01x05 - Horsing Around
Posted: 01/01/24 11:56
[girls] ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S
[Izzie] ♪ We need you
[girls] ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S
[Izzie] ♪ Come on!
♪ When I need help, and I've got a question ♪
♪ there's a place I go for inspiration ♪
♪ Gotta get to the Web, check the girls' investigation ♪
♪ What girls?
♪ SciGirls!
Whoo!
[girls] ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S
[Izzie] ♪ I need you!
[girls] ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S
[Izzie] ♪ Come on!
♪ You've gotta log on, post,
♪ upload, pitch in! Yeah!
♪ Wanna get inside a world that's fascinating? ♪
♪ The time is right 'cause SciGirls are waiting, ♪
[girls] ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S
[Izzie] ♪ We need you!
[girls] ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S
[Izzie] ♪ SciGirls!!
Okay Jake, prepare yourself
because today is a big day.
Come on, Jake, don't you want to know why?
I guess. [chuckles]
Jake, today I'm deciding who to ask to the Sadie Hawkins Dance.
Oh!
Oh!
I know, I know, but after last year's disaster, I...
Yeah, too bad Drew
didn't know you were allergic to lilacs.
But that was the most awesome
full page spread in the yearbook ever. [laughs]
Oh! [sighs]
There's gotta be a better way to find a date.
Well, just so you know, Iz,
there are only guys left without dates, Kevin...
Yeah.
...and... yours truly!
You're kidding, right?
No need to beg, Iz.
Oh, you mean I have to decide between you and Kevin?
SciGirls, I need you!
♪ ♪
Whoo-hoo!
♪ ♪
Hmm. Nope.
Hmm, horses and measuring cups?!
Eh, I don't think so.
What?
Maybe there is something here after all.
Now you guys know a bunch about horses. Which one's which?
Jet's a quarter horse.
Jet has socks. He's right there.
The horses here are just so calm and nice
that you don't have to worry about it when you get on them.
I just tell all these horses by their faces.
I think I want a clam horse.
Oh I love the one on the ground! Who's that?
[Morgan] We're helping Madeleine right now.
We'd like to see her find a horse
that is good for her and that she likes a lot.
[Madeleine] And the last time I rode Ruby, who was my horse,
she tried to buck me off, and it wasn't fun.
Which one do you think is best for me?
[Morgan] You want to look for one that's probably a smoother horse
because we don't want you to bounce off of the horse.
[Madeleine] There are so many different horses that I could choose from
to ride, and they all have different personalities
and different stride lengths, whether they're bouncy
or smoother, and so I want to find the perfect horse
for me to ride in the egg and spoon competition
that we're going to be doing.
So I hope the other girls can help me pick the perfect horse.
There's gotta be one of them that I can ride.
♪ ♪
[Morgan] So Madeleine, how is Ruby today?
She's been acting kind of weird, like that.
[Madeleine] We're going to try to turn this into a fun science experiment
since I haven't been riding for a while.
We don't want a bouncy ride, we want a smoother ride,
and so we're trying to figure out which horse would be
best scientifically to be the smoothest ride.
I just redid my room probably a couple weeks ago.
Now the horses are in their places.
I think I'm going to learn a bunch just, I don't know,
because being around horses
you can learn a lot-- being around anything.
You learn new things every day,
so I think I'm going to learn a lot today,
and I'm not even doing schoolwork,
or any kind of work for my brain.
I'm just going to learn stuff about horses.
All right, thank you!
Dr. Beck is a veterinarian, and she is going to be
a mentor for our science experiment.
I'm listening at both sides, then also while I was listening
I got a heart rate too on her.
[Madeleine] I've been going once a month
on Thursday after school,
and if I get my homework done
and I don't have other activities,
to go and shadow her.
Madeleine, I have a little surprise for you.
Oh my gosh!
We have some very hungry kittens,
they're about -/ to weeks old.
We are going to be feeding them. [Izzie] Kitties!
[Madeleine] I get to go in the room, and I just sit back and watch.
[Izzie] Hey little kitty.
I'm gonna pick up you, you're the runt,
I like runts. [the kitty meows]
Sometimes they're puppies, and sometimes they're kittens
that sometimes are sick, and she knows a bunch about animals.
So this is probably when I was about your age,
and I did used to show Western Pleasure.
[Madeleine] I kind of took a little break
and now I'm starting to ride again,
and my friends and I
are going to pick out a horse like, scientifically.
So we do a couple experiments, and then we're going
to pick out the smoothest horse for me to ride in the show.
Oh! You should see Liz
over at the University of Minnesota equine center.
[Madeleine] If we have a question, she's going to help us,
and she'll be really great with answering them
because she has a horse of her own, and she's a vet.
[Morgan] I'm so excited about this.
[Amanda] I know. Oh my gosh, me too.
[Zoe] We can see all the horses and what breeds they have?
[Morgan] We went to the Leatherdale Equine Center,
and we just learned all this great stuff
with this nd-year vet student Liz.
[Morgan] So are these sick horses or...?
[Liz] Most horses that come here are for lameness.
So if they're sore somewhere and we need to figure out
what it is, that's usually what they come here for.
And then we can do other stuff on here!
When I first saw Sierra on the treadmill running,
the first time I saw it, I was kind of like whoa,
I've never seen this before. This is really cool.
[Izzie] Giddyup little horsey!
Izzie's comin' down the stretch, she takes the lead.
It's Izzie by a nose!
[Zoe] They put the horse on the treadmill
to help them gain muscle and to take their heart rate.
They told us about getting them on there.
It's kind of like so why would a horse want to go on there?
[Liz] Well, it's hard at first,
but we always walk them forward through first
so that they get the idea of moving forward on the treadmill.
And we'll start up slowly and get them to learn to walk.
[Madeleine] What's that strap for?
