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Email Ontrack Physiotherapy Ltd Site Updated: May 2009     

Baloubet du Rouet
Baloubet du Rouet
3 x World Cup Champion show jumper
On Track Physiotherapy Ltd is based at the historic headquarters of horse racing, Newmarket England, providing freelance physiotherapy services to professional and pleasure horses. Chartered veterinary physiotherapist Kate Hesse, BPhysio MSc MCSP ACPAT(A), has been treating horses for over twelve years. Australian born, Kate graduated from La Trobe University - Melbourne in 1995 with a four-year Bachelor of Physiotherapy (BPhysio) and recently attained a distinction in the Master of Science (MSc) degree in veterinary physiotherapy from the Royal Veterinary College, University of London.
Cockney Rebel
Cockney Rebel
Dual Classic winner

Working in association with Rossdale and Partners Veterinary Surgeons, Kate services their equine hospital and several racing yards in the Newmarket area. On Wednesdays she is based near Stamford (Lincs.) with Gibson and Lee Equine Veterinary Surgeons, treating mostly hunters and eventers.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:

Some highlights include Kate’s appointment as the official equine physiotherapist for Veterinary Services at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. In a similar role, she worked at the Burghley Horse Trials from 2004 to 2006, after which she relinquished due to racing commitments.

Kate Hesse - courtesy of Your Horse magazine
courtesy of
Your Horse magazine
Kate’s specialisation is flat racing. She accompanied multiple Group One winner Islington to the Irish Champion Stakes in 2003 and continued to treat the star preceding her triumph in the Breeders’ Cup World Thoroughbred Championships the following month. In 2005 Kate attended the Breeders’ Cup in New York City with Aussie sensation Starcraft. She worked with North Light prior to his victory in the 2004 Epsom Derby and with Alkaased leading up to his win in the 2005 Japan Cup. Recently in 2007 she treated dual Classic winner Cockney Rebel who was victorious in both the English and Irish 2000 Guineas.


BACKGROUND:

Kate’s lifelong involvement with horses is largely thanks to her late grandparents who lived on a farm. As a child her equestrian education was completely informal, often tearing around ‘the bush’ bareback on naughty ponies with no brakes!

Kate Hesse - courtesy of Your Horse magazine
courtesy of
Your Horse magazine
At age 19, with an offer from Murdoch University Veterinary School in one hand and La Trobe University Physiotherapy School in the other, Kate was inspired by the likes of Mary Bromiley to do something different and pursue physiotherapy with a view to one day practising on horses.

During her university years she did a stint as a ‘jillaroo’, mustering cattle on horseback in the outback region of the Kimberley on a million-acre station. Regardless of formal riding lessons since, Kate still insists her most valuable horsemanship skills were gleaned from the stockmen of Meda (cattle) Station. (see Press and Editorials)

Her early training in equine therapy was predominantly with the Academy of Equine Sport Therapy in Germany. Relocating to the UK in 2002, a year later Kate qualified as a Category 'A' Member of ACPAT, the Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Animal Therapy. In May 2009 she completed the MSc Veterinary Physiotherapy course at The Royal Veterinary College, University of London.

For information on qualifying as an animal physiotherapist in the UK, please see the links to ACPAT and the Royal Veterinary College.