Ruth Kennerley is an experienced athlete currently competing at national level events in dressage. Her career highlights include representing England at the Senior Home Internationals in 2017 and 2018 where she won Gold at Medium level in 2017, qualifying for the British Dressage Area Festivals at Prix St George Level and enjoying being highly placed throughout the course of the season competing a
t Premier Leagues. Ruth backed and produced her horse from a 3 year old to working to Inter I/II Level and has a wealth of knowledge in the successful training and rehabilitation of horses.
Ruth graduated from the University of the West of England in 2014 with a First Class BSc (Hons) degree in Equestrian Sports Science. Following her vision of becoming a Human and Equine Sports Therapist, she then completed a Sports Massage Diploma at the University of Nottingham gaining successful entry into the Society of Soft Tissue Therapists (SMA). Following this, Ruth continued her study to achieve her ultimate goal of being able to transfer her skills from treating people onto horses and accomplished the only Ofqual recognised Diploma in Equine Sports Massage allowing her to be a member of the highly regarded Equine Sports Massage Association (ESMA). During the course of her degree, Ruth gained intrinsic knowledge of human and equine anatomy, physiology and all the elements involved in order to achieve peak performance. She was selected as a member of Hartpury College’s prestigious Elite Equine Academy allowing her weekly access to her own personal trainer, sports therapist, nutritionist and psychologist. This opportunity allowed her to develop a passion for sports performance and as a result she decided to undertake her dissertation research looking at the effects of lower back pain in the performance of the dressage rider. Ruth's dissertation went onto to be presented at the 2014 Alltech Conference and was published in the Journal of Comparative Exercise Physiology. The results from this study catalysed her desire to work with athletes and help them achieve the best results possible.
During her training as a Sports Therapist, Ruth worked closely alongside the rehabilitation team at Macclesfield Rugby Club, which gave Ruth great knowledge and experience in the management of injuries and rehabilitation. This experience provided her with the all the necessary skills and in 2016, Ruth was selected as the Soft Tissue Therapist for the Springboks at the Under 20 Rugby World Cup. While Ruth was studying at Hartpury College, she was a key member of the Equine Therapy Centre, independently carrying out therapies and making decisions about the best rehabilitation programme possible for each horse. This experience along with the evidence collected in Ruth's research, confirmed the idea that the horse and rider should be treated as a unit, they are a team. If one is suffering from muscular imbalances and joint dysfunction, then there is a direct correlation to the to the other. Therefore, Ruth recommends that horse and rider should be treated at a similar time to enable full restoration of movement and suppleness to both bodies.
Ruth works on a vast array of equine athletes, from international competition horses representing their country to the rehabilitation of the leisure horse- as far as Ruth is concerned the maintenance of the equine athlete is important in whatever role is done. In 2019, Ruth became one of only 20 therapists in the UK to be qualified in rider and equine Fascial Manipulation via the world renown method of Stecco®.