[Liz] That is actually going to monitor her heart rate.
So it's a way we can monitor a horse while they're working,
because otherwise it's pretty hard to run a horse, stop them,
try to take a reading, and get it just perfect.
So it was pretty cool when this came out.
Could we borrow the heart monitor for our research?
That'd be good because then
we could figure out on our own what's going on here.
Sure. The first thing we do is bring them through these doors,
and it's nice and bright and open
so the horses want to come in.
[Madeleine] There was so much information that we learned
and so little time to learn it in.
It's good I took notes because I don't remember.
I was writing stuff down and then looking up.
Someone else would ask the question.
I was like no wait, I'm not done writing!
This room right here is the one
where we'll actually put the horse under anesthesia.
We put the horse in here... [Madeleine] I'm the horse.
...where Madeleine is, then you're starting to get sleepy.
So we're going to put this up against you,
and this helps you support.
Then we take them right into surgery.
Put their little ears through here, put their eyes right here,
and so this is just like a padded protection
so they won't hit their head or anything like that.
We have this air mattress.
This will keep them from standing up real fast.
[Izzie] Wow-wee! Horses sure have a great life in this hospital!
I'm gonna go down. Oh my gosh! [all laugh]
[Madeleine] Liz explained conformation
and how it affects the stride of a horse,
then she taped the horse into sections.
[Liz] The shoulder section, their midsection,
and their hind section.
You can measure the different quarters that they have,
and if they're proportionate, then that's better.
[Liz] This section right here
is kind of about this section right here,
but I'd say that his middle section here
is quite a bit longer.
I'll let you guys figure out if
that might be smoother movement or bouncier movement.
Thanks for coming out, guys. It was a lot of fun.
[Izzie] Hey, let's go visit the Website!
[SciGirls] ♪ Push the button. Push, push the button. ♪
♪ Girls, girls, girls!
I think we should upload this one on there.
That would be a really good picture of it.
Yeah, I think that'll definitely work.
Where would you like to go on vacation?
A cabin in the woods, a tropical island, a big city,
an amusement park, or a foreign country?
Amusement park with roller coasters.Always!
[both laugh] Yes!
[Izzie] Ooh, I want to see Morgan and Zoe's profiles.
I'm Morgan.I'm Zoe.
And we're at softball practice.
[Zoe] Morgan, she is one of my best friends for sure.
This is one of my cats Lilly.
This is my desk where I do my homework every day,
and that's a horseshoe from Spirit.
I'm always in the kitchen when I'm at home.
[Zoe] Morgan was on the Horse Bowl team in our -H group.
She knows a lot about horses.
I think she's going to be a lot of help.
My favorite color would have to be probably pink.
Hey, mine too!
This is the tack area.
I would describe him as a gentle, kind, loving horse.
That, I usually call happy ears.
Nothing complicated. All fun.
And that's pretty much it.
Bye.
It's really cold out today.
Very windy and very cold.
So we need to pick out a horse for Madeleine.
Maybe we could pick out .
Over there, there's Cody, Tally, and Sage.
I don't know if she's quite at that level yet.
Well, back there is Penny. [Izzie] Hi Penny.
[Zoe] She'd be a great horse. She's really calm.
[Morgan] What about Gammon? [Zoe] He'd be a great choice.
He has nice gait. [Morgan] I know.
Gait is the different speed
and sequence of footfalls the horses take.
The gaits are walk, trot, cantor, gallop.
[Izzie] Walk, trot, cantor, gallop.
Got it!
[Zoe] Justin could be a good horse to use.
[Morgan] Yeah, he's a little defensive.
I think they'd be really good because they're all really calm horses,
but they've all got enough energy that they'd be able to do it.
[Zoe] And she can control all of them. [Morgan] Yeah.
[Madeleine] We have to pick a couple topics that we want to do
for our test, or for testing and experiments.
[Izzie] Now we're talkin'!
Tests for potential dates.
I think for sure we should do the tape thing
that Liz was showing us, taping off different sections,
then taping where the bones were...
...and the shoulder, then the bones and the butt.
[Izzie] Yeah, I think that's a good test.
Conformation is body structure, right?
Yeah. Yes.Just checking.
That would be good because that shows how smooth of a ride,
because I can't ride the horse
before we're going to make it all scientific.
[Zoe] Well, another test that we could do from a riding basis
to see how smooth they are is if you have a glass of water,
you fill it up to the top, and then you have to do walk, trot,
and cantor, and you try not to spill any water.
The smoother the horse, the less water you spill.
[Izzie] Ooh, I like that one!
I think I could use that!
[Morgan] What about also doing heart rate, just looking at that,
and then seeing a respiratory with cantering
just to see how fit the horse is?
[Zoe] If we were going to test the stride,
it would be very, very hard to test
just because we would have to get a ruler out
and somehow measure their stride
as they're walking and trotting.
[Morgan] What if the arena was dragged, because if they drag the arena,
then you wouldn't see any of the hoof marks there.
So then if you had them going around, then you'd be able
to measure just by the marks in the arena.
[Izzie] Yeah, that's a good idea!
I'm really excited to see who you pick!
Hi. I'm Amanda, and this is my room.
The first show I went to,
I actually got th in the Western Pleasure Event.
My cell phone, which I could not live without.
I'm really glad I do horseback riding because if you're
having a really bad day, the horse makes you happy.
You can just go spend time with your horse,
and they just make you feel a lot better.
This is the event. what are we going to call it, the water...?
The water glass test.
I'll hop on each of the horses we've picked out.
[Izzie] Okay, it's Gammon, Justin, and Penny.
I'll ride at each gait, and after I do each gait
we'll see how much water is in the cup.
[Morgan] So you'll have points when you start.
When you lose water, it decreases.
Okay, how much water is it going to be filled to?
milliliters.
Now you're going to trot.
