Working horses in developing countries bear enormous welfare burdens linked to human poverty.
Working horse welfare in developing countries is inseparable from human welfare. Horses that cannot work because of wounds, lameness, or exhaustion directly threaten the livelihoods of families who depend on them. Organizations like Brooke Global have demonstrated that welfare improvements — treating wounds, adjusting harnessing, improving nutrition — increase horse working life and productivity in ways that genuinely benefit owners. This creates natural alignment between welfare improvement and economic self-interest that makes programs sustainable. The scale of the problem — 100 million working horses — makes this one of the highest-impact areas in global animal welfare.