As a third-generation horsewoman, Hilary Wilcox was privileged to grow up with easy access to horses, but she knows that getting involved can be daunting for anyone new. As one of the trainers at her family’s Redwing Farm in Waterloo, Ill., one of her missions is to reduce the barrier to entry for those looking to start riding.
“Right now, we teach 150 lessons a week — out of that number, some number of kids are going to buy horses and go into the industry more fully, but a big percentage of those are going to come ride every week and interact with the horses,” she said. “Horses will stay a part of their life at least on a weekly level, and they learn all of the things we want them to learn through horses that are life lessons, not just horse lessons. For me, that has always been really important, the accessibility of those lessons.
“We’re doing it because it brings people into the industry and it lets us grow our business, but through that it allows you to reach out to the community; it allows you to bring those kids in and share that,” she continued.
Wilcox is the granddaughter of Judy Werner, a lifelong Saddlebred competitor, owner of Redwing Farm and vice president on the board of directors for US Equestrian. As such, Wilcox was on a horse before she could sit up and learned by following her grandmother around the farm. She attended Stephens College in Columbia, Mo., and worked at many esteemed Saddlebred farms as she expanded her education. In 2018, she was named one of the U.S. Saddle Seat World Cup Team coaches, and at the Saddle Seat World Cup, the team won gold in both the three-gaited and five-gaited sections.
In 2019, she returned to teach at Redwing, where she can share her love of horses with the next generation.
“Throughout most of my childhood, the people I went to when I had a problem or had the biggest influence on my life were the people who taught me to ride and those in the barn, and I think it’s really important,” she said. “The only way to sustain the horse industry and to share what we all love about the horse is to be willing to teach it and to be able to share your joy of the horse, your passion for the horse. To be able to share that with kids who might not get that otherwise is really a privilege and is really the only way our industry continues to sustain and grow.”
Large lesson programs were a staple of all the barns Wilcox worked at and created a pipeline for potential new show riders. A defining feature for each program — and one Redwing has implemented for years — is offering a complimentary introductory lesson.
“We get people all the time who have never seen or touched a horse, and they oftentimes end up taking lessons with us, because that first time is such a wonderful thing,” said Wilcox. “It’s been a great way to allow access to people who might not have it otherwise.”
Those free lessons have been a way to allow foster kids to ride or for Girl Scout troops to fulfill the riding portion of their horseback riding badges after they’ve completed the hands-on components. Programs like these bring the community in the door.
Another way Wilcox has welcomed the community is by coordinating with the Monroe County YMCA to offer a YMCA riding camp. Redwing is offering two week-long camps, where the children will spend half the day at the farm. Inspired by a similar program run at one of her previous barns, Wilcox reached out to the YMCA to explore feasibility. The effort was aided by a Redwing policy requiring all adult staff, including grooms and farriers, to be US Equestrian members, complete SafeSport training, and do a USEF background check. Redwing’s policies exceeded the YMCA’s requirements for their adult staff, making it simpler to build the partnership.
Ensuring all Redwing staff is properly trained and vetted is important to Wilcox, especially given the prevalence of news stories about inappropriate behavior by coaches, teachers, or volunteers.
“For us, it felt like an easy way to say we’re taking this seriously. We understand that there are these problems out there in the world; you trust us with your kids, and we want to repay that trust by showing we’re doing everything we can to give you a reason to,” Wilcox said. “Everybody has a background check; everybody has taken SafeSport; everybody is a mandatory reporter. It is important to us that it feels like a space where the kids can be dropped off and spend the day.
“I think in general it makes parents feel more comfortable,” she added. “I don’t have a single parent that complains about having to take it when they do their membership to show their horses. I don’t have a single parent who thinks it’s a bad thing. In my experience, they have to take it to do any other sport with their kids or if they’re going to do soccer or do lunch duty at the public school. If we were to say, ‘Oh we don’t have to,’ that would be a red flag to my parents, so the fact that there is this standard in our industry has been a comfort in a lot of ways and made it so they’re just like any other sport.”
Finding creative ways to introduce new riders to horses, and ultimately build her own business, whether as someone who takes weekly lessons or eventual horse owners and competitors, is a particular passion for Wilcox, and she’s seen it pay dividends. Most of their current customers took their first lessons at Redwing before progressing to competing at local, national, and world-level shows.
“It’s been very cool because every kid we got to take [to those shows] took their first lesson here,” Wilcox said. “We went from just teaching lessons to having about 20 horses in training all coming out of that program, which is very cool.”