[Izzie] Here we go!
[Zoe laughs] I'm wet!
[Morgan] milliliters, which is points.
[Zoe laughs] Better than one!
Here we go. Let's try not to spill any, Penny, bet we can do it.
Ready, good luck.
[Madeleine] The water test took a lot of time to do
'cause you had to keep filling it up,
then we had to think of how we were going to score that.
When Zoe does it so low, not as much water can spill.
The first way we did it didn't work.
I think we should really refill it after each gait
because if you think about it,
if the walk is a really active walk
and she drops almost all of it, like I just did, if she drops
like, all of it and it goes down to after the walk,
we won't know or have accurate results at the trot and cantor.
So we should refill it after each one
so that we can get accurate results.
[Izzie] More water, better dancer. Works for me.
[Zoe makes loud clicking sound]
[Morgan] So a total of points so far. So I'm going to go refill it.
[Madeleine] Oh, that time she had more
than she did last time though, I'm pretty sure.
Three points.
I'll go fill this up again. Why don't you get on Justin.
[Madeleine] All right, now you can take it off.
I know you're kind of grumpy.
You said, "I've been here all day."
[Morgan] Then we tested the walk, trot, and cantor on Justin.
I think Justin's going to be the bounciest.
points.
I'm going to go refill this.
This is the trot with Justin.
Trot. [clicking]
[SciGirls laugh]
[Morgan] He's not liking that.
[Madeleine] I don't think he likes the water splashing around.
[Amanda] He doesn't like the water splashing around at all.
[Zoe] You're okay right here.
[Madeleine] All right, that's a zero.
I don't think that's even .
Well, we can count it as
that was a zero for Justin's trot.
This is the cantor with Justin.
This horse is very bony and very bumpy.
[Morgan] She wants to buck!
Yeah, I can tell that he wants to buck.
[Zoe] Better not buck me.
Yep, that's points, which is milliliters.
So it's better than his trot.
I think Gammon is going to be the bounciest.
Oh my gosh, he's wide!
Yeah, he's like a big sofa!
[Zoe] He's a big horse, he's a big sweetie. [Morgan] He is.
[Amanda] Okay, the walk on Gammon.
[Morgan] So does he feel smooth right now?
[Zoe] He does feel very smooth right now.
Gammon, I thought would be the bumpiest ride.
It doesn't look like it will be, but that's what I thought.
So that's about points.
[Madeleine] This is the lowest by far.
[Morgan] So for the trot we've got
about milliliters, which is points.
[Izzie] Go Gammon, go!
milliliters, which is points.
What we've established now is, Gammon out of
the horses is by far the smoothest.
[Izzie] Go Gammon!
So here are pictures of my horse
when I was probably your age, so he's about now.
[Amanda] Did you always want to be a vet,
and did your horse inspire you on being a vet, or...?
[Liz] He did, it was probably even before that though.
You know how everybody has that one special dog?
Well, I had one growing up when I was in nd grade.
And I love science. I'm sure obviously you guys do too.
But I love medicine, science,
so it was just a wonderful blend of the two.
So you guys, who wants to do what?
I'm going to tape.
I want to tape.No.
[Liz] We're going to tape the horse into sections.
The more even the sections, the smoother the horse.
He's probably going to be the hardest one to tell
just because he's got a lot more muscle on him.
So that's his last rib,
so I would probably tape right about there.
[Madeleine] On a horse, there are quarters.
There's the front...
Now we'll go from the point of the shoulder.
[Madeleine] ...which is their head and their neck and their front legs.
[Morgan] To keep it consistent, we'll say it's centimeters.
[Madeleine] Then there's the middle section, which is their stomach.
[Morgan] This one would be about centimeters.
[Madeleine] Then there's the hind section,
which is their hind legs, and then their tail and stuff.
[Morgan] This one's , I'd say.
We should probably take a picture now
just to record the data so later on we can still have it.
♪ ♪
I'm going to get Gammon over here.
[Morgan] Long strides can equal like, a springy step.
Otherwise if they take just kind of normal strides,
or maybe they're reaching just a little bit,
then it's going to be really smooth.
What is a stride? Can you describe
what measurement you would actually take?
One stride would be like , , and then...
Then those are her footprints.
But I think you want to measure from the same foot.
So it would be like-- 'cause otherwise that's a step.
, , .
So it would be like from here to here would be one stride.
Go! Rock, paper, scissors.
Rock, paper, scissors.
Rock, paper, scissors.
Okay, so you get to ride.
[Madeleine] So I say we start raking, and I call raking.
[Amanda] If my science teacher isn't giving
extra credit for this, my gym teacher should!
[Morgan] Okay, go ahead.
There's like strides in-between that one though.
[Madeleine] That one's .
♪ ♪
[Zoe] Maybe that was a different one because if you look at that one
right there, if you're positive that one's the front left?
[Morgan] Wait, which one did you say?
[Madeleine] The stride test was the most confusing
and took the most time.
[Morgan] Okay, I don't think we're marking this clearly
because we're all kind of confused on where it starts.
[Madeleine] No, 'cause it started right there.
[Morgan] Just look at this. [Madeleine] ...then it went
left, right, left. [Morgan] There's one line
right here going diagonal, then one kind of going down there.
So does it really matter where the--we know where it is?
It matters where it starts, 'cause we stopped right there.
Let's just go like, start making a line.
Maybe we'll all just try to focus on,
we'll just go for one. You know what I mean?
One length, so we all can focus.
Yeah-- focus, focus, focus.
[Liz] You guys are putting tape on the foot
just to make it show up a little more?
[Morgan] Again, we're just putting the pink duct tape on
so that we can see which foot is landing,
and we can be able to get accurate results.
Okay, we're ready when you are.
One... .
[Zoe] right here, right?
[Morgan] That worked really well.
