Odd-toed ungulates

There is a story I heard years ago; a nail in the shoe of a horse was loose but the person in charge neglected to fix it. One day invaders entered the country, and a soldier was ordered to gallop to the country's capital and alert the army.

A charming, must-do tourist attraction or a cruel, outdated commercial activity? New York's horse-drawn carriages have operated since the 1800s, but lawmakers now want to replace them with electric vehicles.

For some, the equine-driven rides around Central Park are part of the fabric of the Big Apple, like yellow taxis and Broadway shows.

The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality has brought electric vehicles to be used on the Princes' Islands (Adalar), off Istanbul's coast, after a ban on horse-drawn carriages as a result of the killing of dozens of horses due to an outbreak of glanders and years-long animal rights activism against what advocates called the ill-treatment of horses.

Animal rights activists were allowed to observe the barns in which some 1,100 horses are kept under quarantine in the Princes' Islands off Istanbul after 105 of them were killed due to glanders, an infectious disease that occurs primarily in horses and can be contracted by humans and other animals.

The Istanbul Governorate on Dec. 20 announced its decision to prohibit the use of horse carriages for three months, after 81 horses were killed on the Princes' Islands off Istanbul, following an outbreak of glanders, a fatal equine disease.

Bulgarians mark on Saturday the holiday known as Todorovden (the day of Todor or Theodore), also called the Horse Easter.

According to the Orthodox tradition, Todorovden is marked every year on the first Saturday of the Great Lent (the Easter Fast).

Police in the region of Thesprotia, western Greece, are investigating the shooting of at least six horses in the village of Karvounari over the past two months.

According to state-run news agency ANA-MPA on Wednesday, the horses were killed with a riffle while a seventh horse was found severely wounded by lead shot.