Quote Originally Posted by satomi325 View Post
What many people forget is that many domesticated animals were bred for work and those animals *do* want to work. The drive and desire to work has been bred into their genetics for hundreds of years.

I admit that I know close to nothing about horses, but I can bet they don't want to keep idly still.
And as long as the horses are treated/worked within certain parameters(for example, can only work such and such hours with this much mileage or something), I see no reason why not to use them.
You are absolutely right, they have been bred for the job of pulling things for hundreds of years. And horses really like having a steady routine, heck when you take racehorses off the track (which is a VERY scheduled and controlled environment) you have to be very careful to actually keep them in heavy work for a while. They're so used to having a job and a routine (and being in a little stall) that if you suddenly stop training and toss them out in a big pasture they tend to develop mental issues (compulsive chewing etc) and ulcers.

And as a carriage driver, you have a very big incentive to take very good care of that animal. Most horses are not mentally cut out to work in that kind of environment, there's car traffic, loud noises, slick surfaces, loose tourist children running up to them to pet their face... It takes a very special kind of horse to stay calm and relaxed in the middle of Manhattan (much like the police horses), they really don't come along every day and there's a lot of desensitization training with it. So as a driver you gain nothing by overworking or abusing your well-trained valuable horse other than endangering the very source of your income.

Quote Originally Posted by bcr229 View Post
I know, I have two horses and while they're not drafts, they're not cheap to keep either.

A few may get picked up by rescues or private owners, but I suspect many will be purchased at meat price and shipped to Canada for slaughter.
I'd hope that since they're bombproof that they'll get rehomed, but I suspect that most of them are very well broke to drive and hardly any to ride, and driving is not as popular as it once was. Basically, I agree, I just hope so much that we're wrong, they deserve better.