World Horse Welfare’s Help for Horse Owners support scheme tackles growing welfare issues

2024 has been a particularly tough year for the World Horse Welfare Field Officer team.

A notable increase in welfare cases involving large groups of horses has prompted the introduction of a multi-solution service.

As of November 2024, World Horse Welfare has handled 157 cases where owners had more than 10 horses at risk, marking a 44% rise from 2023, when 109 such cases were reported.

The number of cases involving more than 50 horses at risk has nearly doubled from 2023 to 2024.

This is significant because when large groups of horses come into World Horse Welfare’s care, it fills up the charity’s rescue and rehoming centres, placing added pressure on the Field Officer team.

The charity has 16 Field Officers spread across England, Scotland, and Wales, who often work together to safely round up large groups of unhandled horses.

As a result, World Horse Welfare has had to invest in more equipment such as trailers and large horse-safe panels to assist with these roundups.

These tools are essential for building corrals to help mobilise the horses and facilitate their transport from these situations.

World Horse Welfare Chief Field Officer Claire Gordon said: “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 has responded to these challenges by launching its Help for Horse Owners support service.

The aim of this pioneering scheme is to reach people before their ability to cope affects the care they can provide to their horses and themselves.

Claire added: “We also have an ageing 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.” 

For more information, visit worldhorsewelfare.org