Mindy Pless (horsewoman) testifies opposing ban
Mindy Pless, a native New Yorker and horsewoman now living on a Virginia farm, testifies about her childhood carriage ride inspiring her career, argues the park's carriage paths were designed for horses, and warns PETA's agenda extends to all equine disciplines.
I will.
Okay.
My name is Mindy Pless, a native New Yorker, but I now live on a farm in Virginia.
If I may share a success story of the carriages.
I'm not one of the carriage drivers.
My career is in animal health, but I've been a lifelong horsewoman.
I was a horse-crazy kid.
My parents didn't own horses, but my grandmother indulged me.
She was a buyer at one of the department stores in Manhattan.
She said, you need to come to Central Park with me.
I need to show you something that you'll never believe.
We went on a carriage ride.
And I was besotted.
I just loved it.
It was fantastic.
I read about the history of the park and the carriages and the original designers of the park.
It was meant for three specific carriage paths, horse trails, and pedestrians.
When I'm looking at that recent video, although horrific that that boy died and I let him rest in peace, I'm looking at that video and I'm going, what the heck happened to the carriage paths?
You have every mode of transportation on there.
As a horsewoman, I would never allow my child, because she's inherited my love for horses, be on a horse with other modes of transportation.
You have bikes, you have e-bikes, you have rollerbladers, you have kids, you have everything.
Those paths were made specifically for the carriage horses.
And I'm sorry, but when I hear that word antiquity, I'm still riding, and I'm still riding horses.
Just because it's not the 1800s and we don't use horses for transportation doesn't mean people like me that have a passion for riding and being on a horse,
are you going to come after me next, seizing my horses, because you say, oh, get off, you're hurting that horse.
This is my fear with PETA involved.
You know their agenda is to end any equine discipline.
I am here to tell you, no, you cannot allow the precedent to be set.
And I ask you to reconsider this and listen to the carriage drivers and come up with solutions and let the horses have those carriage paths back.
Thank you for your attention.
Thank you.
You want to go?