Horse Maths? When I first saw Deborah Stacey’s book cover on my desktop, I was intrigued. Admission to the U.C. Davis School of Veterinary Medicine required a lot of math.

One thing that helped me survive university calculus was the newfound understanding that could’ve calculated how long to let the hose run before I overflowed the horse trough (again). Not a good thing when your horses live in a small pen in the damp-already redwoods.

It was too late, by that time, but it comforted me that there was a way.

It seems a small thing, but learning in context gave me the interest to survive the necessary courses, enabling this humanities-girl to succeed (i.e. get the A’s necessary for acceptance) in higher maths and sciences.

So without further ado, here’s Deborah!

Passion

We all have a passion, some of us more than one. If we’re lucky we find it when we’re young.

My passion is horses, and it was alive and burning in me at a young age. Growing up in the suburbs of San Bruno, just south of San Francisco, there were no horses around, and no opportunity to ride.

Instead, I read every horse book I could get my hands on, watched each episode of Fury and My Friend Flicka on TV, and collected every horse picture, model and magazine that crossed my path. I made saddles, bridles and show jumping courses for my dog in the backyard. If I was lucky, a few times each summer I would have a chance to ride a real horse at a dude ranch or farm.

While still in elementary school my family moved to Canada. My parents bought a house in Ottawa, Ontario and I quickly made friends with Sue, a girl who lived a few doors down the street.

Horse School Days: Horse Maths

She and I were both horse crazy and we organized our own horse school. We taught each other about horses, taking turns being teacher and pupil. We wrote on a chalkboard, and gave each other lectures and tests.

After graduating from high school, I decided to pursue my passion for horses by taking riding lessons at a stable about a mile from my parent’s house. A few months later I began working with horses at a small, private hunter and jumper stable outside of Montreal, in Quebec.

Humber College in Toronto started a horsemanship program at this time and I attended the two-year program, graduating with an Honours Degree in Horsemanship in the mid-seventies.

I continued to work with horses for several years and gradually came to realize that there really wasn’t much of a future for me in the horse industry; I didn’t want to be a groom for the rest of my life. And so I left.

Horse Maths?

But the love of horses never really left me. Years later, when my daughter was in elementary school, an opportunity came to once again return to a life with horses. We moved to a riding/boarding stable, and my daughter was in heaven! She too was a horse crazy girl. In school, she struggled with math.

One evening, in an effort to engage her with a math word problem, I changed the context from shopping for a bag of flour at the grocery store to buying bags of grain at a feed store.

The math operations remained the same; price, decimals and multiplication, but the context changed, suddenly she was learning about the real world of horses.

Engaged with the content, she started asking questions. How much does a bag of oats cost? How does that price compare with alfalfa pellets or sweet feed? How many bags would you need for a barn full of horses?

Contextual Learning

It was clear to me then—when kids follow their own passions, learning happens. Suddenly, I began seeing math everywhere in my work with horses and the idea for Horse Lover’s Math (HLM) was born.

Today, Horse Lover’s Math is a website for kids ages 8 and up devoted to horses, math and science. The first in a series of four workbooks, the 175 page Horse Lover’s Math Level 1 workbook, is available in print and digital versions, with math at the grade 4-5 level and I’m well along on the second book in the series.

When I create content for HLM, whether posts for the website, workbooks, or worksheets, I feel like I’m writing to myself as a young girl. It is my hope that HLM will help kids see math and science as useful and necessary tools to learn about and describe the real world of horses.

Another of my goals is that HLM will help kids see that they can have a career with horses even if they’ve never owned a horse or are not a good rider—education can be the path.

There are many universities and colleges now offering Equine Science programs.

Horse Lover’s Math began as a simple idea; make the math and science that exists in the horse world visible to horse crazy kids.

It’s been a huge learning curve: website development, social media, marketing, print layout and design. Things I knew nothing about when I first started, I now use almost daily.

After all these years I’m back following my passion, allowing it to lead me forward. Like a good horse knowing its way home, I can drop the reins and enjoy the ride.

So, do you have someone in your life who has trouble with maths? Loves horses or even the idea of them? Maybe Deborah’s book is for them. You’ll find it under the Middle Grade in the Pre-Adult dropdown box. First book on the page. Go for it.

Meet Deborah

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Find Deborah at her website here. She loves to hear from her readers, and you can email her here

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you so much, Debbie, for blogging with us today, and thanks so mch to you readers for visiting! Join our HNVB Book Club and our HNVB Blog via the forms in the right sidebar to keep in touch!

Happy riding and vetting!

xx

Lizzi Tremayne