STABLE CONDITION
CARRIAGE HORSE OREO IS ONE TOUGH COOKIE
DON’TBLAME Oreo!
That was the plea of the carriage driver Friday who was injured a day earlier when his horse named Oreo took him and two Aussie tourists on a terrifying ride near Columbus Cirle.
Mehmet Dundar said the crash of metal beams falling at a construction site on W. 59th St. — coupled with the blare of car horns — spooked the gelding and caused him to bolt.
“It’s not the horse’s fault,” Dundar said after returning home to Bensonhurst from Bellevue Hospital. “They were unloading metal frames. One fell down, there was a crash, and then cars coming were honking. The noise . . . scared the horse.”
Dundar, 34, who learned to ride horses in his native Turkey, said 6-year-old Oreo is “a very good horse.”
“My biggest worry was of course the passengers, then the horse, then myself,” said Dundar, when asked about the accident that left him with banged-up hands and feet. “Poor people were taking a ride to enjoy it. I’m sure they didn’t want it to be a roller coaster.”
Christina Hansen of the Horse and Carriage Association of New York City said Oreo is recovering with only minor scrapes on his hips. But for now Oreo’s days of pulling carriages are over, she said.
“He’s been suspended from work by the ASPCA,” said Hansen. “They’ll decide whether to send him to the farm for some R&R, but, regardless, he’ll be just fine.
“In our business, these horses all find private homes after they retire. This horse has nothing to worry about, nor do any of the other horses.”
Dundar was taking tourists Nathan and Kelly Thompson on a tour when Oreo suddenly bolted d around 4:20 p.m. Thursday.
“It happened really quickly,” said Dundar. “I tried to stop him. He e dragged me with the reins about 20 to 30 yards.”
Meanwhile, the carriage collided with several passing cars before breaking apart and spilling the Thompsons on the street. They were not seriously injured.
The accident, which Dundar claims was his first, prompted renewed calls to ban horse-and-carriage rides, which critics call inhumane and dangerous.
“I have been calling for an end to a practice that places profit above safety — the safety of the horses and the unsuspecting public — for years,” said Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, who represents the area and is pushing a bill to ban carriage rides. “What will it will take for the city and the industry to get the point?”
Mayor Bloomberg said man and horses have shared a bond “from caveman times” and he would oppose any such ban.
“I think it’s something that a lot of tourists really love and it makes New York, New York,” he said. “It would be a shame to lose them. There’s always going to be accidents.”