How to Teach a Horse the Rules of the Road

Last week, just outside of Popular Mechanics? headquarters in midtown Manhattan, a carriage horse named Oreo broke loose of its carriage and began running amok around Columbus Circle near Central Park. The horse injured three people before officers could tranquilize it.

Although horse-drawn carriages are common on the streets and avenues of midtown Manhattan, it?s rare to hear about a serious accident involving a carriage and a car. In fact, in the past 30 years, only three horses have died because of car-related collisions in New York, though a series of minor accidents have led some activists to call for a ban on horse-drawn carriages.

All of this brings up the question: Just how do you teach a horse the rules of the road and share it with those loud, exhaust-belching cars?

Amish Country

Stephen Malone, a carriage driver and spokesperson for the Horse and Carriage Association of New York says that most of the horses in the city were raised around cars, people, and roads before ever setting hoof in Manhattan. "The horses mostly come from Amish country [in Pennsylvania]," he says.

The Amish mostly used the horses for long-distance drives on reasonably populated roads, but that doesn?t always mean that a horse will take well to city life?it depends a lot upon the horse?s personality too.

Malone, for instance, recently made a trip to Pennsylvania to bring back two horses for training in the city. The previous owners warned him that one of the horses was "more spirited" than the other and probably wouldn?t take well to working in a metropolis. Malone actually found just the opposite. The calmer horse of the two "didn?t take well to the city," and before he made his first ride, he was sent back to Pennsylvania. The bulk of a carriage horse?s day is spent waiting around for its next passengers, so if a horse?s temperament isn?t calm enough to stand in one place for an extended period of time, it won?t do well in the city.

Usually, the first few weeks of a horse?s life in New York are spent in either in the stables or out for cautious, sometimes passengerless rides around midtown. Malone will take out as many as three other footmen with him when first breaking in a new carriage horse. "I?ll have two or three guys on either side of the horse when I first take them out," Malone says. "It?s all about safety."

John McNally, a Central Park carriage driver, says the rules of the road become deeply ingrained into all of the 68 horses allowed on New York City streets each day and night. After a few weeks of driving passengers in the city and being steered by their driver's reigns, the horses get the hang of stop-and-start city driving. "Usually it doesn?t take too long [for a horse to acclimate] because they?re already used to traffic patterns," he says.

Still, you can?t train an animal for everything that it might see in the big city. In Oreo?s accident, the horse got spooked after construction workers threw debris from some scaffolding as Oreo and his carriage trotted by. The unfamiliar noise startled the horse and he jackknifed. The driver got down to lead the horse by his harness, but Oreo ripped out of his carriage and bolted down the street.

But even out on his own, Oreo?s training came in handy, Malone says. The horse stopped in a line of cars waiting at a red light, allowing a few bystanders to lead the horse out of traffic and onto the sidewalk.

Equine Litigation

Can a horse get a ticket? It surely comes as no surprise to cyclists who?ve been ticketed for traffic violations, but yes, New York treats horse-drawn carriages much the same ways as the cars they share the roads with. The carriage owner is legally liable, as you would be if you rear-ended another car. "We have to pay a lot in insurance," Malone says.

The police department makes no distinction between what Malone calls incidents and accidents. A horse dropping its carriage and stalling traffic but not injuring anyone is classified as an accident the same way a collision is. "Once they [the horses] are moving, of course you can get ticketed," McNally says. "It is like a car. There are many ways you can get ticketed."

Of course, this isn?t the way it is with animal/car road-sharing around the world; cows famously have the right of way on India?s infamously treacherous roads. But generally, the U.S. has strict laws governing how animals used for transport are treated. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is responsible for monitoring the health of Central Park carriage horses throughout the year. New footmen must go through a difficult class and test with the New York City Department of Health before they can get on the road as apprentices.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/industry/how-to-teach-a-horse-the-rules-of-the-road-11988298?src=rss

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