One, .
No, it's .
One, .
Yeah, .
[Morgan] So Justin did end up having the longest stride.
[Izzie] Hey Justin, you want to
go to the dance with me?
[Amanda] We were really happy we borrowed the heart rate monitor.
It made the test a lot easier.
[Madeleine] First we'll take the resting heart rate.
Right now her standing heart rate is .
[Liz] That's beats per minute? [Madeleine] Yeah.
[Liz] Okay, just clarifying.
[Madeleine] Then exercise them,
then we'll take it again every seconds after.
You ready, Morgan?Yup.
Two minutes of just trotting.
Go!
[Morgan] If a horse is overweight,
it's going to take longer for their heart rate to drop down
once they've been exercising.
It's at like, .
A more fit horse, the heart rate
would decrease faster just as in with people.
All right, now.
.
[Zoe] Hey Morgan, so how are you doing?
Lovely! [Zoe] Lovely.
[Amanda] Okay, okay, every seconds now.
, , ,
, , .
[Madeleine] So it returned to normal in a minute, almost.
Now we need Justin.
♪ ♪
[Amanda] So Gammon's resting heart rate is .
I'm hoping Penny is going to win this.
[Izzie] Last test.
[Madeleine] Okay you guys, we have to let Penny win.
Okay guys, so today we will graph everything,
with all of our data from the other day.
What if I keep a score of who wins the most events.
At the end we can look at it, and whoever won the most events
or got the best score out of them,
that horse would be the horse that we would pick for you?
Yeah!
Oh, so it depends on which one wins the heart rate?
[Amanda] For the water cup, it was proven
that Gammon had the most water left in the
cup, which is saying that he had the smoothest gaits.
[Morgan] So we can say that Gammon won that one?
[Amanda] Yeah, we could safely say Gammon won this one.
[Izzie] One for Gammon!
[Madeleine] This is the conformation we did
with the front, middle, and back of the parts of the horse.
[Amanda] I think it's safe to say out of these horses
that Penny was overall the most balanced.
And also she had the best conformation.
[Izzie] One for Penny!
My graph will show their angle and stride length.
Overall, Justin was the highest point, and Penny was the lowest.
So I think Justin did win this event.
[Izzie] And one for Justin.
I did the recovery heart rate.
If you look at this oneGammon kind of won by a lot here.
But if it's how quickly
they return to normal, then Penny won.
Madeleine did kind of seem a little bit biased and picked up
some information we really hadn't been measuring much of,
and just kind of like well, Penny won this.
We have to ask Liz
because if it drops quickest, then...?
[Amanda] Penny lost!
[Madeleine] No she didn't lose, she tied.
Penny lost.
[Amanda] I think she was scared of Gammon
because he's kind of big, and he also likes to test you
to see like, before you get on if you or him are the boss.
Part of the reason I pushed the heart rate chart was because
then Penny would have won that one, and then Gammon and Penny
would have had to and then tied!
It was nice to have Zoe,
Amanda, and Morgan because I was biased.
♪ ♪
I wanted Penny to win.
And so I'd say something and they'd have this weird look
on their face and be like, I don't think that's right.
Because some of the stuff I'd say, I'd be kind of like
yeah, that's right, isn't it? And it wasn't.
But they caught me all the time.
They were really good at catching me.
Then I was more scientific.
So Gammon won with points.
Scientifically, Gammon is
the best horse to use for egg and spoon.
I'm really excited about today, it's going to be a lot of fun!
[Madeleine] I'm nervous, but I'm less nervous
than earlier in the week. Oh, oh.
I think Madeleine is going to do pretty good.
My stomach hurts a little. [laughs]
I have butterflies, but I think I'll do okay.
Think I'll do well.
[male announcer] There are riders.
I hope Madeleine is going to pick Gammon, but I also
have a little feeling that she might pick Penny too
just because that's her favorite horse.
[man] Let's hop on, Madeleine, it's time for your next event.
I decided to do Gammon for egg and spoon.
[Amanda] She ended up using Gammon, which really surprised me
just because she liked Penny so much.
[man] Have you ever done egg and spoon before? [Madeleine] No.
But I've never done anything before!
I don't want to be nervous on the horse
'cause they can tell that I'm nervous.
[Izzie] Walkin' with the egg on the spoon...
and that's no "yoke!" Ha ha!
Keep it up, Madeleine, you're doing great!
[Izzie] Oh no, no, don't drop it!
We don't want scrambled eggs!
Okay. Trot.
Oops, okay. Back, Gammon.
If I would've gotten to the trot,
I think it would've been really helpful to have Gammon.
[female announcer] Fourth Place is Madeleine.
[Izzie] Good job, Madeleine!
[Madeleine] Overall, I'm happy with my choice.
I'm glad I got up the courage to try Gammon.
It's my first show and my first ribbon.
He was the right choice scientifically and for me.
♪ ♪
[Izzie laughs] Hee-haw!
Wait a minute.
So you're pickin' a date
the same way the SciGirls picked a horse?
Well, not really.
I'm just borrowing their methods.
So, here's the plan.
What if we don't want to dance?
Ah, ah, ah, ah! Interrupting your date is a demerit, Jake.
Okay...Wait.
No, no. Okay, now
each of you get a glass of water.
Good. Now...
dance!
Hold on now, I don't want to dance...
Nope. No, no, no, no!
No talking, Jake, just dancing.
[dance music plays] Yeah.
Yeah, dance harder!
Yes! Okay, now, hold up your glasses.
Ho ho! Kevin;
a little spazzy there.
Hey, yeah, sorry, maybe next year.
Well Jake, according to my calculations
you are the best date for me.
Well Iz, I could've told you that.
Who wouldn't want to go with me?
♪ ♪
[Izzie gasps]
Ready Freddie!
