A Manhattan horse carriage driver has been hit with animal cruelty charges related to his treatment of Ryder, the horse who infamously collapsed on a Hell’s Kitchen street last year and died a few months later, sparking new calls to ban horse carriages in the city.
Ian McKeever, who was holding the reins of the carriage pulled by Ryder when the steed dramatically collapsed to the street in August 2022, was charged in Manhattan Criminal Court on Wednesday with overdriving, torturing, and injuring animals, a Class A misdemeanor. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said McKeever was abusing Ryder by working him all day despite his age and pre-existing health conditions.
“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,” Bragg said in a statement. “All animals deserve to be treated with the utmost care and the type of abuse that Ryder allegedly suffered is unacceptable.”
Prosecutors say in their complaint that McKeever’s actions “unjustifiably injured, maimed, mutilated, and killed an animal” and deprived him of necessary sustenance.
McKeever, a 54-year-old Long Islander, was driving Ryder and the carriage in Hell’s Kitchen in the midst of a summer heat wave when the horse fell to the street, unable to get up from the hot asphalt for more than an hour.
By the time of his 5:10 p.m. collapse, Ryder had already been working for eight hours that summer day with temperatures in the mid-80s, prosecutors allege. The horse was observed by witnesses to be thin and frail, and he was seen walking slowly while panting and sticking his tongue out, which are signs of exhaustion.
As Ryder lay on the street, McKeever could be seen on video unsuccessfully pulling the horse by the reins to get back up, yelling at him and even whipping him at points. He did not provide any water to Ryder while he was on the street, and didn’t even detach him from his…
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