Elizabeth Rose McElvain November 12, 1940- October 24, 2025

Elizabeth Rose McElvain November 12, 1940- October 24, 2025 Elizabeth "Betty" Rose McElvain, 84, passed away peacefully surrounded by family and friends October 24th, 2025. Betty was born to William "Willie" Ingersoll Rose and Mary Jane "Jerry" Rose (Brown) on November 12th, 1940, in Hartford, Connecticut where Willie worked as an engineer for Pratt and Whitney. The Rose family moved to Detroit area soon after so Willie could pursue opportunities working in the automotive industry. When Betty was 9 years old Willie again moved his family to Corrales, NM where he ran a successful machine shop and he and Jerry could raise their family in the freedom of the New Mexico desert. Betty and her siblings, older sister Sally and younger brother Billy, loved growing up in New Mexico. Betty began her lifelong passion for horses and would spend all her free time on her horse roaming the desert and the area surrounding Corrales. Betty attended Kingswood School in Bloomfield Township, Michigan as a boarding student. While she was not happy being away from her horse and the deserts of NM she excelled in school and bragged about how she was a natural bowler and once bowled a perfect game for her school team. She never bowled again. Betty attended University of New Mexico and received a bachelor's degree in political science. While attending UNM, Betty studied abroad, one semester in Geneva, Switzerland and one in Guadalajara, Mexico. She had a gift for language and spoke both French and Spanish. While attending UNM, Betty gave birth to her first son Richard Thomas Goheen on April 12th, 1962. Upon graduating from UNM she moved to Santa Fe and worked for state legislators in the capital. While there she met her husband Thornton "Tim" Howard McElvain Jr. They were married in Santa Fe in March of 1963. They moved to the McElvain property in Pecos, NM named Querencia. Betty was instrumental in stopping the Elk Mountain Road from Pecos to Las Vegas and that part of the wilderness is forever protected. Betty gave birth to her second son December 27th, 1963, to Thornton "Mac" Howard McElvain III and her third son Guy William McElvain on December 29th, 1965. While raising her family in Pecos, Tim managed his family's oil and gas exploration and production company in Santa Fe. Betty continued to pursue her horse passion and together her and Tim would begin breeding, training, and showing horses. Together with friends they established the first fox hunt in New Mexico's history, Querencia Hounds, and would chase coyote and fox on Rowe Mesa, a passion she would continue the rest of her life. In 1974 Tim moved the family to south Texas to pursue cattle ranching and started the Querencia Land and Cattle Company near Los Fresnos, Texas. Betty loved south Texas and the culture there and continued her passion for horses. While there, Betty began to teach riding on the ranch and always had a group of young kids around the barnsharing her love of horses. One trip while visiting her son, Mac, who was studying a semester with his school in Italy, Betty and the family visited the Holsteiner Verband in Elmshorn, Germany to see the horses. After that visit Betty knew that the Holsteiner was the horse she had been dreaming of, and she and Tim were some of the rst to purchase and import them to the USA. She started with two mares whom she bred to Holsteiner stallions and then she purchased her life-horse, Columbus, as a two-year-old stallion. Betty broke and trained Columbus until his death many years later and would train him up to the highest levels of Grand Prix Dressage. The two were beautiful together and the respect and love was mutual. Betty began to focus on classical dressage and studied from the Master Nuno Olivera of Portugal. Her and Tim would travel to Portugal several times a year to study in his school and also would meet up with him when he gave clinics across the USA. In the meantime, Tim moved his family back to NM in 1980s and purchased Rancho La Querencia in Lemitar, NM. Known today as Rancho Corazon, owned and operated by her son, Guy and his wife Sharon. Here Betty pursued her love for the Holsteiner Horse in earnest for 30 plus years until her retirement. She bred, trained and sold hundreds of horses. Selling them all over the world for Dressage, Show Jumping, and Eventing. She was a founding member and director for the Association of Breeders of Holsteiner Horses in America, which later merged with the American Holsteiner Horse Association, where she continued to serve as a Director. Betty received many awards from the AHHA for her breeding efforts as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award for her breeding excellence. In all Betty spent her lifetime working with horses and loved that pursuit and the constant quest for more knowledge. She was a master horsewoman and a legend in the horse world for her passion, knowledge, skill and legacy she left on the equine community of Olympic sport in the USA and around the world. Betty mentored and taught many riding working students and was lifelong friends with most of them. She was more than a teacher to many of them and would go way out the way to help those she loved. She taught all her children and grandchildren to ride. She took particular pride in the success of her granddaughter, Chenoa, as a successful grand prix competitor in Show Jumping. Betty loved to travel and experience new places and cultures. Her travels took her to China in 1979 as one of the rst western tourists to enter the country in many decades. She went on safari in Africa. Toured Europe, Hong Kong, and camped in Australia for months with her family. She raveled extensively in Mexico with family when they lived in Texas, even driving all the way o Guatemala. She loved trail riding, camping with horses, attending horse shows, fox hunting in the deserts of NM, eating and drinking with friends. She was a fabulous cook and loved all types of food. Betty in preceded in death by her mother and father, sister Sally, brother Bill, and her second son Mac. She is survived by her sons; Rich Goheen and his wife Susan, Guy McElvain and his wife Sharon, grandchildren; Hailey Montoya, Amanda Goheen, Richie Goheen, Chenoa Kennedy and Clayton McElvain, great grandchildren; Eleanor Montoya, Augustus Kennedy, and Carson Kennedy. A Celebration of Her Life will be held November 12th, 2025 at 11am on her porch of her residence followed by a lunch reception. All are welcome to attend. In lieu of flowers or food, please consider honoring Betty's memory with a donation to httns://loveline.com/donate/ or https://thehorseshelter org/donate/