Oh, I wonder if there's a test
to see if I'm gonna die of embarrassment?
[Izzie] ♪ We need you
[girls] ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S
[Izzie] ♪ Come on!
♪ When I need help, and I've got a question ♪
♪ there's a place I go for inspiration ♪
♪ Gotta get to the Web, check the girls' investigation ♪
♪ What girls?
♪ SciGirls!
Whoo!
[girls] ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S
[Izzie] ♪ I need you!
[girls] ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S
[Izzie] ♪ Come on!
♪ You've gotta log on, post,
♪ upload, pitch in! Yeah!
♪ Wanna get inside a world that's fascinating? ♪
♪ The time is right 'cause SciGirls are waiting, ♪
[girls] ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S
[Izzie] ♪ We need you!
[girls] ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S
[Izzie] ♪ SciGirls!!
Okay Jake, prepare yourself
because today is a big day.
Come on, Jake, don't you want to know why?
I guess. [chuckles]
Jake, today I'm deciding who to ask to the Sadie Hawkins Dance.
Oh!
Oh!
I know, I know, but after last year's disaster, I...
Yeah, too bad Drew
didn't know you were allergic to lilacs.
But that was the most awesome
full page spread in the yearbook ever. [laughs]
Oh! [sighs]
There's gotta be a better way to find a date.
Well, just so you know, Iz,
there are only guys left without dates, Kevin...
Yeah.
...and... yours truly!
You're kidding, right?
No need to beg, Iz.
Oh, you mean I have to decide between you and Kevin?
SciGirls, I need you!
♪ ♪
Whoo-hoo!
♪ ♪
Hmm. Nope.
Hmm, horses and measuring cups?!
Eh, I don't think so.
What?
Maybe there is something here after all.
Now you guys know a bunch about horses. Which one's which?
Jet's a quarter horse.
Jet has socks. He's right there.
The horses here are just so calm and nice
that you don't have to worry about it when you get on them.
I just tell all these horses by their faces.
I think I want a clam horse.
Oh I love the one on the ground! Who's that?
[Morgan] We're helping Madeleine right now.
We'd like to see her find a horse
that is good for her and that she likes a lot.
[Madeleine] And the last time I rode Ruby, who was my horse,
she tried to buck me off, and it wasn't fun.
Which one do you think is best for me?
[Morgan] You want to look for one that's probably a smoother horse
because we don't want you to bounce off of the horse.
[Madeleine] There are so many different horses that I could choose from
to ride, and they all have different personalities
and different stride lengths, whether they're bouncy
or smoother, and so I want to find the perfect horse
for me to ride in the egg and spoon competition
that we're going to be doing.
So I hope the other girls can help me pick the perfect horse.
There's gotta be one of them that I can ride.
♪ ♪
[Morgan] So Madeleine, how is Ruby today?
She's been acting kind of weird, like that.
[Madeleine] We're going to try to turn this into a fun science experiment
since I haven't been riding for a while.
We don't want a bouncy ride, we want a smoother ride,
and so we're trying to figure out which horse would be
best scientifically to be the smoothest ride.
I just redid my room probably a couple weeks ago.
Now the horses are in their places.
I think I'm going to learn a bunch just, I don't know,
because being around horses
you can learn a lot-- being around anything.
You learn new things every day,
so I think I'm going to learn a lot today,
and I'm not even doing schoolwork,
or any kind of work for my brain.
I'm just going to learn stuff about horses.
All right, thank you!
Dr. Beck is a veterinarian, and she is going to be
a mentor for our science experiment.
I'm listening at both sides, then also while I was listening
I got a heart rate too on her.
[Madeleine] I've been going once a month
on Thursday after school,
and if I get my homework done
and I don't have other activities,
to go and shadow her.
Madeleine, I have a little surprise for you.
Oh my gosh!
We have some very hungry kittens,
they're about -/ to weeks old.
We are going to be feeding them. [Izzie] Kitties!
[Madeleine] I get to go in the room, and I just sit back and watch.
[Izzie] Hey little kitty.
I'm gonna pick up you, you're the runt,
I like runts. [the kitty meows]
Sometimes they're puppies, and sometimes they're kittens
that sometimes are sick, and she knows a bunch about animals.
So this is probably when I was about your age,
and I did used to show Western Pleasure.
[Madeleine] I kind of took a little break
and now I'm starting to ride again,
and my friends and I
are going to pick out a horse like, scientifically.
So we do a couple experiments, and then we're going
to pick out the smoothest horse for me to ride in the show.
Oh! You should see Liz
over at the University of Minnesota equine center.
[Madeleine] If we have a question, she's going to help us,
and she'll be really great with answering them
because she has a horse of her own, and she's a vet.
[Morgan] I'm so excited about this.
[Amanda] I know. Oh my gosh, me too.
[Zoe] We can see all the horses and what breeds they have?
[Morgan] We went to the Leatherdale Equine Center,
and we just learned all this great stuff
with this nd-year vet student Liz.
[Morgan] So are these sick horses or...?
[Liz] Most horses that come here are for lameness.
So if they're sore somewhere and we need to figure out
what it is, that's usually what they come here for.
And then we can do other stuff on here!
When I first saw Sierra on the treadmill running,
the first time I saw it, I was kind of like whoa,
I've never seen this before. This is really cool.
[Izzie] Giddyup little horsey!
Izzie's comin' down the stretch, she takes the lead.
It's Izzie by a nose!
[Zoe] They put the horse on the treadmill
to help them gain muscle and to take their heart rate.
They told us about getting them on there.
It's kind of like so why would a horse want to go on there?
[Liz] Well, it's hard at first,
but we always walk them forward through first
so that they get the idea of moving forward on the treadmill.
And we'll start up slowly and get them to learn to walk.
[Madeleine] What's that strap for?
[Liz] That is actually going to monitor her heart rate.
