Response to P&C letter to the editor

Dear Susan Benedict,

The American Heritage Dictionary defines 'stupid' as “slow to learn or understand. Marked by a lack of intelligence or unaware”. It also defines 'ignorance' as “the condition of being uneducated, unaware, or uninformed”. As there is no real cure for stupidity and the cure for ignorance is education, I am going to give you the benefit of the doubt that you are the latter and not the former on the subject in which you decided to pontificate in a letter to The Post and Courier - protecting the carriage horses on the streets of Charleston.

As a tour guide and carriage driver for Palmetto Carriage Works, I appreciate everyone who shows an interest in our tourism industry - the industry that makes Charleston the desirable place it is to live. I particularly appreciate those who have a genuine interest in our carriage operation. I can assure you, Mrs./Ms./Miss Benedict, that if you had spent any time at all in the Big Red Barn at 8 Guignard Street, you would have never written the letter you did. It always amazes me that the people who complain the most about the equine carriage industry are people who have nothing to do with it! Let me address some of the points you raised line by line.

Charleston is known as one of America's most polite cities. Wouldn't it be great to also be known as one of America's most humane?

Did you do some research that indicates otherwise, Mrs./Ms./ Miss Benedict? The Charleston carriage has an exemplary record of animal care, one of the best in the United States. People who know the carriage industry are already aware of that. We have set the model for equine care in America - through our hard work, our love for this city and for our jobs, and through our respect for the animals in our care.

If humane conditions were conspicuously observed, more people would feel comfortable taking carriage rides. As a highly visible model for the humane care of the horses, not only would the horses benefit but the carriage business would benefit from the good will. The Charleston tourism business would no doubt receive a great deal of positive publicity nationally by initiating these standards.

Again, do you have some knowledge of inhumane conditions that I do not have? If so, please report it. It seems to me that many people (thousands a week) are comfortable taking carriage rides. During this past Labor Day weekend, Mrs./Ms./Miss Benedict, I worked a 10-12 hour shift on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. During those four days I conducted 24 carriage tours with a total of at least 200 people on board. Each of those customer spent time in the Big Red Barn. They played with the animals, witnessed our large, clean stalls, and watched our barn hands administer water and take animal temperatures after every tour (as required by city regulations).

I have been in this business for five years, and have seen very few people walk away with a feeling of ill will toward the carriage industry. We do our part EVERY DAY FOR 364 DAYS A YEAR to generate good will among the public. How often do you come down and help? That's pretty conspicuous, don't you think? The Charleston toursim business is already generating positive national publicity. The numbers of visitors to our city has increased every year. The number of people who come to Charleston who take a carriage ride HAS ALSO INCREASED.

In a survey of visitors the number one attraction that tourists claim they would do again is take a carriage ride. Not visit the Joe Riley Over-Budget-Price-Gouging Aquarium; not Patriots Point; not Boone Hall Plantation; not Middleton or Magnolia Plantation; not take in a game at the Joe Riley baseball stadium; not the Nathaniel Russell House, but TAKE A CARRIAGE RIDE. When people think of Charleston tourism the carriages are always one of the first things they mention.

At the corner where the route lottery is decided there should be a large and highly visible thermometer with a sign stating that the horse carriages do not operate when the temperature exceeds 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

Good luck getting the city to approve a “large and highly visible thermometer with a sign” on the corner of Market and Church Streets. Do you know anything about the strict codes and regulations downtown on the peninsula? And if it did read that “horse carriages do not operate when the temperature exceeds 90 degrees Fahrenheit” it would be spreading false information. We can operate until the temperature reaches 98 degrees Fahrenheit (as mandated by city regulations - which has been under review for several months and the committee recommended the 98 degree standard as being within safe limits.)

If you had ever made a trip to the Big Red Barn, you would know that Palmetto Carriage ALREADY HAS A SIGN like you suggest on the front door of the barn. Every day at work I see dozens of people standing and reading OUR SIGN that describes that city's standards for animal care, and OUR standards, which are higher than the city in most instances. At the bottom is the name of my owner, his family and all the other employees of Palmetto Carriage that indicates our commitment to animal care.

Though this might take the horses off the street for a few hours in mid-day during the summer, favorable publicity about Charleston's humane carriage trade would produce an overall increase in the number of passengers and would most certainly be a positive aspect of our tourism.

