A new review examines how smartphones are becoming genuine tools for monitoring a horse's soundness, heart rate and recovery, and even for meeting international competition requirements. Among the systems it highlights is Sleip, co-founded by Dr. Elin Hernlund, one of the Foundation's own scholarship recipients, whose work builds on decades of Swedish equine biomechanics research going back to Professor Ingvar Fredricson himself.
A new review published in the journal Sensors (MDPI), written by veterinary researchers at the University of Bologna, takes stock of how far smartphone technology has come as a tool for monitoring horses in sport. Throughout, the authors are careful to frame these tools as support for veterinary judgement rather than a substitute for it.
Two areas of application emerge as the most developed. The first is locomotor assessment, where markerless video gait analysis has advanced enough to detect movement asymmetries with accuracy approaching that of laboratory motion capture systems. What these tools add isn't necessarily sharper perception than a trained eye, but consistency: visual lameness assessment has long been shown to vary from one observer to the next, particularly for subtle or hindlimb asymmetries, and objective systems offer a way to reduce that variability. The review names two systems validated in peer-reviewed studies against motion capture and inertial sensor technology: Sleip (Sleip AI AB, Stockholm) and RealHorse (KeyDiagnostics ApS, Denmark).
Sleip carries a particular resonance for this Foundation. It was co-founded by Dr. Elin Hernlund, honored at our 2025 scholarship ceremony alongside Professors Lars Roepstorff and Marie Rhodin, and its research traces back to the Locomotion Laboratory Professor Ingvar Fredricson founded in Uppsala in the 1970s. There, he pioneered the use of high-speed film to see what the naked eye could not, an ambition that today's AI-driven tools are, in many ways, still carrying forward.
The second area of strong evidence is cardiovascular monitoring. Wearable ECG systems built into girths or smart textiles now show good agreement with conventional equipment for tracking heart rate and recovery in the field.
The review also touches on something closer to home for anyone following FEI competition rules: the smartphone's growing role as a regulatory tool. Systems like the FEI HorseApp already let officials verify a horse's identity, vaccination status and eligibility on the spot, and as of January 2026 digital registration of equine influenza vaccinations is mandatory for FEI events. What used to depend on paper passports is increasingly managed, and enforced, through a phone.
Other applications are earlier in their development. Respiratory monitoring, thermal imaging and facial expression pain scoring all show promise, though the supporting evidence remains thinner. Most current pain scoring apps, the review notes, still rely on a person interpreting facial expressions against a reference guide rather than fully automated analysis, which for now remains largely confined to research settings.
The review is also candid about a gap worth sitting with: human health data is protected under frameworks like GDPR, while equine data, from training loads to gait asymmetries to recovery patterns, has no real equivalent. As these tools generate ever more of it, that is a conversation the equestrian world has yet to have in earnest.
A new review examines how smartphones are becoming genuine tools for monitoring a horse's soundness, heart rate and recovery, and even for meeting international competition requirements. Among the systems it highlights is Sleip, co-founded by Dr. Elin Hernlund, one of the Foundation's own scholarship recipients, whose work builds on decades of Swedish equine biomechanics research going back to Professor Ingvar Fredricson himself.
On November 2, visitors gathered in Hall B at the Jönköping Horse Show for the Professor Ingvar Fredricson Foundation’s 2025 scholarship ceremony, celebrating groundbreaking Swedish research in equine biomechanics. From the pioneering efforts of the 1970s—when high‑speed cameras and manual measurements were the researcher’s tools—to today’s AI‑powered motion analysis and robotic hoof simulators, the audience was taken on a journey through decades of innovation. Professors Lars Roepstorff and Marie Rhodin, together with Associate Professor Elin Hernlund, shared their latest breakthroughs, followed by live demonstrations showing how AI and high‑precision sensors are transforming the understanding of horse–rider interaction. Moderator Jens Fredricson guided the dialogue and inspired exchange between researchers, while post‑event discussions with attendees helped build valuable bridges between research and practice.
The FEI's guardian framework resonates with the work we champion at the Professor Fredricson Foundation. Advancing equestrian sport means placing the horse's welfare and wellbeing at the center — not as an afterthought, but as the foundation upon which all excellence is built.
