Emily Cavender enters her fourth season as the Equestrian Coach for the Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association (IHSA) team, which is the varsity equestrian program at The University of the South.
For Cavender's third season in 2019-20, the Tigers saw success with high point honors at two of the team's shows. Additionally, four riders qualifed for the Regional Championships with two, Sarah Buchholz (Limit Equitation over Fences and Intermediate Flat) and Siena London (Limit Equitation on the Flat) advancing to the Zone Championships.
In the classroom, five student-athletes earned IHSA All-Academic Team laurels.
In her second season in 2018-19, she coached Aelin Hill to a 15th place finish at the IHSA Cacchione Cup. Hill became the fifth student-athlete since 2007 to compete for the Cacchione Cup and the first for Sewanee since 2015.
Additionally, Christopher Chin qualified for the Zone Championships in the Walk/Trot division.
Academically, she saw eight riders named to the All-Academic Team by the IHSA.
Cavender, in her first season at the helm in 2017-18, saw one student-athlete, Margaret Dupree, qualify for the IHSA Zone Championships. On the academic side, six student-athletes were named to the IHSA All-Academic Team.
In three seasons with Sewanee, she has coached 19 selections to the IHSA All-Academic Team.
Sewanee Director of Equestrian Karina Gordy announced that Cavender has been named the new coach for the Tigers in June 2017.
“I am delighted to welcome Emily to the Equestrian center,” said Gordy. “She brings her IHSA competitiveness experience to the team plus her coaching experience. Emily trained under a wonderful IHSA mentor and I am excited to see her lead the Sewanee equestrian team to another successful season.”
Cavender comes to Sewanee after spending the last two years as a graduate teaching assistant at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) in Murfreesboro, Tenn. During that tenure, the Blue Raiders won the 2017 IHSA Regional Championship and Reserve Regional Hunter Seat Team Championship.
While not coaching, Cavender taught various courses on horsemanship and was an instructor at Need A Hand Horse Training in Murfreesboro.
Prior to her time in middle Tennessee, Cavender was a trainer and instructor at East Tennessee Equine in Knoxville, Tenn., from June 2010 to May 2015.
As a student-athlete, Cavender competed in open level hunter and advance level western competitions at MTSU. She also was a part of the MTSU Horse Judging Team that judged competitions from around the country, which includes the 2007 IHSA National Championships.
Updated 6/30/20
