
One of the ways to address this gender gap is to develop strategies that motivate and empower girls to believe they can do math; what better way to do that than through a passion many girls share – horses.
It is well known in the horse world that far more girls than boys are involved in horse sports, associations, and clubs, with the exceptions being horse racing and rodeo.
Horse Lover’s Math shows the real world connection between horses and math. In Horse Lover’s Math they are not separate subjects, but one and the same. Horses provide the real life context and motivation to know math.
When riders are walking the course before a jumping competition, they are doing math. Each stride they take is 3ft. An average horses’ canter stride is 9 – 12 ft. As they walk, the riders are making mathematical calculations, determining how many strides their horse will take between jumps, what the best angle of approach will be for each jump and assessing the height and width of every obstacle.

Keeping a horse healthy requires knowledge about their physical condition. Knowing how to check their heart rate can be a valuable skill. This can be done quickly and easily if you know math. Count the number of heartbeats in 15 seconds and multiply that number by 4 to obtain the horse’s heartbeats per minute.