Ingvar Fredricson: “After some 50 years, it’s fantastic to see my ideas of using technology to improve horse welfare materialize."
Meet Swedish professor Ingvar “Fredric” Fredricson, a pioneer in equine locomotion research. In this film, he shares his long-held vision to improve horse welfare through better lameness diagnostics and prevention – and his joy that his ideas are finally being put into practice.
Back in the early 1960’s, when Ingvar Fredricson began his studies to become a veterinarian, he decided to specialise in equine biomechanics, a relatively unknown field of research at the time.
He realised early on that the human eye is too slow to detect the finer aspects of equine locomotion, and raising money to film trotting horses with a high-speed camera was a significant milestone.
“I knew from the beginning that it would take a lot of technology to improve equine lameness diagnostics and prevention,” he says.
Reflecting on the past 50 years, he notes that technological progress has caught up, enabling the realisation of his initial concepts. The Locomotion Laboratory established by Ingvar Fredricson in Uppsala, Sweden, has become a hub for developing tools to help human visual perception through machine learning and artificial intelligence.
“I’m really happy that today a lot of young and enthusiastic people have taken over my basic ideas. And this is just the start of a lot of work for horse welfare. We must care for our horses – and for that, we need better knowledge”, he says.
Some of those young and enthusiastic people are found very close to home.
Fredricson’s passion for improving horse welfare through a better understanding of the horse’s motion is shared with other members of the family. His sons Peder Fredricson and Jens Fredricson are both top-ranking showjumpers and his daughter-in-law Isabelle Fredricson is a veterinarian and researcher at the Swedish national equestrian center Flyinge.
Isabelle is now focusing full-time on research but before that she managed the health of approximately 100 horses at Flyinge and has been a pioneering user of Sleip to monitor the horses under her care. She was recently awarded a research grant for a PhD study on prevention through movement monitoring of horses.
Isabelle Fredricson, veterinarian and researcher at the Swedish national equestrian centre Flyinge, has been awarded 1,8 MSEK in research funding from the Ulla Håkanson Foundation. The PhD study will be supervised by Elin Hernlund, DVM, Associate professor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and co-founder of Sleip.
Four-time Olympian Peder Fredricson has made a name for himself as an equestrian who puts the welfare of his horses first. He is now implementing gait monitoring as routine for the horses at Grevlunda estate. Stayed tuned for an interview with Peder.
Equestrian sports' international governing body unveils its mission, "to lead, drive, and develop the highest standards of equine sport globally." FEI Secretary General Sabrina Ibáñez sets forth the plan in this YouTube video, urging everyone to act as guardians to ensure a "good life for horses." Learn more about the horse welfare plan at https://www.fei.org/stories/lifestyle/horse-human/guardians.
Flyinge hosted the Horse Welfare Summit, Northern Europe's largest event dedicated to horse welfare. The summit spanned two full days and featured lectures, clinics, and panel discussions led by prominent experts in the field.
"From the Air you breathe, to the ground beneath your feet, you deserve the very BEST. Your well-being is our inspiration."
Scholarship recipient Eva Skiöldebrand was part of a research team conducting a clinical study of a novel drug combination that was effective in treating osteoarthritis-associated lameness in horses and restoring joint tissue. The findings could have implications for treating ostearthritis in humans as well, since horses and humans are genetically very similar. The researchers hope to conduct a clinical trial of the drug treatment in humans next.