Glen Mills ‘Horse Whisperer’ Jill Forbes Wilcox Still at It at 91

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A tied-up horse outside a barn
Image via Tory Hill Farm Facebook page

Jill Forbes Wilcox, 91, no longer rides high in the saddle.

“I have more sense than that,” she said.

That doesn’t mean her love for horses has diminished, writes J. Pirro for The Hunt Magazine.

Wilcox owns the Glen Mills horse farm and riding school, Tory Hill Farm.

Willcox came to America from postwar England in 1954 at age 22 to “chase cowboys.”

She ended up founding Tory Hill in 1958, managed by long-time apprentice and equine bodyworker, Emily Dugan. 

For 20 years going back to the 1960s, Wilcox was also the dressage judge at the Devon Horse Show.

“I began to understand the psychology of everything, to be part of the horse’s experience—so much so that you had a horse without stress. You could go up to a wild horse and have it trust you,” she says. “That’s an art.”

These days, Tory Hill Farm’s focus has been on rehabilitating and re-homing wild mustangs from western prairies.

Wilcox and Dugan work with riders and their horses to ensure the two understand each other.

“I admire wild horses, wild animals, and wild people,” Wilcox said. “But you have to learn to melt around these animals.”

Read more about the life of Jill Forbes Wilcox in The Hunt.


The Wild Mustangs of North America.

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