Page 121 - The Hunt - Spring/Summer 2023

Willcox talks family history.
second priority is being tolerant with others. She and Dugan don’t always agree, and both acknowledge that. Willcox declined the first horse Dugan wanted to bring to Tory Hill. A few months later, a paint Arabian named Koda arrived. Purchased on Craigslist for $300, Koda cost more to transport from his dirt lot in New Jersey. “They said I could have him if I could catch him,” Dugan says.
And catch him she did—after conning him with food and corralling him back into the barn after he first broke loose from the trailer company’s handlers. In his escape, he smashed his head on the trailer door hitch and broke a tooth. “Now the mustangs arrive worse than he did,” Dugan says.
At 32, Dugan is married to her job. She began riding at age 5 at Radnor Hunt. She hated it. When she found Tory Hill, she dropped out of nursing school at Widener University. Now, after living on the property for the past decade, her plan is to stay forever.
Meanwhile, Willcox isn’t done exploring. “I hope to still learn what I don’t know yet,” Dugan says, insisting she’s not up there with contemporaries like Mrs. Nancy Penn Smith Hannum. “I could’ve been, I guess, but I’ve never felt that I was in competition with people. I’m just jolly lucky to do what I love, and I’ve escaped that way.” TH
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