Horse creates panic, collides with cab after running loose through Central Park

NEW YORK (WABC) -- A horse that was parked on Central Park South caused panic as it bolted and took off through Central Park Monday afternoon, eventually hitting a cab.

Shortly after 5 on Monday evening, a 9-year-old Chestnut Gelding named 'Pumpkin' lost his bridle and bolted. The horse turned off Central Park South and into the Sixth Avenue entrance of Central Park, trotting unattended on the same path it has made many times before. That is when Randy Smith, who normally paints pictures of horses put his brush down and started chasing one.

"I'm running past the carriage and I grabbed the reins and he turned around and looked at me, and he took off like crazy after that," says Smith.

Pumpkin, now packing some speed, then circled around to the backstretch of Central Park South. That is when the horse's carriage clipped the open door of a taxi.

"He was immediately surrounded by carriage drivers who were able to calm him down and put his bridle back on, and now he's standing here resting," said Christina Hansen of the Horse and Carriage Association of New York.

The cab driver would not talk to Eyewitness News, but the whole ordeal provided horse carriage opponents a golden opportunity to once again state their case.

"It's time to get these animals off the streets of NYC and into loving adoption homes," said Allie Feldman of NYCLASS, "It's time to upgrade to the 21st century - get with the program."

As for Pumpkin? He is back at the Clinton Park Stables where a veterinarian made sure he was okay.