Om oss
Maria Terese Engell
In 2008 Maria Terese Engell fulfilled her dream of becoming an equine veterinarian. She nourishes a deep and lifelong love for horses, their health and wellbeing and runs her own equine practice, Kalnæset Equine Clinic. Growing up with Håvard Engell as her father, and practicing both ballet and dressage, Maria early on gained an interest in and knowledge of human postural control which she implements in her practice as a veterinarian. In 2018 Marias research within veterinary medicine and human postural control resulted in her groundbreaking doctoral thesis “Postural strategies in skilled riders”. With Marias background from ballet, veterinary medicine, and research, she is a pioneer in her field. She is considered a leading expert worldwide with her focus on balance and rhythm of the horse and rider
Lars Roepstorff
Lars Roepstorff has been an important mentor for Maria Terese Engell through her PhD Research. His main responsibilities in RIB will be research and technology development. Lars grew up with horses, competing in showjumping from a young age and is still an active competition rider on a hobby/amateur basis. He graduated as a veterinary surgeon 1985 and has practiced as an equine clinician since then. His scientific work has been focused on biomechanical studies of equine locomotion. In 2011, he became Professor of Equine Functional anatomy, and is today working with applied biomechanics in three different areas: development of tools for objective equine lameness diagnostics, horse-rider interaction, and equine footings. His research on equine footing is recognized world-wide and has made him attractive to top riders and organizers, who wants to ensure the best training and competition footing for their horses.
Elin Hernlund
Since 2008, Elin Hernlund has worked at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) both as a researcher and as a clinician at Equine Clinic of the University Hospital In 2016, Elin defended her dissertation on training and competing surfaces in showjumping. Today, Elin work as a post-doc researcher at the Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Biochemistry as well as a part-time post-doc at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. The aim of her research is to better the understanding of movement and behavioral changes in horses due to orthopedic pain, including changes in facial expression and body posture. In addition, Elin investigates risk factors for lameness, such as the influence of the rider as well as training surface.
Håvard Engell
Håvard Engell gained a unique and practical understanding of human motor control and the body’s sensory system, during his career as a dancer—an interest that evolved into a lifelong passion. He further developed this passion by studying for five years at The Norwegian University of Sports and Science, and later as a coach at the Olympic Sports Centre (OSC) in Oslo. For fifteen years, he was responsible for developing technical performance, and balance and injury prevention in one-to-one coaching of Olympic athletes in more than thirty different sports. Ultimately, he coached a group of athletes that went on to achieve more than 300 medals in Olympic and World Championships. With over forty years of experience, Engell is now a world-renowned expert on balance and gait, and he pours his experience into perfecting the world’s best shoes, the GaitLine shoes.
Ingeborg R Simensen
Ingeborg joined RIB in 2018, and she is taking responsibility for all running operations and projects. She handles communications and marketing, planning and production, distribution, and office management. Ingeborg has been working for the Norwegian Equestrian Federation, and she has been the Chef d’Equipe for the Norwegian Para-Dressage team since 2005 (she still is, and she will take the para-team to Tokyo2020). She has been travelling to Paralympic Games and World Equestrian Games around the globe, and she has a broad experience in organizing and supporting riders in all areas of sporting life. Ingeborg is a school teacher, and has a degree in Business Management, and she has also been an active amateur rider her whole life
