Horse lovers attempting to save racetrack at Horizon Farm Forest Preserve, while bird and nature enthusiasts question

On a group tour of Horizon Farm Forest Preserve and its rolling pastures, a visitor joked that it would make a fantastic par 3 golf course. Nature lovers trembled at the idea, though such an use is forbidden on the site.
However the comment shows the stress the Forest Preserve District of Cook County faces stabilizing conservation and leisure. The district's main objective is to preserve open space, and provide "nature-compatible" entertainment.
When it comes to Horizon Farm in northwest rural Barrington Hills, the problem comes down to whether to save a half-mile horse racing track. The nearly 400-acre preserve utilized to be a horse breeding and training school. The track was used to train thoroughbreds for racing at the now-closed Arlington International Racecourse.
When the forest preserve district purchased Horizon Farm out of foreclosure for $14.5 million in 2013, authorities expressed openness to keeping equestrian usages of the site. Horse lovers and other maintain users are wondering whether the district will save the track.
" It's actually a reward," Barrington Hills Park District President Dennis Kelly stated. "There's been a great deal of interest in the equestrian community, but we have not gotten a response."
Not everyone is married to the idea of a horse track. Buddies of the Forest Preserves, an independent nonprofit, takes the basic position that recreation in the forest preserves-- from boating to fishing to camping-- must facilitate satisfaction of nature.
" As quickly as entertainment becomes about the activity, that is not in line with what needs to be done with the forest preserves," Friends President Benjamin Cox stated.
The group supports horse tracks since anybody can use them, but has not taken a position specifically on the horse track. Special websites such as a golf course or baseball diamond are just for those uses, so Friends would choose not to develop those in the maintains.
Recent leisure facilities at other forest preserves include canoe and kayak launches, 5 camping areas, off-leash pet parks and the Go Ape treetop experience course in Western Springs.
One group that likes the new protect going back to nature are bird enthusiasts, who've seen a revival of grassland birds at Horizon Farm. Ebird.org reported 91 species found there, including the rare Henslow's sparrow, bobolink, dickcissel, and eastern meadowlark.
As for the horse track, Chicago Audubon Society President Judy Pollock said, "That's for the forest preserve to decide. We're certainly in the camp of trying to get as much bird habitat as possible."
The Barrington Hills Park District has used to cut, bring back and preserve the gravel and dirt track and surrounding railing. Kelly said the work would be done without expense to taxpayers by extending a contract with the Riding Club of Barrington Hills and the Fox Valley Pony Club, which currently preserve trails and cross country horse jumps in Spring Lake Forest Preserve throughout the street from Horizon Farm.
Equestrian fans say lots of people would be free to use the tracks, track and yard infield, including hikers, runners, bicycle riders, cross-country skiers, kite fliers, soccer and polo players. The forest maintain removed fence posts on the protect however left post holes and nails, Kelly said, so it would be much better to have a specified location with safe footing for horses and everyone else.
After extended litigation with the previous owners, the forest maintain district didn't take unimpeded possession of the home up until 2019. Since then, it has actually demolished more than 20 buildings on site that were old or in deep disrepair. It installed signs and turned some roads into trails, all at an expense of about $750,000.
The closed south end still requires to be gotten ready for usage, forest preserve spokesman Carl Vogel stated.
Damaged sections of the rail and overgrown lawn comprise a few of the horse track at Horizon Farm maintain on Aug. 18, 2023, in Barrington Hills. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune).
Preserve officials are producing a master strategy for the site with tracks, restrooms and remediation, postponed from early this year and now to be launched this fall. In the past number of years, the district also acquired two more homes simply to the west, created a parking lot outside the farm, and trimmed a trail to link Horizon Farm with the Spring Lake protect.
The district held a public meeting in 2022 on the future of the Horizon Farm, and will hold another once it has a draft master strategy to present, Vogel wrote to the Tribune. Authorities are discussing the best course of action.
Usage of the track likely would need adding more parking for horse trailers, and might affect the regional bird population.
" That center is a part of the history of the website and would be a resource for the local equestrian community," Vogel wrote. "On the other hand, the Forest Preserves constantly requires to stabilize just how much land we dedicate to recreational usage and just how much to natural areas that can be house to native plants and animals.".
Robert McGinley, family member that previously owned the farm and signed a conservation easement to limit its advancement, worries that the longer the district takes to decide, the less likely it is that the track will endure.
rmccoppin@chicagotribune.com.