The draft animal population -- the vast majority of which were horses and mules -- grew six-fold between 1840 and 1900, from four to twenty-four million. By 1900, there was one horse or mule for every three humans in the United States. The majority worked in cities, particularly in agriculture and transportation.
With the rise of the internal combustion engine, the number of horses drastically declined from six million in 1960 to 1.5 million by 2021 in the US. The remaining 10 million horses are mostly kept as pets or used in competitions.
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