About 20 horses are available at the market between 4pm and 11pm for joyrides around the parking lot for Rs15-Rs30 a trip. Generally, the children are not content with one trip.

Most of the horse owners belong to Murree. During the tourist season, beginning in April, they go back to their native town to return to Lahore in October. Others are locals.

For each horse, the owner makes between Rs200 and Rs300 a day on weekdays and close to between Rs500 and Rs600 on weekends. Of this, Rs100 is spent on feeding the horse. Another Rs100 must be paid to the traders’ committee for the use of parking lot.

The horses are also hired for weddings. “There are many people who hire buggs for the bride and other horses for her close relatives or friends to give a traditional colour to the baraat,” the horse-owners say.

The charges for an evening range between Rs400 and Rs600. Tips are accepted happily.

Some local schools, too, hire the horses on special occasions. But the number of such schools is limited.

Imtiaz, a horse-owner who belongs to Murree, says that most of them have been in this business for the last 35 years. “But the business has not grown as we had expected,” he says. He attributes the slow growth in business to being confined to Liberty.

“We did try to promote horse-riding in other parts of the city some five years ago. It did not work. Minar-i-Pakistan was somewhat better, but we had to quit that place due to extortion by local thugs,” he says.

The horse-owners say most traders consider them a nuisance, and, thus, are determined to remove them from the market. “It’s not true. Our presence gives them extra business as many people visit Liberty from far off places just to give a good time to their children. In the process they buy things they could otherwise get from some shop or market elsewhere,” says Nisar.