A horse was able to escape its carriage and wreak havoc on Manhattan Sunday, crushing cars before sprinting down the West Side Highway.
Video captured the aftermath of the horse's destruction, with one onlooker showing the remains of a car that looked more like it had been involved in a rear-end accident and a horse carriage badly damaged on the side of the road.
According to a report from ABC 7, the trouble started when the carriage malfunctioned and the driver agitated the horse while attempting to fix it. The 15-year-old horse, named Gunner, briefly dragged the driver along for the ride, causing the driver to sustain broken ribs.
NEW YORK CARRIAGE DRIVER CHARGED WITH ANIMAL CRUELTY AFTER HORSE COLLAPSES IN MANHATTAN
From there, the horse ran toward West Side Highway and smashed into multiple parked cars before becoming disengaged from the carriage and continuing its journey down the northbound lanes of the highway.
Eventually, Gunner slipped and fell, and was subdued by two off-duty New York Police Department officers and taken to Clinton Park Stables for evaluation.
"A horse is in stable condition today after it broke free from a malfunctioning carriage & fell. Fortunately, off-duty @nypdspecialops Mounted Unit Sgt. Fontana & Officer Gehm were in the area, sprang into action & secured the animal to prevent further injuries," NYPD said in a statement on X.
According to Christina Hanson of Clinton Park Stables, Gunner required some stitches in his leg from the incident.
"He came upstairs and settled right into his stall. He was seen by a vet. He received some stitches for a cut on his leg, but he's been resting comfortable here in his stall ever since," Hanson said, according to ABC 7.
The incident has also renewed calls by some activists to ban horses in the city.
"They're crashing into cars, running wild, they're getting injured, they're getting killed, they're hurting pedestrians, they're injuring the drivers," Edita Birnkrant, an animal rights advocate with NYCLASS, told ABC 7, adding that people who run sanctuary farms have already reached out and offered to retire Gunner.
"He'll never have to be put in harm's way again," Birnkrant said.
