THE NEW YORK POST reports:
The carriage horse who collapsed on a busy Manhattan street after being flogged by his driver earlier this month is enjoying retirement on an upstate farm, a former industry rep told The Post on Tuesday.
Edita Birnkrant, executive director of the animal rights group NYCLASS, angrily told The Post in a statement Tuesday, “Ryder is not ‘retired,’ he is being held hostage by his abusers — the very people who have been caught in lie after lie about his horrific neglect and criminal mistreatment.
“I’ve been the staunchest defender of the carriage drivers — but the treatment of Ryder is inexcusable and indefensible,” ex-carriage industry advocate Ken Frydman said of the poor equine, which was found to be malnourished and suffering from a neurological disorder after the infamous incident.
Frydman told The Post that Ryder’s owner and driver that day, Ian McKeever, told him he knew the horse was too old for the carriage industry when he purchased the animal in May.
“He bought the horse on the cheap and figured he’d squeeze what he could out of [him],” Frydman said McKeever told him.
McKeever is the former president of the Horse & Carriage Association of New York and Historic Horse Carriages of New York. He did not return a call seeking comment from The Post on Tuesday.
The Post revealed Monday that the steed was examined by a veterinarian after its Aug. 10 ordeal, during which the sick animal buckled at Ninth Avenue and West 45th Street — then lay there for more than an hour as his driver struck him and screamed for him to get up.
“An initial diagnosis determined that the horse was 28-30-years-old rather than the aforementioned 13-years-old, that [he] was malnourished, underweight and suffers from the equine neurological disorder EPM (Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis),” according to an NYPD report.
The horse also had abrasions to [his] legs as a result of its collapse.
McKeever had told cops on the scene that Ryder was “a 13-year-old gelded Standardbred,” the police report said.
City officials said carriage horses cannot be younger than 5 years old when they start to work. They also can’t work past age 26.
Edita Birnkrant, executive director of the animal rights group NYCLASS, angrily told The Post in a statement Tuesday, “Ryder is not ‘retired,’ he is being held hostage by his abusers — the very people who have been caught in lie after lie about his horrific neglect and criminal mistreatment.
“How can anyone possibly believe a word they say?” the rep said. “We are very concerned that Ryder will simply be euthanized by the same callous people who knowingly forced him to pull a carriage while sick, malnourished and elderly.
“The latest bombshell news revealed by Ken Frydman only strengthens … [potential] criminal animal-cruelty charges” being brought against those involved, Birnkrant said.
Related Reading
Protesters demand New York City carriage driver face charges after horse collapses, by WABC TV New York »
Updated Featured Image: NY1 Spectrum News
Tuesday’s Horse
Official Blog of The Fund for Horses
Tuesday's Horse 
Have you found anything out about Ryder’s fate? I can’t believe with all the press about him that no-one tried to verify the owner’s claim that he is retired to a “farm upstate.” Where is the proof? How come no-one with authority looked into this, or the press who reported on the incident?! I have been so distressed about this. Please tell me you found out! And if not, how can people like me go about finding out? Because I will do whatever it takes! Thank you!!
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You have likely heard the news that Ryder has died. It was reported in the news while we were investigating his true whereabouts and status. Ryder’s life was one long hell. A tragic, heartbreaking story, all of which should never have been allowed to happen.
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Despicable treatment of this horse.
Animal cruelty charges must be made.
Irrefutable evidence to hand.
And where’s the evidence that this poor horse, Ryder is enjoying retirement?
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What disturbed us in particular is that while all of this was happening to the carriage horse Ryder, the police just stood there and watched. You could see them in the photos that were taken. We have been relentlessly calling them to get an answer to that question, but no one will speak to us.
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We are trying to find him. He is in such bad shape we doubt the meat man would give Ryder’s soul-less owner much for him. But it is one way to get rid of him with no trace. The nightmare continues. Heartbreaking.
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Retirement? When they didn’t even take care of him when he was working? It is an out and out lie. He is not “enjoying retirement”. What liars. That is not what these soul-less “humans” do. We pray Ryder has not been sent to slaughter. Horrible.
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