Horses observed in science fair project

Question
Hi!  I see you have a lot of expertise with horses, and I was wondering if you could answer this question for me.  My son is a junior this year in High School and has to turn in info for what he will be doing his science fair project on.  Last year, he did, "Are cats right or left pawed?"  Our 4 cats took part in this.  My neighbor has 4 horses and we talked all along about how cute it would be if my son had her 4 horses as the science fair project for this year.  However, my son of course doesn't want to do something that would be girlish since it is very common for girls to be riding and showing horses.

So, I'm wondering if there could be something interesting that could be observed between the 4 horses to be used on this project.  They are all now enjoying the pasture you could say, as my neighbor doesn't ride anymore.  In fact, it has been a few years.  One horse is 30 years old, one is 15, and the other two are around 10.  One of the 10 year olds is a mare, and the other 3 are geldings.  These factors might make a difference that could be noted during the study.

Any ideas would be great.  It will be cold during study time since we live in NJ.  This would make it hard to be outside with the horses for a long period of time as my son will be frozen.  Maybe if it was observing something each day for two weeks or something like that, it would be much better.  Thanks so much.

Answer
hi patty,
this is a great question. your son should not be embarrassed about doing a project on horses. there are a lot of cowboys out there and real men ride horses. lol. i did a science fair project on horses in middle school as well.mine was what hay do horses like best. this isn't a very challenging project though cause all horses like alfalfa the best because its sweet. another project you can do is on the difference between a mares behavior in a herd and a geldings behavior. usually the mare is more dominant. or you can do a project on Determine the peripheral vision of horse. this is basically the horses range of sight. or you can do hoof growth. There are different hoof application products out there - rainmaker, hooflex, etc. he could do four different products on four different hooves and see which one has the fastest hoof growth. i hope these ideas interest you. i wish the best to you and your son. let me know how it goes. if you need any more help let me know!
amanda