A horse being ridden through traffic on Eighth Avenue toward Central Park for a tourist ride got spooked by a truck Monday morning and fell backward, hitting a taxi, its owner said.
Billy, a 16-year-old brown draft horse, and another white horse were being ridden by workers from their stable near 11th Avenue and 48th Street to meet with customers in the park when Billy lost his footing, said Hasan Ugder, the owner of the horse-rental business, Central Park Sightseeing.
A video of the incident, taken by a passer-by, showed Billy getting quickly back up his feet, flaring his nostrils.
“This horse just got hit by a cab,” Thomas Beckner, who identifies himself as a video director at Hearst, said in an Instagram post alongside a video of the 10 a.m. incident.
“I showed up as it was wedged underneath the taxi,” he said of the brown beast.
Taxi driver Lakhwinder Singh said he was stopped at the red light when the horse “went crazy” and bashed into his car, denting the side.
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