Keeping Bruges Horse Poop Free

One of the less endearing aspects of Bruges was the tourist carriage rides.  They come flying down the narrow roads and alleys, CLIPPITY-CLOPPETY-CLIPPITY-CLOPPETY, and you have to dive out of the way — onto sidewalks that are already crowded — to avoid being run over by a big, sweaty, smelly beast.  My advice: if you want the quaint experience of getting around the way people used to hundreds of years ago, try walking.

Eventually, we started to wonder, all these horses – and there are a LOT of these horses and carriages running around Bruges – but no horse crap.  How’s that work?  We figured they must use horse diapers.

But it turns out the answer is a clever device, a sort of crap-catcher.  They attach it to the rear of the animal and it collects the payload in a little pouch at the bottom.  Must be fun to empty that at the end of the day.

Still, a clever invention.  Unlike a horse diaper, it’s hard to spot.