I'm not sure how this would increase the number of passengers when it would reduce the number hours we have for operation. You do know that we have a limited number of hours in which we can conduct tours, don't you? By city regulation, we are only allowed to conduct tours within the historic residential district from 9:00 a.m. to 6 p.m. (during daylight savings time) and until 5:00 p.m. (during standard time). I don't see how having less hours of operation will “increase” our business at all. And since we're already getting positive favorable publicity about our carriage industry (as we have discussed), I'm not sure what point you are trying to make.

The number of passengers per carriage should further be limited to a burden that is reasonable for each animal. The Brooke Organization recommends no more than four passengers ride per carriage. Recently, accompanied by my out-of-town guests, I watched as one carriage was being loaded with 12 tourists, several of whom were obese.

Do you know what is reasonable for an animal to pull? Have you conducted a study of the pulling power of an equine animal? Do you work in the industry day-in-and-day-out, and have some experience with equine animals that would make your opinion and recommendation worthy of taking seriously? Who is the Brooke Organization that recommends four passengers per carriage? Do they also recommend if some of the passengers are obese, the number should be reduced to three passengers, or two?

The carriage you watched being loaded with 12 passengers was well within the limits of what the carriages and animals can handle. The large carriages are designed to carry up to 16 adult passengers. If you wish to limit the hours we can operate during the daytime, we'd better carry 16 or more on each carriage to be able to make up for the lack of business so we can turn a profit. But, you'll be happy to know that due to city regulations, the size and weight of a carriage is already restricted to a standard which takes into consideration animal, customer and traffic safety.

And by the way, we DO have carriages designed for four passengers Mrs./Ms./Miss Benedict - they are called private carriages. Come by the Big Red Barn and check them out.

Those with the power to do so should make the Charleston horse-carriage business one that is a model of humane care that will give visitors a good memory of their vacations. Even if a few visitors are unable to get a carriage ride during a few hours of extreme heat, they at least will leave knowing that, in addition to politeness, Charleston is an example of kindness as well.

Those with the power ARE making the carriage industry the model of humane care in America. I AM ONE OF THOSE WITH THE POWER. By showing up to work every day and being a conscientious tour guide, and respectful of my working partners (animals) I make a difference every day that I work. As do the rest of my fellow tour guides. As do the dedicated barn staff who are in charge of the day-to-day-hour-by-hour care of our animals. As do my company's owner and managers, Tom Doyle, Tommy Doyle, Ben Doyle and David Gwynn-Vaughn. What do you do every day to make the carriage industy the MODEL of humane care, Mrs./Ms./Miss Benedict?

Palmetto Carriage gets letters and e-mails from our customers on a regular basis praising our operation and telling us that they are going to recommend us to their friends. I also recieve letters and e-mails from former customers thanking me for helping to make their trip to Charleston so special. Tens of thousands of people go home from their Charleston vacations with a good memory of their trip, and their carriage ride.

Let me tell how serious Palmetto Carriage is about the health of our equine animals. We use mules instead of draft horses to pull our carriages. As you may or may not know, the mule is a sterile hybrid of a male donkey bred with a female horse. It has greater endurance and is stronger and less excitable than a horse. Depending on the need, different breeds of horses can be used to produce fine riding mules, heavy draft mules or medium-sized pack animals. In Medieval Europe, when horses were bred large to carry armored knights, mules were the preferred riding animal of gentlemen and clergy.

The King of Spain presented George Washington with a large black jack in 1785. This animal, "Royal Gift," is considered the father of the mule industry in the United States.Mules were once used to pull fire-fighting equipment and were often employed by armies to pull artillery and to remove the wounded from the battlefield. The twenty-mule team that hauled borax from Death Valley and other mining centers in the West has become part of American legend. Indeed, some western towns were originally laid out with extremely wide streets to allow the mule teams to turn around.

The main mule-breeding centers in the United States developed in Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri to provide work animals for the cotton fields of the Old South. After the American Civil War and the development of tenant farming throughout the South, the mule continued as the major draft animal in American agriculture. "Forty acres and a mule" was all one needed for self-sufficiency. The importance of the mule declined rapidly in the 1940s and 1950s, however, as gasoline-driven tractors became widespread, and mules all but disappeared from the American scene.

I invite you to come visit us at The Big Red Barn. Look at our mules and horses - yes we have both. Our horses only pull the smaller 4 person private carriages. Feel free to come to our barn at any time during working hours. It is open to the public. We don't have any equine torture chambers hidden in the basement either.