Suggestion??

Question

I need to do an expo for school, I want to do it about horses, I have two horses but I have to do an experiment, Plz help!!! THANKS

Answer 1

If you have the harnesses, you could show how horsepower is determined.

I think it's like 550lbs being picked off the ground via pulleys.

Answer 2

can  you make a math problem out of it?  perhaps the average distance they stand apart using some sampling scheme (top of the hour) assuming they are in the same "area" - this is kinda cool, cause you need to set up a grid somehow, then just make a note of their locations each time - then use a spreadsheet to calc the distances, average distance, std deviation, etc....

make a note if they are eating/sleeping - these may be special cases in the distribution (making it bimodal with an additional independant variable) like time-of-day

this works out well, because it has lots of experimental design work (the grid, sampling plan, additional notes) and you'll need to do some calculations based on your observations, and they may need to be stratified.

also makes nice results graphs/charts....they eat that up.

i would then look at game theory, and write a little spreadsheet that randomly put down two horses on the grid, and observe their averages - then you can make a conclusion if the horses stand closer or further away then a random game would predict.....oh this is getting good!  I see an A coming....

Answer 3

i think horses have  a blind spot - they see things in front of them till they get to close and it disappears ,I'm sure they don't see a jump as they start the jump. something to do with the position of their eyes.can you do something with prisms etc. to find out how far in front "blind spot" is

Answer 4

sorry...my brain blew when I read over the other suggestions...WOW! You guys rock!

Answer 5

The brains of most mammals are split into two equal parts with a band of connective tissue running between them. This is known as the corpus collosum. This allows both sides of the brain to communicate with one another. The two exceptions to this brain design are the horse and the opossum. In both mammals, each side of the brain functions completely independantly of the other side.

Humans have a corpus collosum but in some instances, it is severed for medical reasons. This leads to some very interesting experiments on how the brain controls the body. In humans, the speech center is located mostly on one side of the brain. Patients whose corpus collum had been severed were shown a picture of an object, but only in one eye. If the eye was controlled by the area of the brain with the speech center, they could name the object. If not, they could not name the object, but they still recognized what it was.

Horses have far simpler brains than people, but it might be possible to teach a simple trick and then use ordinary blinders to see how well the horse preforms using either eye. If the horse is used to wearing blinders, this ought to be completely natural for the horse, but be aware the animal is apt to cheat by swinging its head around for a peek if it feels it is not preforming as well using only 1 eye. If done properly, I think this is an activity which will be educational and also something interesting for the horse to do, if only because it is getting treats.

Training any animal is possible but one needs a lot of patience and most importantly, consistancy. Horses have a big heart, but a small brain. They are very enthuiastic but also tend to become impatient sometimes. I believe the one thing they like least is inconsistancy in a trainer.