The mayor of New York and the other people who seek to ban the carriage horses from New York say New York City streets are too congested and dangerous for horses, perhaps they should take a closer look at this photo, taken in Chicago in 1937. Cities are much safer for horses than they ever have been, the streets are smoother, the asphalt softer, the air cleaner.

There are traffic lights and traffic cops, fewer potholes, collisions, rats, fires, less disease, the work is lighter and easier, they don’t work in the extreme cold or heat. In this photo, you can get a feel for what the life of a carriage horse used to be. And the photo doesn’t show the cramped and filthy stables, prone to fires, flies and rodents.

The carriage horses are fed oats and water continuously throughout the day in New York, you don’t see any buckets of oats hanging from these carriages. I thank Jeff Morse for sending it to me.