During a Monday press conference, District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte rails against his colleagues’ plan to ban horse-drawn carriages in downtown San Antonio. Credit: Michael Karlis

Local lawmakers representing both sides of the political spectrum joined carriage operators at a Monday press conference urging City Council not to ban horse-drawn carriage rides downtown.

Council will vote Thursday whether to phase out the carriages over the next three years. The idea was brought up for consideration by District 3 Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran and District 2 Councilman Jalen-McKee Rodriguez, the latter of whom caught plenty of flack during the hour-long rally in front of City Hall.

“Jalen McKee-Rodriguez has an agenda based on ignorance,” Yellow Rose and HRH carriage driver Kris Davis said. “They have dismissed every expert, they have ignored every debunked excuse and they have left every city with a thriving horse carriage industry out of their surveys.”

During the Monday’s event, carriage operators, including Yellow Rose & HRH Carriage owner Stephanie Dickinson, argued that the horses used for the carriage rides are work animals and get excited when they’re loaded onto the trailer to head downtown.

However, McKee-Rodriguez, Viagran and some San Antonio residents maintain that using horse-drawn carriages downtown is animal abuse, especially during summer days. They’ve also cited studies that show car exhaust from downtown traffic has negative health effects on the animals.

Even so, Dickinson maintains that if council passes the agenda item banning horse-drawn carriages, she’ll be financially ruined, and the horses will end up in a worse situation.

“The City Council is living in a dream world,” Dickinson said. “We will go bankrupt, and the bankruptcy court will take the horses, and they will go to the highest bidder. They could end up on Amish land. Most of my horses are Amish rescues, so that wouldn’t be doing anybody any favors.”

District 5 Councilwoman Teri Castillo, one of council’s most progressive members joined District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte, its most conservative, in supporting the carriage operators. Republican State Rep. John Lujan and Precinct 3 Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert also voiced their opposition to the ban.

Despite their disparate political views, the lawmakers agreed that the agenda item up for review Thursday is anti-small business and hurts working-class people.

“Let’s be clear, the stakeholders here have not said “absolutely no” to a transition; they’ve said they want a transition that does not put us in a vulnerable position with our finances,” Castillo said. “And, when we talk about the overall state of the economy in the U.S. and the ways in which we’re putting families at risk of debt and asset forfeiture, that is a shame.”

Disabled U.S. Marine Dennis Bradley, one of the carriage drivers who spoke Monday, said it would be nearly impossible to find a job due to his injuries sustained during his service.

Under the proposed ban, San Antonio would offer carriage drivers entrance into the city’s Ready to Work job-training program. However, only 12.8% said they would be interested in that arrangement, according to a presentation before council earlier this year.

“By taking our jobs away from us, you’re robbing us of our homes, you’re robbing us of our careers, and for people like me that have very limited options out in the regular civilian world, you’re very possibly robbing us of our lives,” Bradley said.

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This article appears in Nov 28-29, 2024.

Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...