Video shows damage left behind after horse breaks free from carriage in Manhattan
HELL'S KITCHEN, Manhattan (WABC) -- New video shows the damage left behind after a horse broke free from its carriage driver and made a run for it on the West Side Highway in Manhattan.
It happened Sunday afternoon on 55th Street between 10th and 11th avenues around 3 p.m.
The trouble started when the carriage malfunctioned and the driver tried to fix it.
Gunner, a 15-year-old horse, became agitated and briefly dragged the driver when they started to adjust the canopy. The driver suffered broken ribs.
The animal then ran toward the West Side Highway and smashed the carriage into four parked cars on both sides of the road.
Gunner then disengaged from the carriage and continued toward the northbound lanes of the West Side Highway when he slipped and fell.
Two off-duty officers were able to load Gunner onto a trailer where he was taken to Clinton Park Stables for further evaluation.
He was said to be in stable condition with injuries to his legs and multiple cuts throughout his body.
"He came upstairs and settled right into his stall. He was seen by a vet. He received some stitches for a cut on his leg, but he's been resting comfortable here in his stall ever since," said Christina Hanson of Clinton Park Stables.
The incident is renewing calls by activists and elected officials to ban their use in the city.
"They're crashing into cars, running wild, they're getting injured, they're getting killed, they're hurting pedestrians, they're injuring the drivers," said Edita Birnkrant, an animal rights advocate with NYCLASS.
Hanson says all the damage to cars came from the carriage, not the horse.
"The horse is actually stronger than the carriage itself. They can break everything on the carriage which is what happened here once it got hung up on the cars and that's how he got loose," Hanson said.
Animal rights activists say people who run sanctuary farms have reached out and would love to retire Gunner.
"He'll never have to be put in harms way again," Birnkrant said.
Hanson says the horses at the stable are taken care of and are loved.
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