It’s the age of cool, swanky cars. It’s the age of speed. Most of us like talking about our dream cars—expensive, sleek, suave ones. Also, with the increase in population, production of public transport is going up in leaps and bounds. It’s all essential. But we often don’t realize that this is causing havoc to the environment.
Moving back in time is a possible solution! The stud that was set up about four centuries ago to provide France with war horses has made a revolutionary comeback. An initiative driven by the French national stud endeavors to engage the old-fashioned horse for a number of jobs—like, collecting recycling and acting as the school bus–in the country’s villages.
The French National Stud Organisation (FNSO) took the opportunity to promote the idea at a recent meeting of mayors. A multi-purpose cart, called the hippoville, has even been developed with removable seating to make it adaptable for a number of jobs. They can be built for €11,500 ($NZ22,000). The hippoville has been designed with indicator lights and high-tech disc brakes. Such carts have already been pressed into use and project head. Seventy towns in France have already made the switch to horse power, including St-Pierre-sur-Dives, Trouville etc.
The perpetrators of the project insist that horses are environmentally friendly. Moreover, the horses and carts improve job satisfaction, reduce stress, and have proved ideal for certain kinds of work in towns, particularly tasks that involve a lot of stopping and starting. The program is being scrutinized to determine its overall carbon footprint, with supporters pointing to the recyclable nature of the horses’ dung output, as opposed to the release of greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels, which had previously been tied up in carbon beneath the earth’s crust.
We will have to wait and find out if the stud can actually and effectively replace modern day automobiles.
Via: Horse Talk
