# Horsey science fair projects?



## amightytarzan5

Hey guys! I haven't been on in a while! Our school science fair is rolling around, and I need some project ideas. I'm either going to do something with horses or with my dog. Any ideas are appreciated! I have a few of my own, but I'd love you guys' input too!


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## Gingerrrrr

do horse see in color?


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## amightytarzan5

That's pretty cool, but how would I experiment that?

Also guys, I'd rather stay away from things like "Which food is better" or "Which flyspray rejects more flies". I'd like to stay on higher level things. Something about training would be cool.

I also have a 3-year-old Beagle that I could do an experiment with. That's my back-up if I can't think of any horse thing.


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## mell

2 years ago i did a project on what colour water buckets horses prefer. you know those big plastic ones? yeah i would mark each bucket in litres on the outside and put each colour (i had 3) in a round yard with a horse for 24 hours, with feed and all of course, but no excersise. Then record the amount the horse drank from each bucket. I did this with about 5 horses, then graphed the results.

just an idea


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## amightytarzan5

That's pretty cool too, but I kinda want something in training. I also don't know if I could leave the horse in the arena for 24 hours. I might be able to put them in the outdoor arena...

Keep 'em coming guys!


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## claireauriga

How about the efficiency of a horse's digestive system? Measure food and water in, poo out, estimate urination and sweat, and see how much of their food is actually absorbed by their body ... I guess you can't really weigh the horse but you could still gather that an awful lot of their food comes out of the other end.


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## sempre_cantando

I'm not sure about almightytarzan, but I know I wouldn't like to do an experiment that involved examining poop lol


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## claireauriga

Yeah, but it's actually a bit more, you know, scientific ^^

We don't do science fairs over here and I appreciate that the kind of experiment required by them is perhaps different to what one would conduct in a lab, but the same principles should apply. At the very least, don't just observe a behavioural trait. Observe it and ask yourself _why_ that trait is present. Otherwise it's just diary-keeping, not something approaching actual science.

Make predictions. Collect data properly. Analyse and evaluate your findings.


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## amightytarzan5

I like these ideas y'all! Do you think that measuring the heart rate of a horse and a pony at the different gaits would be cool? It was just something I came up with after seeing a picture.


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## claireauriga

My questions would be:

- why are you measuring the heart rates? What are you hoping to achieve?
- what would your predictions be?
- what explanations would you have for your prediction, and are you able to draw appropriate conclusions?


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## Dumas'_Grrrl

There are some really good websites about a horse's field of vision. I think that the vision of a horse would make a great science project. Especially since what a horse sees isn't transferred to the other side of it's body.

The charts could be very colorful, You can put pictures of up close horse eyes. 

I'm trying to picture the finished product and what not. Are you going to use the tri-folded cardboard thingys for your project? I think that you could find some really neat info on this and it would be fairly simple yet really informative since a lot of people don't understand how a horse sees things.


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## horsey*kisses

you said something with training....thast a tough one i dont know lol maybe something with the different ways horses react to people movements like if one movement means something offensive to them and another doesnt not sure if that made sense but yea lol

the heart rate actually sounds really cool lol


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## RusticWildFire

The first thing I thought of when I read your first thing is maybe something about how much bigger their lungs are than ours..like how much air they can hold. Not sure how you'd do it exactly but that seemed kinda cool to me..like you could measure it at different gates - like the heart rate thing.. but then after reading the rest I'm not so sure this is the direction you want to go in. Otherwise...maybe how long it takes to teach a horse certain things. Maybe try and teach him a few different things working on each for 10 minutes at a time and see which one takes the longest to teach.
OR see what works better for teaching the horse..treats as rewards vs release of pressure/praising as a reward...


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## luvs2ride1979

A girl I boarded with once did a 30 or 60 day study to see which supplement made a horse's coat shinier, corn oil, flax oil, rice bran, or one of the "coat supplements" you can buy. She took before pictures and then pictures every week. She bathed each horse with the same shampoo before each photo, and each horse was the same color and about the same kind of coat. It was actually pretty interesting! The Flax Oil worked the best in her "study".


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## luvs2ride1979

amightytarzan5 said:


> I like these ideas y'all! Do you think that measuring the heart rate of a horse and a pony at the different gaits would be cool? It was just something I came up with after seeing a picture.


You could do that to measure a horse's fitness level. Hypothesize that a horse that had a lower body condition score (and you could bring the Heneke scale into it) will have a lower heart rate and a quicker recover than a horse with a higher score. You would need to do the same exercise for each horse, and use at least 4 horses in your test. In the results, include the whole horse profile including age, height, weight, breed, condition score, diet, and normal activity level.


