Traditionally, Brooke uses teaching as its main method of education. Advising
owners and showing videos about the importance of water or good farriery practice
have significantly helped to spread the welfare message. In India, however, working
animals are so widely distributed over a vast area that it would be impossible for the
Brooke to provide this kind of education to more than a dozen isolated communities
of equine owners. Our new approach to equine welfare is guided by the animals’
owners. Talking to the owners about their problems and their needs means that the
solutions are also identified by the owners and are more likely to be successful than
if we gave them the answers.

Patwari village in India is a tiny huddle of mud huts housing the local brick kiln workers
and their animals. With support and guidance, Brooke encouraged the villagers to get
involved in the building of a shade shelter and water trough for their animals. Within two
weeks they had cleared the mud and sewage, installed a drainage channel, built a
large water trough with pump and completed a 20ft shade shelter using bricks donated
from their own kiln. The gratitude of the villagers was overwhelming. One woman was
so overjoyed that she wanted to adopt us into her family! They will proudly cherish their
work as well as their animals, whose lives they, themselves, have transformed.