SED 695B; Fall 2005
Research Question:
Do horse hooves grow faster with or without shoes?
Assistants:
Chelsea and Charlie Brown
Standards addressed:
Investigation
and Experimentation
Standard #9 a - g
- 15 shod horses or ponies
- 15 shoeless horses or ponies
- metric ruler
- log book
- permanent marker
Obtain permission
from horse owner to mark the two front hooves
Using a permanent marker,
draw a line across the top of each front hoof as shown
Record horse's name and
shoe situation
Remeasure the growth in
millimeters every two weeks
Continue to record data
for six months
Darken marks as they fade
- Making a heavy mark at the base of the coronary band
- The mark needed to be darkened several times
- Measuring the growth in millimeters
Conclusion: This experiment showed
that there was no difference in hoof growth between shod and shoeless
horses.
However, the results were surprising in that the hoof growth seemed
to be most dependent on the season.
That is, the warmer the season the more hoof growth.