Gloria Carbajal, with the group Ban Horse Carriages Dallas, said she feels sad for these animals. The advocacy group’s lead organizer believes that it’s not a matter of whether an accident will happen, but when.
The way Carbajal sees it, these gentle giants don’t gel with an urban environment, especially during the brutal heat of the summer.
“They're right next to a 28,000-pound DART bus and cars that are driving extremely fast, loud music,” she said. “Horses are timid animals that spook easily. And being out there in three-digit weather, it’s just crazy to me.”
The possibility of barring horse carriages has recently been up for discussion at City Hall. Council member Adam Bazaldua supports a ban, telling The Dallas Morning News that he worries such work is “inhumane for the animal.” Council member Paul Ridley, meanwhile, is against nixing carriages partly because of the character they add to the area.
The item will reportedly return in mid-April to City Council's Quality of Life, Arts & Culture Committee, which Bazaldua chairs.
Dallas isn’t the only major metro to deal with this debate. Other cities nationwide have previously adopted bans, including Salt Lake City and Chicago. New York City, San Antonio and Philadelphia have considered similar proposals.
But many North Texans are passionately defending the industry.
One effort on the petition website Change.org has harnessed a bit of momentum in recent weeks. Launched in early January, the “Prevent the Ban on Dallas Horse Carriages” push has earned nearly 1,000 signatures, with backers insisting that a prohibition would hamper the city’s culture and tourism.
Some signees commented that the horses are properly looked after and valued by their owners. One supporter noted that they once hired Northstar Carriages to carry their late father to “his final resting place.”
“This is ridiculous overreach by the City of Dallas,” another poster wrote.
John Jaksch with Threejays Carriages argues that horses were an integral part of our ancestors’ lives. Texas clearly has deep ties to the animal, and even City Council calls the area where they convene the “horseshoe.”
Hundreds of years of knowledge and training have gone into caring for equines, he said — yet pro-ban activists “have zero understanding of the industry.
“They’re only going after the bleeding-heart approach, and I get it — but I have the same bleeding heart,” Jaksch continued. “And I have the same concerns, and I have managed every bit of that.”
Jaksch said that the pro-ban activists are the ones doing the exploiting and often they don’t know what it takes to own a horse. Carriage operators, meanwhile, have continued to quietly abide by the city’s rules, not causing trouble.“If the city of Dallas doesn't want a lawsuit on its hands from an accident or a fatality, then now's the time to ban horse carriages.” – Jodie Wiederkehr, Animal Rights Activist
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If a ban were to come down, he said, “We would be without a job.” And he argued that many pro-ban comments haven’t been grounded in facts.
Before the chatter of a potential ban arose, horse-drawn carriages were rarely in the news in North Texas, he said. In fact, only four accidents have been reported in Big D over the past 39 years, he added.
“I'll tell you this: There are more accidents with Uber and Lyft, in a given month in Dallas than there ever will be with a horse-drawn carriage in Dallas,” Jaksch said.
But mishaps have occasionally occurred, however infrequently.
In December 2014, a loud noise spooked a horse in Highland Park, and it “galloped frantically” before colliding with a “corner sidewalk and light post,” the local CBS affiliate reported at the time. The crash catapulted the carriage’s passengers out onto the pavement.
Jodie Wiederkehr, founder of the Partnership to Ban Horse Carriages Worldwide, is assisting Carbajal’s organization after helping to secure a ban in Chicago. The partnership’s website lists various carriage accidents and fatalities unfolding nationwide and hopes that Dallas will soon follow the lead of the Windy City.
Wiederkehr pointed out that horses have died in carriage collisions, and people can be seriously injured or killed as well. Regardless of how well the operators treat their horses, there’s always a chance of catastrophe, especially since there are no seatbelts.
“It just takes one time,” she said. “It just takes one time, and it can turn really tragic.”
Still, Wiederkehr insists that she doesn’t want operators to be out of work. The Chicago ban passed in April 2020, after advocates had fought for 2.5 years. Horse carriage workers then had several more months before it went into effect so that they could transition into different jobs.
In her view, this type of transport is simply antiquated.
“Cars and fire engines and police cars and motorcycles are a fact of life in the 21st century,” Wiederkehr said. “Horse carriages were a fact of life in the 17th, 18th century. To force these huge animals that are slow-moving to maneuver a very busy city with all these loud, fast-moving vehicles, it’s not just inhumane: It’s just very dangerous. ...
“If the city of Dallas doesn't want a lawsuit on its hands from an accident or a fatality,” she continued, “then now's the time to ban horse carriages.”
But Jaksch asserts that the activists’ dreams of banning horse-drawn carriages won’t hold in the Lone Star State.
“They think that if they can win Texas over, that they're going to change the world,” he said. “And I'll be honest with you: If they win Texas over, they will change the world. But I can also tell you that Texas will be the first state that’ll stand up to it.”
