Working horses in developing countries provide essential livelihoods for millions of families while facing welfare challenges from overwork, inadequate veterinary care, and poor nutritional resources.
Working equid welfare in developing countries involves welfare challenges of scale and equity that differ fundamentally from companion animal welfare in wealthy nations. Horses, donkeys, and mules essential for family livelihoods must work despite injury and illness because their owners lack both resources for veterinary care and alternatives to equid labor for transport and agriculture. The resulting chronic overwork, untreated harness wounds, and inadequate nutrition causes significant suffering across millions of animals. The welfare improvement pathway requires not simply providing veterinary care but developing sustainable models that equid-dependent communities can access and maintain — training local farriers, improving harness design to prevent wounds, building veterinary capacity, and providing sustainable feed resources. Organizations like the Brooke operate at this community level, achieving welfare improvements that veterinary intervention alone cannot.