They argued for twenty years whether the horses should stay or go.
Both answers end the same way — the horse, gone. Banned to who-knows-where, or quietly worn out and sold off. We're the only ones asking the question everyone skipped: where do they actually land, and who feeds them in 2050? So we concede the fight over the carriages — and we save the horses.
Abandoned
A ban with no plan is 200 horses pushed into the auction-and-slaughter pipeline at once — brands sanded off, gone. It has happened before, one traced horse at a time.
Home
Every horse placed on a certified family farm, funded for life, chipped, under a no-slaughter covenant — many of them healing kids who need them. That's First Grass.
About two hundred horses. This is where they stand.
Every one gets a name, a face, and a live journey home. Help turn the board gold — then green — one horse at a time.
202 horses identified so far — from the 2012–2013 licensing rosters, documented sightings, and public tips. Placements (green) honestly start at zero and grow as First Grass funds each home. Faces fill in as New Yorkers add them.
You already know them. Help us give every horse back its name.
The city files each horse as a number branded on its hoof — no name, no face, nothing public. But New York knows these horses. You rode behind one on an anniversary. You passed the same gray on your way to work. A driver leaned down and told you his name. That memory is the record the city never kept — so we're building it from the people who were actually there. Know a carriage horse? Add what you know.
Name a horse
A photo, a name, a memory — any one of these helps. Nothing is published automatically; we review every submission by hand.
A pasture for life — guaranteed before a single horse ships.
No horse leaves the city without a funded, certified home waiting. Not charity that runs out in three years — an endowment obligation for the whole of the animal's life.
- A stipend for lifeFeed, farrier and vet, paid to the farm for as long as the horse lives.
- A permanent chip-IDNot a sand-off-able brand. A public registry entry, forever.
- A no-slaughter covenantLegally binding, travels with the horse. Break it, lose the horse.
- Purpose, not a parking lotTurnout, a herd, and equine therapy for kids who need them.
- Struggling family farmsIdle barns and real land, revived by caring for these horses.
- The drivers come tooFirst right for the people who know these horses to be their stewards.
The iron comes off.
No more steel on stone. The first ground they feel is soil — and the hoof, a living thing that pumps blood with every step it takes, finally gets to breathe.
Follow them home.
Get the roster as it fills in, and watch the board turn gold then green — one horse, one name, one field at a time.
No spam. Just the horses, and how to help them land.