I’ve been writing about the carriage horses for nearly two years now, to my continual surprise, in that time I have read a hundred books about horses, read a thousand studies, talked to a score of  veterinarians,  made a dozen visits to their stables, gone to see their carriages in the park, made many visits to working horses, talked to carriage drivers and the people who seem to hate them,  talked with countless behaviorists trainers and horse owners and advocacy groups and children and lovers in the park.

I’ve said before that I’ve gotten used to the idea that the horses are talking to me, sending me messages.

My friend Chief Avrol Looking Horse tells me it happens to  him all of the time, and my friend Pamela Moshimer Rickenbach of Blue Star Equiculture talks to her horses every day. Live and grow and change. And open up.

This morning, at the usual time – 3 a.m. – I woke up thinking to take all of the things I have read, heard and learned about the carriage horses. I suddenly realized wanted write about what it means to really love a carriage horse. Where does this impulse come from? I don’t really know.

Animal lovers are diverse and come in many different shapes and styles. But one thing unites almost every one of them. They want and need to be around animals. They always want to make their lives better. This impulse seems to be missing from the bitter debate about the horses, everyone is talking about whether they should remain in New York or not, nobody seems to be talking about how to make their good lives even safer and better.

If you really love a carriage horse, there are things that can be done for them:

If You Really Love A Carriage Horse:

– The first thing you will do, says legendary horse trainer and Robert Redford’s”horse whisperer” Buck Brannaman, who has worked and lived with  horses all of his life (in contrast to the mayor of New York City, who has never ridden one or visited one), is find them safe and meaningful work to do. Like pulling  a carriage in Central Park, he says. These are the lucky horses.

The big work horses, he and every other trainer and vet say, need work to be healthy, alert and content. Without it, they languish and deteriorate, their big muscles atrophy, their senses dull. Working animals – think of the border collie – need work to be well, it is bred into their genes. The ones to pity, says Brannaman, are those with nothing to do but stand around in pastures or preserves with no activity or stimulation of any kind. Imagine what it would do to you.

If you love a carriage horse, you will hope they find good work to do. Those are the horses that survive.

– You will want to keep them around, to see them, to bring your children to see them, to experience the wonder of seeing a horse in a beautiful park, in their most natural habitat. You will wish for them to be part of our everyday lives, for them, for you.

– If  you really love a carriage horse you will read about them and their history.  Books like “Horse In The City,” by Clay McShane and Joel A. Tarr. Articles by the famed biologist Jared Diamond, who notes in his important work that horses are perfect domesticable animals with dominance hierarchies, a tolerance for other species, genetic malleability, and herding instincts.

You may not have heard of this research before, it seems the law governing the welfare of the big horses is that only the people who know nothing about them are entitled to speak loudly and decide their fate and their future. You can decide it for yourself, as I did.

– You will wish to keep them safe and protected, if you love them. The city could close off one lane a day during rush hour so the horses could ride to and from their work without breathing those fumes you hear so much about, without risking any contact with trucks or busses or taxicabs. The city could seek to rebuild the empty horse stables of Central Park and keep some or all of the horses there. If you really love a carriage horse, you might with to actually help them rather than make them go away.

– You will bring to bear the great power of the big city – it built Central Park, after all, and the parks along the water, and great museums, and just arranged to build 20,000 new units of affordable housing – on the billionaire developers who drool over the West Side stables. Let them buy the land in exchange for big and roomy and safe stables, close to the park, with great ventilation and roomy and ventilated stalls. Make one of those deals we read about every day. The city makes deals like that every day. They could help the horses and ensure their safety and future at the same time. And it wouldn’t cost the taxpayers a nickel.

If you really love the horses, you will work to get them modern and comfortable new homes, rather than ban them. You will want to protect them. Pope Francis, in his encyclical “Laudato Si,”  notes that “our indifference or cruelty towards fellow creatures of this world sooner or later affects the treatment we mete out to other human beings. We have only one heart, and the same wretchedness which leads us to mistreat an animal will not be long in showing itself in our relationships with other people. Every act of cruelty towards any creature is ‘contrary to human dignity’.”

And it works both ways. Every act of cruelty against the carriage drivers is an affront to human dignity. The campaign against the carriage horses has been marked by hatred and cruelty towards human beings, our cruelty towards people sooner or later affects the treatment we mete out to the animals.

– You will want to keep  alive, not send them off to peril.  That is the most elemental right of animals – so survive in our world. More than 155,000 horses will be sent to slaughter in Canada and Mexico this year, and for the horse’s sake, do not be misled by the disturbingly naive claim that there is a safe and clean and rich rescue farm waiting for each horse if they are banned. That is dishonest and false, no one who knows anything about horse rescue believes it, and the people who claim they are speaking for the rights of animals will not tell anyone where those farms are and where the many millions of dollars it would take to care for all of these horses are coming from. If you love a carriage horse, demand to know what will happen to each one if their work is taken away.

–  If you love a carriage horse, you will want to be around them. You will want them to be around us. You will wish to visit them, touch them, bring them carrots and apples, stroke their soft noses, take photos of them, bring your kids and nieces and nephews to see them. Horses everywhere are going wonderful therapy work with children in need, if you really loved them, you would push for more programs like that in New York City.  Animals that work with people and love them can pay their way in many different ways. Pulling light carriages in the park is one iconic way, helping troubled or disabled people is another.

If the horses go, most of the children of New York will never see one again. The ancient string that connects the horses and human beings will be cut, broken forever. A mistake that can never be undone.

– You will keep them working with people, not separate them. Horses, like dogs or cats, are domesticated animals, they need people and  have worked with them for centuries. If you really love a horse, you will know that they need people as much as we need them. They attach to them in very powerful ways, it is especially cruel to separate a working animal from the human beings they work with and who care for them.

By all accounts, the carriage horses of New York are content and healthy and most are much loved by the people who work with them. If you really love a carriage horse, you will wish to make their lives better, to love them all the more. Not to banish them from our lives.

The campaign to ban the carriage horses has failed, at least for now. We have learned a lot. Many people love the horses and will seek out the truth about them and fight for them. There are many people who find the abuse of the people in carriage trade abhorrent and who will fight for them. The people seeking to ban the carriage horses are dishonest, they have been caught in one lie after another. They refuse to account for the vast amounts of money they are spending. They know nothing about horses and are not qualified to make judgments about their future.

I have always liked the idea of codified rights for animals, but I can’t help but see that the people claiming to speak for the rights of animals don’t wish to do any of these things: they will not visit the horses or bring them carrots and apples, they have no ideas for making the horses safer or more comfortable, they do not believe people and working animals should be together at all, they seem to have a visceral contempt for any kind of expert, scientist, medical person or horse advocate, they believe the horses ought to be  replaced by huge electric cars.

. What does love for the carriage horses mean to them besides driving the horses from New York?

If you love a carriage horse, you will wish to improve their already safe and secure and regulated lives.  I stand with Pope Francis and with the carriage drivers. Love the animals, protect them, love the people and protect them as well. The animals are our cherished partners, they are not entitled to perfect lives any more than we are.

Any single act of cruelty towards any living thing, human or animal, is an affront to human decency and human dignity and will corrupt and poison the way we treat one another.