I was taken with the big horses that came pouring out of the West Side Livery Stables, the oldest working stable in the city. It is a few blocks away from Hell’s Kitchen, it is surrounded by encroaching development, big developers are drooling over the property, and every big-deal politician in the city and animal rights group in the city is vowing to shut them down. Given that, I have to be rooting for them to survive. I talked to a firm that buys and sells horses at weekly auctions in Pennsylvania and New York – one auction is held very close to me.

He says older draft and farm horses will almost surely go to slaughter, he said it was most likely most of the carriage horses had been rescued in the first place and would probably be dead if they were not in New York. There are few horse rescue farms, he said, and most of them are overwhelmed and nearly destitute, the number of animals without work or purpose or people who can afford them has exploded.  It is difficult for me to quite grasp why a city would be so eager to ban such beautiful creatures, but then, I love to be around animals, it lifts me up to see them and be near them.

I got to the stables a bit early, as snoopy journalists and photographers always do and I was taken aback to find this big fellow waiting for me, standing a few feet from his carriage, waiting patiently to be hooked up. He gave me a look from the underside of his blinder and I came up and rubbed his forehead, which he enjoyed. How wonderful to see him there, the commuters driving by honked and waved at him, I suppose some of them see him every day.

I went up to him and apologized for the human race. You deserve to be here,  have work and purpose, I said. People are fighting for you, I do not know if they will win or lose but the thought of you being sent to a rescue farm or a slaughterhouse is a painful thing to contemplate.  I am sorry you have to face it. You seem to me to belong right where you are, showing off your grand style to all of these drab commuters and their harried lives. You are a handsome and healthy fellow, you make everything around you look shabby and gray.