Mathematics for People Who Love Animals
Plenty of students who dream of veterinary medicine or animal science stall out in precalculus or calculus — not because they can’t do it, but because nothing in the course connects to the reason they came. EquiPhysics builds that connection. When the derivative describes a drug clearing a horse’s bloodstream, when the differential equation is a heartbeat, when the statistics describe a herd of individuals — persistence gets easier. That’s the student we build for.
For Students of Biology, Animal Science, and Veterinary Science
Through our University of Arizona partnerships, students learn mathematics and computation on real horse-centered questions:
Course-based research (CURE / VIP). Undergraduates in the Horse Science Innovation Lab analyze data our team collects — heart rate, heart-rate variability, movement — and carry projects from raw data to public poster sessions. The course is computation-first: students learn signal processing, statistics, and scientific storytelling on real equine datasets, with no horse experience required.
Mathematical modeling projects. In upper-division modeling courses, student teams build computational models with direct veterinary relevance: blood flow in the equine aorta, airflow in the upper airway, comparative studies of mammalian hearts.
Early mathematics with real data. Even introductory courses can run on horse-powered examples — like modeling a real equine electrocardiogram with an oscillator equation.
Where the horses fit. In our Al-Marah years, students often worked directly with the horses. The program is no longer based there, and today’s university coursework is fully computational — students analyze data our team gathers with the program horses, build models, and run simulations, from anywhere. For students who do want in-person equine experience, we help arrange supervised internships and volunteer pathways with partners such as Mighty Minds.
This fall. For Fall 2026: VIP computational research spots with the University of Arizona, veterinary applications in MATH 481, and demonstrations and clinics at Rancho del Nido — dates to be announced.
Community Outreach
We bring horse-centered mathematics to the wider community — and it travels light. Our smartphone gait-modeling workshop was run by Tucson High School students — horse motion to mathematics to running code, in one afternoon, on nothing but their own phones. We also give public lectures on the science and history of equine movement and host gatherings that connect researchers, students, and horsepeople.
Teachers: our complete classroom labs — slides, worksheets, teacher guides, and the free Horse Gait Lab web app — are open to everyone at github.com/equiphysics/education.