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Horses pitched as alternative transport for France (The French really are nuts)
Reuters ^ | Nov 21, 2007 | By Brian Rohan

Posted on 11/21/2007 1:56:23 PM PST by Islander7

PARIS (Reuters) - French towns worried about fuel prices, pollution and striking transport workers need look no further than the horse.

Horses are a possible alternative for vehicles such as school buses and refuse trucks, say groups eager to pick up on global concerns about eco-friendly transport.

"It's all about sustainable development and bringing some humanity back to today's monotonous, machine-driven jobs," Stephane de Veyrac, from the French National Stud Organisation, said at this week's annual conference of French mayors.

De Veyrac's group says it is the first in France to offer consulting on a wide range of horse-powered vehicles that could also haul bottles and aid street sweeping.

"It is a serious alternative -- horses are already in use in over 70 towns as replacements for gasoline- and diesel-powered service vehicles," said de Veyrac, pointing to the 'Hippoville' prototype parked in the exhibition hall.

With prices starting at 11,562 euros ($17,090), this revamped horse-drawn carriage with disc brakes, signal lamps and removable seating, goes for around the same price as 170 barrels of crude oil.

De Veyrac's group was founded by Louis XIV's Finance Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert to supply war horses for military campaigns.

(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: agw; france; globalwarming; junkscience; onedumbfrenchman
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To: ME-262

snicker


21 posted on 11/21/2007 3:24:33 PM PST by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: Islander7

I enjoy laughing at goofy French nonsense as much as anyone, but...

If we’re being serious, this notion is being put forth by an equestrian organization, not the French government or even a typical French-thinking bunch of econuts. It’s not much of a stretch to imagine an American equestrian organization trying to get the horse re-involved in tasks they lost long ago.

MM (in TX)


22 posted on 11/21/2007 3:29:12 PM PST by MississippiMan (Behold now behemoth...he moves his tail like a cedar. Job 40:17)
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To: ME-262
I’m not so sure how eco-friendly a horse would be for urban use. They literally “eat like a horse” whether you are using them or not, so it’s like they’re always Idling and burning calories. As a result they fart mass quantities of greenhouse gases too. Millions of stables would need to be added to the urban sprawl. Horses are not efficient that’s why we stopped using them. All that food and they still put out only about 2 horsepower when they’re really working hard. It might be a better mode of transportation for drunken drivers however, as the horse has his own good “horse sense” and will usually avoid an accident.
23 posted on 11/21/2007 3:34:10 PM PST by ME-262 (Nancy Pelosi is known to the state of CA to render Viagra ineffective causing reproductive harm.)
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To: Islander7
OK old timers...this is gonna hurt...

Remember the old Rocky/Bullwinkle cartoons, there was a segment played about a Frenchman who lived on a hill.

Usually right after Professor Klyde Krashcop or in the general vacinity..

Every day, or week whatver, a parade came down the hill where he lived and the 'horse crap' collector trailer would go over a bump and dump the load into this guys house....

Then he would go into the "les pew, les disgusting..." as he shoveled out his house.

We now return to your regularly scheduled thread...

24 posted on 11/21/2007 3:36:48 PM PST by SGCOS (K)
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To: Islander7
The French have a word for this... Merde!
25 posted on 11/21/2007 3:47:30 PM PST by Bender2 ("I've got a twisted sense of humor, and everything amuses me." RAH Beyond this Horizon)
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To: Islander7

“It’s also all about bringing horse manure and urine back to today’s streets, along with a host of epizootic diseases.”

LOL!

We know ‘the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain’...

But will the poop in France land mainly on the grass?

Never mind!


26 posted on 11/21/2007 3:56:08 PM PST by STE=Q ("These are the times that try men's souls." -- Thomas Paine)
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To: AnotherUnixGeek

“It’s also all about bringing horse manure and urine back to today’s streets, along with a host of epizootic diseases.”

LOL!

We know ‘the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain’...

But will the poop in France land mainly on the grass?

Never mind!


27 posted on 11/21/2007 3:57:58 PM PST by STE=Q ("These are the times that try men's souls." -- Thomas Paine)
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To: NotJustAnotherPrettyFace

“Mr. De Veyrac probably also doesn’t remember the piles of HORSE MANURE in the streets in the early 1900’s either!”

Did they ever get around to cleaning that stuff up?


