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NYC’s horse carriage drivers feel betrayed as lawmakers set to abolish industry
By
Liam Quigley
Published Oct 21, 2026 at 6:00 a.m. ET
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Liam Quigley/Gothamist
By
Liam Quigley
Published Oct 21, 2026 at 6:00 a.m. ET
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Central Park’s horse carriage drivers are preparing to make their last stand.
The City Council is poised to pass legislation on Thursday that will shut down the industry after more than 160 years in operation. Mayor Zohran Mamdani has said he’ll sign the bill, which would phase out the practice by the spring of 2028.
Animal rights activists have for decades called for carriage horses to be banned in the city, saying it’s inhumane for horses to pull carts across Manhattan’s traffic-choked streets. But horse carriage drivers argue they’re an integral part of the city’s tourist scene that’s being forced out of business unfairly.
Robert Boyle, a horse carriage driver for more than 40 years, drew delighted cheers from a gaggle of toddlers last week as he navigated his chocolate brown horse named Sam through Hell’s Kitchen traffic from the Clinton Park stables on West 52nd Street en route to Central Park.
“You see, kids love this,” he said. “They haven't been polluted yet by TikTok and animal activists and land grabbers and money.”
Liam Quigley/Gothamist
Boyle and many other horse carriage drivers have long argued real estate executives are behind the push by animal rights groups like NYCLASS to ban the industry. He argues developers have their eye on the West Side stables, where 90 horses live and are cared for.
Previous Mayors Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams' efforts to ban the industry both failed in the face of protests by Transport Workers Union Local 100, which represents the carriage horse drivers.
But the political scene changed in June when 18-year-old tourist Romanch Mahajan died in Central Park after he was thrown from a carriage pulled by a runaway horse. His death came weeks after a carriage horse collapsed and died in the park. The incidents invigorated efforts to shut down carriage horses, and legislation to ban the industry was renamed for the teen before it gained key support from Council Speaker Julie Menin.
Liam Quigley/Gothamist
People who work in the business said they have become scapegoats in a park teeming with e-bikes and other battery-powered vehicles that cause far more crashes than their slow-moving carriages.
Mamdani has said he wants to ensure the drivers don’t become unemployed once the industry is phased out. But details on how city officials plan to help the roughly 200 people employed by the industry still have yet to be worked out.
In that vacuum of information, there is a growing sense of betrayal and resentment.
Conor McHugh, 62, started driving a carriage when he was 21 and became a co-owner of Clinton Park stables in 2003.
When Mamdani took office in January, the industry thought the new mayor, who casts himself as a champion for organized labor, might be an ally. McHugh pointed to Mamdani’s forceful defense of the city’s taxi drivers, including joining a 2021 hunger strike to push for debt relief.
“He gets up on his podium and announces that he's just shutting us all down, putting us out of business, doesn't even talk to us,” McHugh said of Mamdani. “So I think this guy is as phony as a $3 bill.”
Before Mahajan was killed in the crash in Central Park, Mamdani had said he’d visit stables such as Clinton Park, where the horses are stabled. A City Hall official confirmed the mayor never made the visit.
The Central Park carriage horse industry is on track to be phased out by the spring of 2028 as city lawmakers are set to outlaw the business.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Edita Birnkrant, executive director of animal rights group NYCLASS, said the industry is “cruel and dangerous,” and the ban is “long overdue.”
Around 40 working carriage horses have died on the job since 1982, including from heat exhaustion and accidents, according to data from the Manhattan borough president’s office.
The southern end of the Central Park loop, where dozens of carriages pick up customers who shell out $72.22 for a 20-minute ride and as much as $414.99 for a two-hour “grand tour,” would become repurposed if the ban goes into effect.
Tourists clustered nearby were split on where they stood on the ban.
Ricky Sells, visiting the city from Austin, Texas, said he took a carriage ride on a previous trip and considers it an “iconic” New York experience.
“The tourists love them. It's a huge staple,” he said. “So it's, like, why not keep the horses here?”
Nichole Babiez, who was in town from Chicago, said she understood the drivers’ plight as a fellow small business owner. But she said she wanted reassurance that the horses are well cared for.
“I think everything should be treated humanely,” she said. “They are beautiful creatures, and they need to be taken care of.”
Boyle, the carriage horse driver, said he wished lawmakers had engaged more with the drivers and others in the industry before, in his view, caving to the animal rights activists.
“ I do see their point, like, ‘Oh, horses shouldn't have to work for a living,’” he said. “Well, people shouldn't have to work for a living either.”
“But this is a fact of life. And horses and man have worked together for hundreds of years.”
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Liam Quigley
Liam Quigley is a reporter covering parks & sanitation for Gothamist and WNYC. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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