Carriage Horse Driver Indicted A Year After Collapse In Midtown: DA

HELL'S KITCHEN, NY — Justice for an abused carriage horse who dramatically collapsed in Hell's Kitchen, and was later euthanized, has been finally served over a year after the shocking incident, prosecutors say.

The horse's handler, Ian McKeever, 54, was charged with one count of overdriving, torturing and injuring animals and failure to provide proper sustenance, officials said Wednesday.

“As alleged, Ryder should not have been working on this hot summer day. Despite his condition, he was out for hours and worked to the point of collapse,” said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. “All animals deserve to be treated with the utmost care and the type of abuse that Ryder allegedly suffered is unacceptable.”

On Aug. 10 2022, McKeever worked his horse, Ryder, in Central Park on an 84 degree day. Onlookers who saw Ryder that day said he appeared to be "very thin and frail," prosecutors said, and was "walking slowly while panting with his tongue hanging out of his mouth."

Almost eight hours of work later, Ryder collapsed in the middle of West 45th Street near Ninth Avenue in Hell's Kitchen, captured on dramatic video that shocked New Yorkers.

McKeever, instead of offering the suffering horse water or even detaching him from the carriage, repeatedly tried to get Ryder to stand by "pulling on the reins, yelling, and using a whip," officials said.

NYPD officers responding to the scene eventually detached Ryder from the harness — allowing him to fully lie down — and sprayed the exhausted horse with water for 45 minutes, until Ryder could stand up again on his own, prosecutors said.

Two months later, Ryder was euthanized at a sanctuary that helped care for the injured horse, "due to his medical conditions and age," the sanctuary said at the time.

Prior to Wednesday's indictment, McKeever was issued two $1,000 penalties from the Department of Health for falsely stating the horse's age on a license application and health certificate, according to an agency spokesperson last year. The agency did not name the owner or specify the false statement, but NYCLASS — an animal rights group that has long sought to ban horse carriages — says Ryder's age had been incorrectly changed from 26 to 13 years old.

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