Free Horse Science Fair Projects

A lot of kids are interested in animals, and are particularly interested in horses. Horses inspire imaginations because of their speed, their majestic nature and because of their wild nature. If you are a horse lover and need to complete a science fair project then design a project around the science of horses. Below you will find two sample projects that you can complete.

Horse Communication

The first horse themed science fair project that you can complete will look at how horses communicate. To start with you will need to observe horses to get a feel for their communication style. You will look at their body language and at their vocalizations. Then you will need to make a prediction. This prediction will be your hypothesis.

HYPOTHESIS: Horses communicate aggression via wide eyes.

EXPERIMENT: To test this hypothesis you will need to observe horses interact with each other. You will want to particularly focus on the shape and eye lid position when horses are being aggressive or about to be aggressive. If you don’t have access to horses you can use documentaries on horses. You can rent these from your local public library or from the International Wildlife Media Center. You can also watch them on science channels or buy them online.

DATA: The data that you collect will be observations that you make during your field work. The data can come from direct observations made with live test subjects, or from observations made from documentary films. The analysis of your data will be looking for a relationship between physical changes made to the eyes and horse aggression.

Running Mechanics

Another aspect of horses that you can focus your science fair project on is the running mechanics of a horse. For this experiment you will need horses to observe and a video camera, or you will need documentary footage on horses running.

HYPOTHESIS: Horses conserve energy while running by establishing a running cadence.

EXPERIMENT: To test this hypothesis you will need to complete a two part experiment. First you will examine if horses produce a cadence when they are running distances. This cadence rhythm will then need to be recorded. The second step will be to have human runners compare the running cadence that they normally use to that of a horse. You will need several cross country runners for this experiment. First have them run the mile like they would normally run it. You will time them and film them. Next you will teach the horse running cadence to them and have them repeat their one mile run. Again you will film them and time them.

DATA: The data that you will collect will include running cadence rhythms from horses, and one mile times from your human test subjects. The analysis of your data will look at the differences between the normal human running cadence and the horse running cadence. Was their a difference?