This year (2024) has been a challenging one for the World Horse Welfare Field Officer team.
A significant rise in the number of welfare incidents involving large groups of horses needing help, has led to the delivery of a multi-solution based service.
In 2024 (as of November) World Horse Welfare dealt with 157 situations where the owner involved had more than 10 horses deemed to be at risk, a 44% increase from 2023 when the number was 109.
The number of welfare situations involving owners with more than 50 horses reported to be at risk has nearly doubled from 2023 to 2024.
This is significant because when large groups of horses come into the care of World Horse Welfare, they fill up the charity’s rescue and rehoming centres, and it also puts pressure on the Field Officer team.
The charity has 16 Field Officers, located throughout England, Scotland and Wales who often work in teams to enable the safe round up of large groups of unhandled horses.
Consequently, World Horse Welfare has had to invest in more equipment such as trailers and large horse-safe panels to help with these roundups.
These tools are vital for building corrals to be able to mobilise the horses and facilitate their transportation out of these situations.
I believe we are seeing more horse owners unable to cope through not being able to adapt quickly enough to the climatic challenges such as warmer, wetter winters. These are having a huge impact on their land which puts strain on their own management practices and on top of this everything has become so much more expensive.
“High stocking density can lead to quagmires with no dry resting areas to escape the mud which leads to foot and skin problems.
“It becomes harder to safely navigate moving around your horses to provide routine care or even spot the issues in the first place. So, we see unchecked breeding and youngstock going unhandled. On top of this, paid help is hard to keep as the working conditions are too unpleasant and so situations spiral further until we are called.”
World Horse Welfare Chief Field Officer Claire Gordon.
World Horse Welfare has responded to these challenges with the launch of its Help for Horse Owners support service.
The aim of this ‘first of its kind’ scheme is to reach people before their ability to cope compromises the care they can provide to their horses and themselves.
We also have an aging population in the UK, alongside a greater awareness of how our mental health can affect our ability to provide care for our animals. It is often on these large-scale rescues that we find not only the horses living in poor environments but also too, their struggling owners.
“We have lost count of the number of people we have helped when they have nowhere else to turn and are often at their lowest ebb. They usually are so grateful and report back that they wished they had known sooner that we existed and that they would have asked for help earlier if only they had known.
“We hope that by highlighting this rising trend, we can reach more of the people who are struggling now, so they know a channel exists to seek help from, without judgement.
“I hope the people around those individuals – be that veterinary professional, farriers or the individual’s family, friends and neighbours – know that we have a confidential channel they can reach us too, where supportive, skilled assistance can be found to help the owner tackle whatever equine problems they have.”
Claire Gordon
To find out more about the scheme click HERE.