28 posted on 11/21/2007 3:58:39 PM PST by toddlintown (Five bullets and Lennon goes down. Yet not one hit Yoko. Discuss.)
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To: Islander7
"....It's great for workers and the community to have contact with a living thing," Linot said...."

Will they rethink this after the "disadvantaged youthful denizens" of the banlieues start overturning and burning "Hippovilles", to BBQ the horses?

29 posted on 11/21/2007 4:53:32 PM PST by ApplegateRanch (...and there is no new thing under the sun.. Ecclesiastes 1:9 [KJV])
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To: Islander7
Eco-friendly?

Do you really think so?

Please consider that a motor only is producing fumes and consuming energy when it is on, which may be only a couple of hours a day. A horse on the other hand is consuming fuel, producing fumes and solid waste 24 hours a day.

30 posted on 11/21/2007 4:56:53 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (A good marriage is like a casserole, only those responsible for it really know what goes into it.)
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To: Islander7
Will this whinny any awards for a good idea? Neigh.

31 posted on 11/21/2007 5:02:34 PM PST by I see my hands (_8(|)
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To: coydog
I can’t see this making sense in large cities, but some small farmers and loggers find them a cheaper alternative to paying the fuel costs for tractors and skidders.

Small problem: You can't park a horse in the machine shed for the winter, after filling it with anti-freeze & draining the fuel tank.

You have to feed, water, and shovel every day, whether you're using it or not.

Which brings up the next problem: growing enough additional 'fuel' to keep them fed & watered, without losing crop land, disturbing euro-sacrosanct 'habitat', or running afoul of other EUroproblems.

A horse (or cat, for that matter) = a nice, useful, furry friend; 12,000,000 = a plague of Biblical proportions.

32 posted on 11/21/2007 5:04:02 PM PST by ApplegateRanch (...and there is no new thing under the sun.. Ecclesiastes 1:9 [KJV])
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To: RightWhale

Driving a horse is a tremendous amount of fun. I used to drive, years ago. The only trouble is that it really does take quite awhile to groom and harness a driving horse, then hitch him. You can’t just jump in and turn the key; the process is not going to take less than twenty minutes. At the end of the drive you have to unharness, cool the horse out, and clean both your cart/phaeton/whatever, and your harness. Also, it’s not much fun in the cold.


33 posted on 11/21/2007 5:04:13 PM PST by Fairview ( Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.)
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To: Fairview

I would go into town only once a week just like Grandpa did. Actually I go into town once a week now anyway. It does get cold here, but a lot of neighbors have horses and they seem to do fine.


34 posted on 11/21/2007 5:06:29 PM PST by RightWhale (anti-razors are pro-life)
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To: Islander7
I have a picture taken in the early 1900s of Highway 141 in Northern Wisconsin. What really stands out are the "road apples" all over the place.

That is something they haven't thought about. Horses are definitely not "emission-free"!

35 posted on 11/21/2007 5:09:17 PM PST by Redleg Duke ("All gave some, and some gave all!")
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To: ApplegateRanch

***Small problem: You can’t park a horse in the machine shed for the winter, after filling it with anti-freeze & draining the fuel tank.

You have to feed, water, and shovel every day, whether you’re using it or not.***

There FRENCH! After riding it they kill and eat it!


36 posted on 11/21/2007 5:15:18 PM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: Islander7

Horses probably exhale more CO2 then a car.


37 posted on 11/21/2007 5:33:20 PM PST by Hunterite
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To: Islander7

This is great. They can ride the horses to work (assuming that they’re not on strike) and then eat them for lunch.


38 posted on 11/21/2007 5:35:20 PM PST by Redcloak (This post certified 100% Hillary-free. um... Never mind.)
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To: ME-262

There are a few of us who know something about the economics of a horse culture, and its drawbacks. Those who have pipedreams aboout a green world need to think of New York’s situation in 1907, when the automobile was touted as a solution to the problem of waste etc. Alot of houses in New Jersey and Long Island, and all over the country will have to disappear to provide foder for these animals. But blacksmths and carriagemakers etc. will be back in business.


39 posted on 11/21/2007 5:46:15 PM PST by RobbyS ( CHIRHO)
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To: Islander7; OKSooner; honolulugal; Killing Time; Beowulf; Mr. Peabody; RW_Whacko; gruffwolf; ...

FReepmail me to get on or off


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Ping me if you find one I've missed.



40 posted on 11/21/2007 6:56:51 PM PST by xcamel (FDT/2008)
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