So it's a way we can monitor a horse while they're working,
because otherwise it's pretty hard to run a horse, stop them,
try to take a reading, and get it just perfect.
So it was pretty cool when this came out.
Could we borrow the heart monitor for our research?
That'd be good because then
we could figure out on our own what's going on here.
Sure. The first thing we do is bring them through these doors,
and it's nice and bright and open
so the horses want to come in.
[Madeleine] There was so much information that we learned
and so little time to learn it in.
It's good I took notes because I don't remember.
I was writing stuff down and then looking up.
Someone else would ask the question.
I was like no wait, I'm not done writing!
This room right here is the one
where we'll actually put the horse under anesthesia.
We put the horse in here... [Madeleine] I'm the horse.
...where Madeleine is, then you're starting to get sleepy.
So we're going to put this up against you,
and this helps you support.
Then we take them right into surgery.
Put their little ears through here, put their eyes right here,
and so this is just like a padded protection
so they won't hit their head or anything like that.
We have this air mattress.
This will keep them from standing up real fast.
[Izzie] Wow-wee! Horses sure have a great life in this hospital!
I'm gonna go down. Oh my gosh! [all laugh]
[Madeleine] Liz explained conformation
and how it affects the stride of a horse,
then she taped the horse into sections.
[Liz] The shoulder section, their midsection,
and their hind section.
You can measure the different quarters that they have,
and if they're proportionate, then that's better.
[Liz] This section right here
is kind of about this section right here,
but I'd say that his middle section here
is quite a bit longer.
I'll let you guys figure out if
that might be smoother movement or bouncier movement.
Thanks for coming out, guys. It was a lot of fun.
[Izzie] Hey, let's go visit the Website!
[SciGirls] ♪ Push the button. Push, push the button. ♪
♪ Girls, girls, girls!
I think we should upload this one on there.
That would be a really good picture of it.
Yeah, I think that'll definitely work.
Where would you like to go on vacation?
A cabin in the woods, a tropical island, a big city,
an amusement park, or a foreign country?
Amusement park with roller coasters.Always!
[both laugh] Yes!
[Izzie] Ooh, I want to see Morgan and Zoe's profiles.
I'm Morgan.I'm Zoe.
And we're at softball practice.
[Zoe] Morgan, she is one of my best friends for sure.
This is one of my cats Lilly.
This is my desk where I do my homework every day,
and that's a horseshoe from Spirit.
I'm always in the kitchen when I'm at home.
[Zoe] Morgan was on the Horse Bowl team in our -H group.
She knows a lot about horses.
I think she's going to be a lot of help.
My favorite color would have to be probably pink.
Hey, mine too!
This is the tack area.
I would describe him as a gentle, kind, loving horse.
That, I usually call happy ears.
Nothing complicated. All fun.
And that's pretty much it.
Bye.
It's really cold out today.
Very windy and very cold.
So we need to pick out a horse for Madeleine.
Maybe we could pick out .
Over there, there's Cody, Tally, and Sage.
I don't know if she's quite at that level yet.
Well, back there is Penny. [Izzie] Hi Penny.
[Zoe] She'd be a great horse. She's really calm.
[Morgan] What about Gammon? [Zoe] He'd be a great choice.
He has nice gait. [Morgan] I know.
Gait is the different speed
and sequence of footfalls the horses take.
The gaits are walk, trot, cantor, gallop.
[Izzie] Walk, trot, cantor, gallop.
Got it!
[Zoe] Justin could be a good horse to use.
[Morgan] Yeah, he's a little defensive.
I think they'd be really good because they're all really calm horses,
but they've all got enough energy that they'd be able to do it.
[Zoe] And she can control all of them. [Morgan] Yeah.
[Madeleine] We have to pick a couple topics that we want to do
for our test, or for testing and experiments.
[Izzie] Now we're talkin'!
Tests for potential dates.
I think for sure we should do the tape thing
that Liz was showing us, taping off different sections,
then taping where the bones were...
...and the shoulder, then the bones and the butt.
[Izzie] Yeah, I think that's a good test.
Conformation is body structure, right?
Yeah. Yes.Just checking.
That would be good because that shows how smooth of a ride,
because I can't ride the horse
before we're going to make it all scientific.
[Zoe] Well, another test that we could do from a riding basis
to see how smooth they are is if you have a glass of water,
you fill it up to the top, and then you have to do walk, trot,
and cantor, and you try not to spill any water.
The smoother the horse, the less water you spill.
[Izzie] Ooh, I like that one!
I think I could use that!
[Morgan] What about also doing heart rate, just looking at that,
and then seeing a respiratory with cantering
just to see how fit the horse is?
[Zoe] If we were going to test the stride,
it would be very, very hard to test
just because we would have to get a ruler out
and somehow measure their stride
as they're walking and trotting.
[Morgan] What if the arena was dragged, because if they drag the arena,
then you wouldn't see any of the hoof marks there.
So then if you had them going around, then you'd be able
to measure just by the marks in the arena.
[Izzie] Yeah, that's a good idea!
I'm really excited to see who you pick!
Hi. I'm Amanda, and this is my room.
The first show I went to,
I actually got th in the Western Pleasure Event.
My cell phone, which I could not live without.
I'm really glad I do horseback riding because if you're
having a really bad day, the horse makes you happy.
You can just go spend time with your horse,
and they just make you feel a lot better.
This is the event. what are we going to call it, the water...?
The water glass test.
I'll hop on each of the horses we've picked out.
[Izzie] Okay, it's Gammon, Justin, and Penny.
I'll ride at each gait, and after I do each gait
we'll see how much water is in the cup.
[Morgan] So you'll have points when you start.
When you lose water, it decreases.
Okay, how much water is it going to be filled to?
milliliters.
Now you're going to trot.
[Izzie] Here we go!
