clinton-park-stables-carriage-horses-untapped-nyc-001The bottom floor of Clinton Park Stables stores off-duty carriages. 

New York is the city that never sleeps, but every person, animal and even machine needs some rest eventually. Ever wonder where everything goes at night? We take a look at the off-duty activities of NYC’s horses, food carts and trucks, trains and buses in this next installment of Cities 101.

1. Carriage Horses 

Clinton Park Stables-Central Park Horse and Carraige Ban-Bill de Blasio-NYC_18Clinton Park Horse Stables

These four-legged creatures are as much a fixture in the concrete jungle as taxis and police cars. Besides people and dogs – and maybe pigeons – horses constitute perhaps the next largest population of animals on the city streets. Most of them are the Central-Park-based carriage horses, with a smaller percentage being police horses. As of 2011, there were 210 licensed carriage horses pulling 68 licensed carriages. The carriage horses live in one of four carriage-horse stables in Hell’s Kitchen. More than half reside at Clinton Park Horse Stables on West 52nd Street, and dozens more can be found at West Side Livery on West 38th Street and Chateau Farms on West 48th Street. As shown in our Behind the Scenes visit to to Clinton Park, carriages are stored on the ground while around 60 horses live on the upper level.

Clinton Park Stables-Central Park Horse and Carraige Ban-Bill de Blasio-NYC