THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 23, 1994 TAG: 9406220148
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JANELLE LA BOUVE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940623 LENGTH: Medium
Recently, she won championships in both the hunter pleasure and show hack divisions at Old Dominion Arabian Horse Show in Richmond.
{REST} ``Elizabeth started here during summer camp four years ago when she was a 9-year-old,'' said Sue Cherry, owner of Cherry Point Stables in Suffolk. ``We taught her how to groom and tack.''
Just last year, she entered her first top-level Arabian show.
``She did well,'' said Cherry. So well, in fact, that she qualified for the Arabian Junior National competition.
``The unusual thing is that my daughter, who is 17, is her teacher,'' Cherry said. ``There's a good relationship between them.''
Christy Cherry said her pupil is a natural.
``Elizabeth has real natural potential as a rider,'' Christy said. ``She has an air of confidence about herself when she goes into the ring. It makes a real pretty appearance.''
In the Old Dominion Arabian Horse Show on May 7 and 8, Elizabeth won in competition against trainers many times her age.
Recently, she showed two horses at the Virginia Arabian Horse Association show in Richmond.
``Her horse, Appollo's Gold, placed second in the show hack division,'' Cherry said. ``Then she showed her other horse, Magic Man. He placed second in the halter division.''
Every afternoon after school, Elizabeth can be found at the stables. She's there on Saturdays and Sundays, too, putting in 7 1/2-hour days caring for her three horses.
Ziggy is a purebred quarter horse. Appollo's Gold is a purebred Arabian, and Magic Man is an Arabian saddlebred.
She brushes them down regularly. Three times each week, she applies Skin-So-Soft lotion to keep their coats shiny. She clips them about every three weeks and on show days.
``Gold and Magic are the two show horses right now,'' Elizabeth said. ``I'm in the process of training Ziggy.''
She teaches them to square their feet and arch their neck for the halter competition, showing off the tightness of their body muscles.
``The halter is gold and silver,'' Elizabeth said. ``It's really pretty and fancy.''
For the saddle seat event, Elizabeth trains her horses to hold their head up high and lift their feet high off the ground.
``When my horse and I give each other a good ride and we look nice together, that makes me feel real confident inside,'' she said.
Elizabeth, an eighth-grader at Western Branch Middle School, sometimes helps the younger children with their horses or answers their questions.
She plans a career in veterinary medicine. Although she hopes to limit her practice exclusively to horses, she enjoys other animals, too.
Elizabeth is a member of Equestrian 4-H Club and the Tri-City Horse Association, which includes members from Chesapeake, Portsmouth and Suffolk.
``Elizabeth's whole life is horses,'' said her mother, Sybil Mowery. ``She competes a lot during a year.''
by CNB