[Zoe laughs] I'm wet!
[Morgan] milliliters, which is points.
[Zoe laughs] Better than one!
Here we go. Let's try not to spill any, Penny, bet we can do it.
Ready, good luck.
[Madeleine] The water test took a lot of time to do
'cause you had to keep filling it up,
then we had to think of how we were going to score that.
When Zoe does it so low, not as much water can spill.
The first way we did it didn't work.
I think we should really refill it after each gait
because if you think about it,
if the walk is a really active walk
and she drops almost all of it, like I just did, if she drops
like, all of it and it goes down to after the walk,
we won't know or have accurate results at the trot and cantor.
So we should refill it after each one
so that we can get accurate results.
[Izzie] More water, better dancer. Works for me.
[Zoe makes loud clicking sound]
[Morgan] So a total of points so far. So I'm going to go refill it.
[Madeleine] Oh, that time she had more
than she did last time though, I'm pretty sure.
Three points.
I'll go fill this up again. Why don't you get on Justin.
[Madeleine] All right, now you can take it off.
I know you're kind of grumpy.
You said, "I've been here all day."
[Morgan] Then we tested the walk, trot, and cantor on Justin.
I think Justin's going to be the bounciest.
points.
I'm going to go refill this.
This is the trot with Justin.
Trot. [clicking]
[SciGirls laugh]
[Morgan] He's not liking that.
[Madeleine] I don't think he likes the water splashing around.
[Amanda] He doesn't like the water splashing around at all.
[Zoe] You're okay right here.
[Madeleine] All right, that's a zero.
I don't think that's even .
Well, we can count it as
that was a zero for Justin's trot.
This is the cantor with Justin.
This horse is very bony and very bumpy.
[Morgan] She wants to buck!
Yeah, I can tell that he wants to buck.
[Zoe] Better not buck me.
Yep, that's points, which is milliliters.
So it's better than his trot.
I think Gammon is going to be the bounciest.
Oh my gosh, he's wide!
Yeah, he's like a big sofa!
[Zoe] He's a big horse, he's a big sweetie. [Morgan] He is.
[Amanda] Okay, the walk on Gammon.
[Morgan] So does he feel smooth right now?
[Zoe] He does feel very smooth right now.
Gammon, I thought would be the bumpiest ride.
It doesn't look like it will be, but that's what I thought.
So that's about points.
[Madeleine] This is the lowest by far.
[Morgan] So for the trot we've got
about milliliters, which is points.
[Izzie] Go Gammon, go!
milliliters, which is points.
What we've established now is, Gammon out of
the horses is by far the smoothest.
[Izzie] Go Gammon!
So here are pictures of my horse
when I was probably your age, so he's about now.
[Amanda] Did you always want to be a vet,
and did your horse inspire you on being a vet, or...?
[Liz] He did, it was probably even before that though.
You know how everybody has that one special dog?
Well, I had one growing up when I was in nd grade.
And I love science. I'm sure obviously you guys do too.
But I love medicine, science,
so it was just a wonderful blend of the two.
So you guys, who wants to do what?
I'm going to tape.
I want to tape.No.
[Liz] We're going to tape the horse into sections.
The more even the sections, the smoother the horse.
He's probably going to be the hardest one to tell
just because he's got a lot more muscle on him.
So that's his last rib,
so I would probably tape right about there.
[Madeleine] On a horse, there are quarters.
There's the front...
Now we'll go from the point of the shoulder.
[Madeleine] ...which is their head and their neck and their front legs.
[Morgan] To keep it consistent, we'll say it's centimeters.
[Madeleine] Then there's the middle section, which is their stomach.
[Morgan] This one would be about centimeters.
[Madeleine] Then there's the hind section,
which is their hind legs, and then their tail and stuff.
[Morgan] This one's , I'd say.
We should probably take a picture now
just to record the data so later on we can still have it.
♪ ♪
I'm going to get Gammon over here.
[Morgan] Long strides can equal like, a springy step.
Otherwise if they take just kind of normal strides,
or maybe they're reaching just a little bit,
then it's going to be really smooth.
What is a stride? Can you describe
what measurement you would actually take?
One stride would be like , , and then...
Then those are her footprints.
But I think you want to measure from the same foot.
So it would be like-- 'cause otherwise that's a step.
, , .
So it would be like from here to here would be one stride.
Go! Rock, paper, scissors.
Rock, paper, scissors.
Rock, paper, scissors.
Okay, so you get to ride.
[Madeleine] So I say we start raking, and I call raking.
[Amanda] If my science teacher isn't giving
extra credit for this, my gym teacher should!
[Morgan] Okay, go ahead.
There's like strides in-between that one though.
[Madeleine] That one's .
♪ ♪
[Zoe] Maybe that was a different one because if you look at that one
right there, if you're positive that one's the front left?
[Morgan] Wait, which one did you say?
[Madeleine] The stride test was the most confusing
and took the most time.
[Morgan] Okay, I don't think we're marking this clearly
because we're all kind of confused on where it starts.
[Madeleine] No, 'cause it started right there.
[Morgan] Just look at this. [Madeleine] ...then it went
left, right, left. [Morgan] There's one line
right here going diagonal, then one kind of going down there.
So does it really matter where the--we know where it is?
It matters where it starts, 'cause we stopped right there.
Let's just go like, start making a line.
Maybe we'll all just try to focus on,
we'll just go for one. You know what I mean?
One length, so we all can focus.
Yeah-- focus, focus, focus.
[Liz] You guys are putting tape on the foot
just to make it show up a little more?
[Morgan] Again, we're just putting the pink duct tape on
so that we can see which foot is landing,
and we can be able to get accurate results.
Okay, we're ready when you are.
One... .
[Zoe] right here, right?
[Morgan] That worked really well.
One, .
No, it's .
One, .
