Free the Horses

Every day in New York City, horses are forced to haul heavy carriages through some of the most congested streets in the country. They breathe car exhaust for hours, pound pavement in extreme heat and cold, and are denied everything natural to them — pasture, open movement, herd life.

They're prey animals. When they spook — and they do, regularly — it is not only horses who get hurt. On June 17, 2026, a horse named Sampson bolted near Tavern on the Green while the driver had stepped away to photograph a family visiting from India for his graduation. Romanch Mahajan, 18, fell from the overturned carriage and died at the hospital; relatives said he may have jumped trying to help his mother. The rest of his family escaped with minor injuries. The Central Park Conservancy called it the eighth horse-related incident in the park in 13 months, and the first known passenger death in more than 150 years of carriage rides there. Less than two weeks earlier, another carriage horse had died in the same park. New York Times coverage.

On June 9, 2026, a carriage horse named Deniz collapsed and died near Strawberry Fields and West 72nd Street around 7:30 p.m., thrashing on the pavement for roughly ten minutes as parkgoers watched. A preliminary necropsy by Cornell University found needles from toxic Japanese yew in his stomach and intestines; final results were still pending at time of reporting. CBS New York on the necropsy. The incident came less than 24 hours before advocates rallied at City Hall to reintroduce Ryder's Law. New York Post coverage.

On May 18, 2026, two horse-drawn carriages collided in Central Park near West 59th Street; one carriage overturned and the driver was hospitalized. The horses were reported uninjured that day — luck, not safety. It happened during a heat advisory, while advocates again called for the City Council to pass Ryder's Law. New York Times coverage.

In May 2025, three horses bolted in Central Park in a single week, injuring at least four people. No amount of regulation can prevent a startle response.

A 2022 poll found 71% of NYC voters oppose horse-drawn carriages. Major cities worldwide — Beijing, Paris, London, New Delhi — have already banned them. Even Palm Beach and Biloxi have moved on. New York is behind.

The Central Park Conservancy, the nonprofit that maintains the park, broke decades of neutrality in August 2025 and called on city leaders to end horse-drawn carriages in Central Park. In a letter to the mayor and City Council speaker, Conservancy president Elizabeth W. Smith wrote that with record visitation, banning carriages has become a matter of public health and safety for park visitors, citing runaway incidents, damage to park drives from carriages and horseshoes, and manure left on the roads despite cleanup rules. The Conservancy endorsed Ryder's Law. New York Times coverage.