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Beaten, malnourished NYC carriage horse retires to farm upstate after collapse

The carriage horse that 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 said the equine’s owner told him.

“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. 

The NYC carriage horse has retired to a farm in upstate New York. Robert Miller

“He bought the horse on the cheap and figured he’d squeeze what he could out of it,” Frydman said McKeever told him.

McKeever is the former president of the Horse & Carriage Association of New York and Historic Horse Carriages of Central Park. 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 it 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 its legs as a result of its collapse.

The carriage horse collapsed on the streets of NYC earlier in August. Christian Parker
An NYPD cop cooling off the horse with a water hose.
A cut on the horse that collapsed in Manhattan. Robert Miller
Protesters are seen outside 100 Centre St. on Aug. 16, 2022, in NYC. Alec Tabak for NY Post

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.