"I want to teach children how to recognise pain in horses"
Children's thesis on pain in horses
Making scientific research interesting and relevant for children is what Ineke Smit wants to achieve with the children's thesis she wrote alongside her regular thesis. She studied the movement of horses and the methods scientists use to measure and analyse it. On March 21, 2024, she will defend her PhD thesis at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Utrecht University.
You can tell if horses are lame by their movement. They will then, for example, move their head up and down or rotate their hips more. Measuring these movements is an important tool for diagnosing and treating lameness in horses. But studying such measurements is complex. With her research, Smit therefore offers tools to get a better grip on measuring and analysing the movements of horses. This not only allows us to intervene earlier if a horse is in pain but also makes us understand better exactly how that pain arises.
But she believes that science is not just for scientists. That inspired her to write a children's thesis about her research.
Discovering pain yourself
In her children's thesis, the researcher explains how to discover and measure pain in horses using pictures and simple language More awareness about this is important. "If we teach horse owners to see when a horse is lame, we can prevent them from continuing to walk or ride a horse in pain." The children's thesis focuses on children in the upper grades of elementary school. "I want to teach children how to recognise pain in horses. That way we can properly educate the future generation and through them also reach today's horse owners."
I hope to get at least one child excited about becoming a veterinarian or researcher
Dusting off science
In addition, Smit would like to get children excited about science, as she herself never was as a child. "Science should be dusted off a bit. I made the children's thesis as visual as possible by adding illustrations and creating a flip book." Children can craft the flip book themselves. It shows an animation of a moving horse. When children flip through the book quickly, they see the animation moving. With it, they can investigate whether the horse is in pain and immediately put into practice what they have learned. She got help from colleagues and friends who are not horse researchers themselves in finding the right words and metaphors to appeal to children. "I hope to get at least one child excited about becoming a veterinarian or researcher," she said.
Important for horses and interesting for children
Smit is looking forward to getting her children's thesis out into the world. She wants to distribute it in places where children gather. She also plans to talk about it at horse events or science evenings, for example. "It’s super exciting and a bit scary, but very important that the information in the children's thesis gets attention. It's good for the welfare of horses and at the same time a great introduction to science for kids."