Christina Hansen, who sees all things Carriage Horse in New York, texted me tonight and reminded me of something I had forgotten. This photograph of Jerry Ledbetter was the first carriage horse photo I ever put up on the blog, the first driver I photographed. I posted this photo and the first carriage horse story on January 12, 2014, it was titled “The Last Days Of the New York Horses: Can They Be Saved?”
I remember coming up to Jerry and pointing my camera and asking him if I could take a picture. He smiled, thinking I might be an animal rights demonstrator with my big camera and said sure, “but it depends on what for.” Oh, I said, I’m not protesting, just writing about it and he smiled and posed.
The piece was interesting to read again, I had just returned from my first visit to the stables and I was bothered by the idea that these horses were being “saved” by being sent away, their futures quite unclear. The animal rights community insists – now and then – that all of the horses will have safe places to go if they are banned, should it come to that. That assurance is far from certain, no one can promise these horses will be fed for all of the years of their lives.
That argument always seemed a distraction to me, from the first day. The larger question is why rescue horses that are safe and well cared for when there are so many horses – 150,000 each year going to slaughter, and many more who are not well fed and cared for.
These horses are much loved, and by every account, very well taken care of, so far as I and many others can see, and they belong to people. They are not the property of the mayor or the animal rights movement of the city, they are not theirs to give away or find homes for any more than your dogs or cats are. They are private property and I don’t believe we are yet at the point where animal rights groups can seize the private property of people who have committed no crimes and broken no laws.
The horses are the most valuable things the owners and drivers have, and the idea that their work can be banned, and their property seized because a millionaire real estate developer and his cadre gave money to the mayor and don’t like the carriage trade was shocking to me in January, and shocking now. That was the tenor of my first piece, it is amazing to me to see how the subject grew and the many directions that it took. I never imagined I would get so deeply into it, I am grateful that I did.
Today I wrote about Jerry again, and his study of Plato’s “The Allegory Of The Cave” to help him understand the anger and rigidity of the people attacking the carriage horses and trying to ban them. I’m grateful to Christina for reminding me i had a photo of Jerry and although I didn’t know who he was then, I’m grateful to know now.