Yeah, .
[Morgan] So Justin did end up having the longest stride.
[Izzie] Hey Justin, you want to
go to the dance with me?
[Amanda] We were really happy we borrowed the heart rate monitor.
It made the test a lot easier.
[Madeleine] First we'll take the resting heart rate.
Right now her standing heart rate is .
[Liz] That's beats per minute? [Madeleine] Yeah.
[Liz] Okay, just clarifying.
[Madeleine] Then exercise them,
then we'll take it again every seconds after.
You ready, Morgan?Yup.
Two minutes of just trotting.
Go!
[Morgan] If a horse is overweight,
it's going to take longer for their heart rate to drop down
once they've been exercising.
It's at like, .
A more fit horse, the heart rate
would decrease faster just as in with people.
All right, now.
.
[Zoe] Hey Morgan, so how are you doing?
Lovely! [Zoe] Lovely.
[Amanda] Okay, okay, every seconds now.
, , ,
, , .
[Madeleine] So it returned to normal in a minute, almost.
Now we need Justin.
♪ ♪
[Amanda] So Gammon's resting heart rate is .
I'm hoping Penny is going to win this.
[Izzie] Last test.
[Madeleine] Okay you guys, we have to let Penny win.
Okay guys, so today we will graph everything,
with all of our data from the other day.
What if I keep a score of who wins the most events.
At the end we can look at it, and whoever won the most events
or got the best score out of them,
that horse would be the horse that we would pick for you?
Yeah!
Oh, so it depends on which one wins the heart rate?
[Amanda] For the water cup, it was proven
that Gammon had the most water left in the
cup, which is saying that he had the smoothest gaits.
[Morgan] So we can say that Gammon won that one?
[Amanda] Yeah, we could safely say Gammon won this one.
[Izzie] One for Gammon!
[Madeleine] This is the conformation we did
with the front, middle, and back of the parts of the horse.
[Amanda] I think it's safe to say out of these horses
that Penny was overall the most balanced.
And also she had the best conformation.
[Izzie] One for Penny!
My graph will show their angle and stride length.
Overall, Justin was the highest point, and Penny was the lowest.
So I think Justin did win this event.
[Izzie] And one for Justin.
I did the recovery heart rate.
If you look at this oneGammon kind of won by a lot here.
But if it's how quickly
they return to normal, then Penny won.
Madeleine did kind of seem a little bit biased and picked up
some information we really hadn't been measuring much of,
and just kind of like well, Penny won this.
We have to ask Liz
because if it drops quickest, then...?
[Amanda] Penny lost!
[Madeleine] No she didn't lose, she tied.
Penny lost.
[Amanda] I think she was scared of Gammon
because he's kind of big, and he also likes to test you
to see like, before you get on if you or him are the boss.
Part of the reason I pushed the heart rate chart was because
then Penny would have won that one, and then Gammon and Penny
would have had to and then tied!
It was nice to have Zoe,
Amanda, and Morgan because I was biased.
♪ ♪
I wanted Penny to win.
And so I'd say something and they'd have this weird look
on their face and be like, I don't think that's right.
Because some of the stuff I'd say, I'd be kind of like
yeah, that's right, isn't it? And it wasn't.
But they caught me all the time.
They were really good at catching me.
Then I was more scientific.
So Gammon won with points.
Scientifically, Gammon is
the best horse to use for egg and spoon.
I'm really excited about today, it's going to be a lot of fun!
[Madeleine] I'm nervous, but I'm less nervous
than earlier in the week. Oh, oh.
I think Madeleine is going to do pretty good.
My stomach hurts a little. [laughs]
I have butterflies, but I think I'll do okay.
Think I'll do well.
[male announcer] There are riders.
I hope Madeleine is going to pick Gammon, but I also
have a little feeling that she might pick Penny too
just because that's her favorite horse.
[man] Let's hop on, Madeleine, it's time for your next event.
I decided to do Gammon for egg and spoon.
[Amanda] She ended up using Gammon, which really surprised me
just because she liked Penny so much.
[man] Have you ever done egg and spoon before? [Madeleine] No.
But I've never done anything before!
I don't want to be nervous on the horse
'cause they can tell that I'm nervous.
[Izzie] Walkin' with the egg on the spoon...
and that's no "yoke!" Ha ha!
Keep it up, Madeleine, you're doing great!
[Izzie] Oh no, no, don't drop it!
We don't want scrambled eggs!
Okay. Trot.
Oops, okay. Back, Gammon.
If I would've gotten to the trot,
I think it would've been really helpful to have Gammon.
[female announcer] Fourth Place is Madeleine.
[Izzie] Good job, Madeleine!
[Madeleine] Overall, I'm happy with my choice.
I'm glad I got up the courage to try Gammon.
It's my first show and my first ribbon.
He was the right choice scientifically and for me.
♪ ♪
[Izzie laughs] Hee-haw!
Wait a minute.
So you're pickin' a date
the same way the SciGirls picked a horse?
Well, not really.
I'm just borrowing their methods.
So, here's the plan.
What if we don't want to dance?
Ah, ah, ah, ah! Interrupting your date is a demerit, Jake.
Okay...Wait.
No, no. Okay, now
each of you get a glass of water.
Good. Now...
dance!
Hold on now, I don't want to dance...
Nope. No, no, no, no!
No talking, Jake, just dancing.
[dance music plays] Yeah.
Yeah, dance harder!
Yes! Okay, now, hold up your glasses.
Ho ho! Kevin;
a little spazzy there.
Hey, yeah, sorry, maybe next year.
Well Jake, according to my calculations
you are the best date for me.
Well Iz, I could've told you that.
Who wouldn't want to go with me?
♪ ♪
[Izzie gasps]
Ready Freddie!
Oh, I wonder if there's a test
to see if I'm gonna die of embarrassment?