Chenelle first equestrian rider to be inducted into Club Sports Hall of Fame
4/12/2023 3:52:00 AM | Equestrian
Elizabeth Chenelle, Liberty University’s first IHSA National Championships qualifier and Cacchione Cup competitor as a senior in 2017 at the 50th annual show held in Lexington, Ky., will be the equestrian team’s first inductee into the Club Sports Hall of Fame on Friday at noon at The Virginian in downtown Lynchburg.
Despite being surrounded by equestrian influences, alongside her sisters Leah and Rebekah who went on to excel in Hunt Seat events at NCAA Division I Texas A&M, Chenelle gave up riding for basketball in middle school. She didn’t return to her first love until her sophomore year at Liberty.
“I always wanted to get back into it in college,” said Chenelle (’17), now 28. “It was definitely different coming into a Christian riding program. Those are two things that don’t make sense together and was not even a thought of mine in this world. I grew up going to a small, private, Christian School that had a graduating class of 10 students, so there was much more growth opportunity at Liberty.”
Since she hadn’t ridden competitively in 10 years, Chenelle started as an Intermediate rider at Liberty before moving up the ranks.
“I started lower and was able to work my way up,” she said. “Back then, I was definitely developing a lot of things I learned when I was younger. Thankfully, I was able to ride when I would go home.”
Once her passion for the sport rekindled, Chenelle helped advocate for the Liberty Mountain Equestrian Center to be built, and traveled with interim coach Lori Matthews to Florida on a recruiting trip in April of 2015.
“I met with the higher-ups and said, ‘We cannot do this sport without an indoor ring,’ and they recognized it was such a big need to develop the program,” Chenelle said, noting that the indoor arena was completed before her senior season under the supervision of Jim Arrigon, Liberty’s second head coach in the program’s third season in 2015-16. “All in all, the university progressed the program into what it needed to be to become successful.”
Arrigon handed the reins of the program off to sixth-year Head Coach Suzanne Flaig in 2017-18, as well as Assistant Coach Kimi Counts, who will be Chenelle’s presenter at Friday’s ceremony with Flaig in Ocala, Fla., for this weekend’s NCEA National Championships.
“He had a big presence in IHSA, and got us into a different region, which made the program more successful,” Chenelle said of Arrigon.
Chenelle earned her B.Ed. in Elementary Education, but she has remained in the equestrian realm, helping to manage her parents’ Windcrest Farm, located in Hebron, Conn.
Armand and Martha Chenelle, professional horse trainers who taught their three daughters to ride, have donated eight horses to Liberty’s program in the years since Elizabeth graduated.
“We really trust Suzanne and Kimi, and the Equestrian Center is a wonderful place for horses to go,” Chenelle said. “Some of them were valued at $80,000 or even $100,000 and are very nice horses. Some are very nice school horses, and a lot of them are older and this is a really good way for them to end their careers.”
She was also given a horse, McCoy, by Amber Gayheart, who was a freshman on the team when Chenelle was a senior and went on to qualify for IHSA nationals herself.
Chenelle spends two months of the winter with her family in Florida, grooming and tending to the medical needs of 15 of their horses and 15 more belonging to their clients, as well as scheduling, traveling to, and working at various horse shows.
She is still an active amateur competitor when her busy schedule permits.
“I show in adult equitation and amateur hunter seat (divisions) and this year I would like to qualify for the Devon Horse Show, a prestigious show in Pennsylvania next May,” Chenelle said.
She qualified for that event last year, but her horse, Easton, 13, suffered a freak accident in his paddock, nearly severing his hind suspensory ligament.
“He couldn’t walk or move, but he has been a star patient and, hopefully, his recovery will be a miraculous one,” Chenelle said. “It wasn’t career-ending and he will start jumping again in April.”
Next to her boyfriend, Chenelle said Easton is “the love of my life. He is a wonderful horse that I could never replace.”
She enjoys most aspects of her job, which involves teaching skills, only working with beginner riders and horse caretakers rather than elementary students.
“My degree has been very helpful, though it is a very different type of teaching,” Chenelle said. “I used to do camps for years as a counselor out of our farm, which was always really fun, and I have been learning a lot about patience, which is not something I am naturally gifted in.”
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer