Elizabeth Keathley on Tennessee Crossroads

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By Nancy Brannon; photos courtesy of Laura Faber

It’s exciting to see mid-south equestrians on television! In mid-January, Nashville Public Television WNPT aired an episode of Tennessee Crossroads featuring middle Tennessee carriage driving instructor Elizabeth Keathley. WKNO in the Memphis area has not yet aired that episode, but you can view it online at: https://www.tennesseecrossroads.org/program-info/?selected_segment=equestrian-trainer-elizabeth-keathley

The episode shows Keathley at her 105-acre Valhalla Farm in Woodbury, Tennessee teaching her students Brenda Rachor, of College Grove, Tennessee, driving her 15-year-old Morgan mare named Bunny and Carol Grimsley of Chattanooga driving a pair of Welsh ponies, Max and Lucas.

Keathley describes herself as having “a passion” for horses. In her college days, she attended Middle Tennessee State University in the Horse Science Program. But she says that school was difficult for her, so she pleaded with her parents, “Can I just make it in the horse world?” She formerly rode hunter/jumpers and “loved it,” she said, but now she is a world renowned professional trainer for driving horses. “The horse has always kept me going,” she said. “I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

Keathley spends half the year, May through October, in middle Tennessee and the other half of the year as the winter trainer in residence at The Grand Oaks Resort in Weirsdale, Florida.

When she was driving competitively, she was Reserve National Champion in 2015 with the pony pair Rollingwoods Baynot and Annandale Brandy Snap. She had a successful 30-year competitive driving career, and her dad drove competitively as well. Now she is semi-retired from competitive driving and has retired her own horses, but recently started showing some of her client’s horses in competition.

Keathley trains her clients and their horses for pleasure driving as well as for combined driving. “There are three phases in combined driving,” she explained. “Dressage, cross country marathon, and an obstacle cone course.” She has a roads and tracks course set up on her middle Tennessee farm, where members of the Middle Tennessee Carriage Club come to train with Keathley or meet for a competitive event.

In Florida, her students did well at last December’s HDT. Participants were: Carole Grimsley driver and Vanessa Morgan navigator with Valhalla’s Super Duper; KA Carey driver and Joanna Wilburn navigator with Rollingwoods Baynot; Sigrid Edwards driver and Elizabeth Keathley navigator with Gee Wiz; and Brenda Rachor’s pony Bunny driven by Elizabeth Keathley with Joanna Wilburn as navigator. Keathley was first in Preliminary Single Pony and Kathleen Carey was third in Preliminary Single Pony. Carol Grimsley was fourth in Training Single Pony; and Sigrid Edwards was first in Intermediate Single Horse. Elizabeth had praise for all: “Everyone did fabulous; great job everyone! I could not be more proud, as we all enjoyed being back in the show ring.”

At her home in Woodbury, Tenn. Elizabeth keeps three ponies and a horse: Rollingwoods Baynot, who competes at Preliminary level; a young Hackney pony she recently purchased for training; and a half brother to Rollingwoods Baynot that she calls “Dennis the Menace.” I asked if he ever gets into trouble; “all the time,” was her answer. She also has a Connemara/Thoroughbred cross named Jag who is her riding horse.

In Florida, she teaches an average of 8 to 10 lessons a day. She works with Grand Oaks clients in the mornings and with her personal clients in the afternoon. She trains drivers at all levels, from beginner to advanced levels.

I asked Elizabeth about any newly-found fame she has experienced from being on Tennessee Crossroads. “A little,” she answered. “It is both embarrassing and humbling – and fun with my 15 minutes of fame!”

She praised show producer Laura Faber, whom she had not met before the show taping, but who made her feel right at home and relaxed. “She made me feel comfortable being in the limelight,” Elizabeth said. Laura is WNPT producer at Tennessee Crossroads and founder/owner/creative director at STORYSOURCE. “The cameraman and the director were all super-professional.” The show was taped last September (2020) in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although she did not wear a mask while being taped, all the others wore masks and kept the 6-foot distance using a long boom mic.

Keathley says she loves teaching and horses. “It’s a passion I have.” And her students say she has an extraordinary ability to connect with horses. “Every horse will teach you. I feel like I understand the horses because they ‘speak’ to you in different ways – if you stop and listen,” Elizabeth says.

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