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## HrsGrl323

I once did a science project about how dirty a horses mouth is. All I did was swab a horse kept at pasture, a horse kept in the barn, and me as a control, then made knox gelatin and swabbed it. kept it in a dark place and counted bacteria colonies every week.


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## amightytarzan5

Thanks for all your ideas guys! I have decided. Actually, there are 3 that I'm contemplating.

1. The difference between a horse and pony's heart rate

2. Can horses distinguish color?

and 

3. Which form of praise best motivates a horse to learn: food or love?

Y'all can tell me which one sounds the best. If you want to tell me something to tweak the experiment slightly, that's cool, but I'd like to choose between these three.


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## amightytarzan5

Thanks for all your ideas guys! I have decided. Actually, there are 3 that I'm contemplating.

1. The difference between a horse and pony's heart rate

2. Can horses distinguish color?

and 

3. Which form of praise best motivates a horse to learn: food or love?

Y'all can tell me which one sounds the best. If you want to tell me something to tweak the experiment slightly, that's cool, but I'd like to choose between these three.


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## claireauriga

Number one, absolutely, _if_ you make your conclusion more than just 'horses have faster heartbeats'. You have to think about why and offer explanations and interpretations.

The second one is difficult to actually set up in any kind of reliable fashion and the third one would just have an evaluation made up of 'results are unreliable because ...'


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## amightytarzan5

With all due respect, I'm not trying to make some huge scientific discovery here. I'm just trying to get a good grade. 

I also have another idea: Does breed affect a horse's capacity to learn? Or something like that.


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## Dumas'_Grrrl

I hope I'm not pushing the vision thing too hard but that's why I suggested it. 1) it' s interesting 2) Not many folks realize how differently a horse sees 3) the graphs would be outstanding which usually = a good grade. 

Not only did I have to do this in school, but I have made 3 projects with my kids in the past 2 years  

You don't want something so complicated that no one understands it, and you don't want something really boring either. 

Plus you don't want to work super duper extra hard when it's not necessary....****.....I'm not suggeting you be lazy but I know how the school work piles up when you have a project like this.

Whatever you choose I wish you good luck and at least a B+ :wink:


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## claireauriga

But surely a good grade requires some reasonably decent science?  The main issue with something to do with learning is that you simply have way too many variables. Make a list of all the things that could affect a horse's capacity to learn - I'll get you started:

- age
- breed
- prior handling and treatment
- spookiness of horse
- horse's own particular talents

There's lots more. Are you able to keep _every single variable_ constant apart from the one you want to change? No way, not unless you somehow have access to the entire horse population of America or can raise a herd yourself and have the appropriate controls.

Something like the heart rate you can control far better, making sure that the horses have had the same amount of exercise that day, acknowledging varying levels of fitness in your evaluation, and so on.


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## amightytarzan5

I'll decide on what I can do once I get the information back from the people that own the barn where I ride. I am going to use their horses and ponies.

There's going to be something "wrong" with every experiment I do. Like, the horses are kept out in the pasture during the day, so the horse I use might have been running around more than the pony I use. 



> You could do that to measure a horse's fitness level. Hypothesize that a horse that had a lower body condition score (and you could bring the Heneke scale into it) will have a lower heart rate and a quicker recover than a horse with a higher score. You would need to do the same exercise for each horse, and use at least 4 horses in your test. In the results, include the whole horse profile including age, height, weight, breed, condition score, diet, and normal activity level.


I like this idea though. That's kinda what you were talking about, right, claireauriga?


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## claireauriga

That one's a good idea too. You have a hypothesis, you can test it, and you can draw conclusions from it. You would also be able to produce a detailed evaluation. And you're testing variables that you can actually measure.


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## amightytarzan5

YEA! I think I found my experiment! Thanks guys!


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## claireauriga

Brilliant! Things you should look to include - though I don't know just what a science fair asks for:

- introduction/summary
- background information/theory, just to set out the context of what you're doing. It doesn't have to be long
- hypothesis/prediction, which isn't just what you think will happen but why you think it will happen
- results, neatly tabulated
- appropriate graphs, charts or tables of data
- conclusions, which are what you found out and why you think things are the way they are
- evaluation, where you should consider how precise your measurements are, how reliable they are, and so how reliable (trustworthy) your conclusions are. Absolutely do not be afraid to point out the limitations of your experiment; it's a mark of a good scientist and essential for proper investigation


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## amightytarzan5

Yeah, my science teacher gave me a packet of all that needs to be on it. I'll post pictures and everything as soon as I start!


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