ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Some St. Augustine residents are calling for the city to end downtown’s horse-drawn carriage business.
During a city commission meeting on Monday, several people complained and alleged that the horses are being mistreated.
Jennifer Cushion owns Country Carriages. She said that is not the case at all.
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“They are very well taken care of,” Cushion said. “We’ve had vets and specialists and agriculture from UF come in and look at my horses. They said every one of the horses was in great shape.”
However, the city said that the horse stables were recently inspected, which resulted in a list of repairs that are needed.
“We’ve engaged a contractor to get an idea of what that would cost to fix the drainage issues at the stables, the fencing at the stables, the paddocks, and everything else,” City Manager David Birchim said. “It came back as a shockingly high number.”
They’ve presented Country Carriages with what needs to be done to bring the stable property up to code.
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Cushion said the city gave her a timeline for those repairs, but she said she went back and told them it was not realistic.
“It’s just not a project that you can knock out in 15 days if you are not a big corporation with a big crew to take care of the work,” Cushion said. “It’s my husband, myself, and my employees that do this. We are trying. We’ve been trying.”
At this point, the city must determine whether to invest in costly repairs or evict them.
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