In developing countries, working horses, donkeys, and mules are most often used for heavy labor, whether it be hauling heavy loads of cargo or carrying tourists up and down a mountain.

The animals might be suffering from malnourishment, dehydration, disease, lameness, or injury. Rest and recovery is often not a practical option. The animals have no choice but to continue working despite poor environmental or health conditions, as the livelihoods of their impoverished owners depend on the steady work they do.

Charlotte Burn, MSc, DPhil, of The Royal Veterinary College, together with The University of Bristol and The Brooke Hospital for Animals, UK, has been studying the welfare of working equines. Burn recently shared some of her research results in the Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare Animal Behaviour and Welfare Seminar Series.

The good news is that many of the welfare problems faced by working equines are treatable and even preventable. This is where Burn's work comes in. Her aim is to identify practical, sustainable solutions and interventions to the various problems, assess their effectiveness, and ultimately have the best solutions applied by equine owners themselves