Amateur paint competitor Morgan Ilic of Franklinville, New Jersey has trained her own horses her entire show career. Ilic has won multiple top tens at the APHA World Show which is quite a feat in itself. More remarkably, her accomplishments came while training her horses entirely on her own. In 2010, she was the APHA Reserve World Champion in Novice Amateur Western Riding and the 2011 honor roll champion in Classic Amateur Hunt Seat Equitation.
Morgan, who is training to be a occupational therapist and wants to own an organic cattle farm, laughs when asked why she has chosen to train her own horses and tells GoHorseShow.com that her family couldn’t afford to rely on trainers to help her and her two sisters show.
“My family couldn’t pay big money for the broke seasoned show horses, so my mom, who has a great eye for a prospect, would buy a yearling or two year-old for me and I would train it and show,” Morgan explains. “Then, we would sell it and get a more talented yearling or two year-old that I could take to the next level. We would just repeat this process to get horses that were competitive enough to show at this high of a level without having to spend a ton of money. We also bred some of our own. My current mount, Stuck Up Zipper (Darla), is one of those and my favorite. My family has owned her since she was born, and I have been her only trainer so we have a very strong bond. I’ve also done well with my other horses, including Dirty Rock N Roll.”
Morgan continues, “I wanted to learn how to train them better so I would get lessons from different local trainers with my young horses. I implement all kinds of different breaking/training techniques from different disciplines,” she says. “I don’t have a horse trainer now because when I was a kid, I never thought I needed one. I liked the challenge of preparing my own horses for a show and felt confident enough in myself that I could do it on my own. What I like about training my own horses is that I always feel like I have an extra edge because I know my horses better than anybody. It’s definitely very satisfying when I do well on a horse I prepared all by myself.”
The 23 year-old’s best advice for amateurs and youth trying to be successful in the show ring without a trainer is to, “Ride, Ride, Ride!” and “Make sure you know your horse because I see a lot of kids today who have their horses with trainers that live far away and they don’t know their horse and it makes them less prepared at the horse shows than other kids.”
Morgan adds,”Actually, my favorite advice to give people is to get lessons from knowledgeable trainers that do different disciplines. I have spent time learning from dressage trainers, reining trainers, barrel racers, hunters, etc. If you get lessons and train with the same trainer for years on end…how much can you learn? Keep your mind open to learn new things!”
