animals enjoy working and being with their handlers, though some don't like working at all.
"A carriage horse usually has to enter a trailer, be transported, be harnessed and hitched, deal with people coming up to it and touching it, walk in traffic, deal with sirens and dogs and all kinds of distractions and there's no way a human could get a horse to do all of that if the horse wasn't willing," Mike Miller, president of the Carriage Operators of North American, told UPI.
According to Miller, carriage companies are like people. Some are good, some bad and not all have been good stewards of their animals. He said CONA urges its members to follow its guidelines on how to treat horses humanely.
Some cities have strict regulations on how many hours and under what temperatures the horses can work, and some cities have no regulations at all.
"If a city has no regulations, they can request the CONA guidelines and if there is a question about an operator we can come in and check it out," Miller said. "None of us wants to see the industry get a black eye."
A black eye is exactly what happened to carriage ride owners and operators in New York City in the 1980s. People became distressed seeing horses looking exhausted. They complained to the city government, which ordered reforms.
"During that time the horses looked bad, the drivers looked bad and the carriages looked bad," said Miller. "Since then it's turned around 180 degrees and it's moving in the right direction, mainly due to the public."
The ASPCA, which enforces carriage horse regulations for the New York Police Department, has proposed the regulations be tightened further.
Currently, carriage horses in New York City can operate up to nine hours a day, seven days a week and work in temperatures of up to 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
"We want the horse to work 8 hours a day with a one-hour break so they are working seven hours, work in less than 88 degrees or 86 degrees with 65 percent or higher humidity level," Weisberg said. "We want the horses to be restricted to Central Park, be provided shelter while on the hack line and have the street painted white to deflect heat."
Miller, who owns The Hitching Company that operates several carriages as a hack service in Minneapolis said he had no problem with the proposed regulations and but that seven hours of work was a bit steep.
Loon Meadow Farms does weddings and special events by reservation in Connecticut that involve transporting a horse and carriage by trailer. The fee is about $700 depending on length of ride, distance of event and hours involved.
"Personally, I think carriage horses in this day and age have an easy time of it because they are usually walk over easy terrain and work few hours and in a wedding we don't like to have the horse walk more than three miles," Beth Podhajecki, of Loon Meadow Farms, told UPI. "It the humans that have to work a lot harder."
According to Miller, there are about 1,750 to 2,200 carriage companies in the United States. Many of them are mom and pop operations that handle a few weddings or hayrides. There are 140 companies that make their living only by giving carriage rides.
"Of those 140, about half operate as hacks in cities giving rides mostly to tourists with drivers pointing out sights and about half do special events like weddings, proms, funerals, sleigh rides or hayrides," he said.
Prices vary from city to city and length of ride but in New York City the price is regulated to $34 for the first half-hour and $10 for each additional 15 minutes. Miller charges $75 for two people for one hour and also does proms and weddings.
"No one is getting rich giving carriage rides, but we feed the kids and pay our bills," Miller said. "It's a hard way to make a living."
Carriage horses are usually draft horses or standardbred horses, or sometimes even thoroughbred horses too slow for the track. PETA said many horses who end up pulling carriages are "breakdowns" from harness racing tracks and are not accustomed to pulling heavy loads.
Several carriage owners disagreed, saying a horse easily can pull its own weight whether it's a 1,500-pound standardbred or a 2,000-pound draft horse, although terrain is a factor.
Equipment safety improvements and rubber shoes on horses that give them better traction on slippery streets increase safety. Still, horse carriage accidents do occur and some are fatal.
"Nine out of 10 of the accidents are because the horse was spooked and ran," Rhodes said.
The number of serious accidents has remained steady at about five a year nationwide.
According to Miller, the safety of the horse, the driver, the passenger and the public is paramount and in all contracts we reserve the right to not operate in what we consider bad weather or bad conditions.
"A friend of mine was killed after a horse was spooked and after an investigation it could not be determined what spooked it, but with a seasoned horse, the right carriage and safety equipment for the job and an alert and seasoned driver, accidents shouldn't happen," Miller said.
"I (hung) a picture of my friend who died ... where the drivers see it every night before they go out to remind them that although we are providing entertainment this is really a serious business and out goal if for everyone to return safely."
