THE THOMPSON ROAD FARM

THE BULL VALLEY RIDING CLUB HERITAGE TRAILS

WHAT IS THE THOMPSON ROAD FARM?

The farm, the history and importance to the Bull Valley Riding Club:

The Thompson Road Farm is a 324 acre farm in the north west section of Bull Valley at the headwaters of Boone Creek. Much of the property has been farmed for generations and horses have been part of the fabric of the land for the same period of time.

The farm’s “heritage trail” network is our original network of trails dating back to the club’s origin in 1963 and comprises more 6 miles of interconnected bridle trails and paths (including the 1 mile long gravel farm access two-track), which wind through agricultural land, peat wetlands, prairie and remnant oak woodlands.

The BVRC is a unique, historic organization which manages one of only a limited number of private bridle trail systems in the United States, and we pre-date the incorporation of the Village of Bull Valley. The Thompson Road Farm is our foundation story.

In the fall of 2020, the farm property was listed for sale on the open market, and the landowner wanted to close the bridle trails to remove a perceived encroachment on the land that might have impacted potential buyers. Realizing the risk of losing this property, its open space and the bridle trail network to potential development, a small group of committed community leaders and conservationists, including the BVRC, formed the non-profit Thompson Road Farm Project, Inc. (TRFP) and began to strategize how to acquire the property. TRFP subsequently convinced the landowner that we were a serious buyer and that allowing the bridle trails to remain open would provide opportunities to showcase the farm to potential donors, as well as allow us access to evaluate the land for potential conservation grants.

The importance of this farm trail system to the riding club cannot be understated, comprising over 10% of our entire bridle trail network. Loss of the farm would have been incredibly damaging to our organization and negatively impactful to the community.

For well over a year and a half, hundreds of hours of dedicated volunteer work by TRFP, and by leveraging grant funding, private sales and donations, we are proud to announce the acquisition of the property by The Land Conservancy of McHenry County in March 2022.

In the future, as the new conservation area is developed, the bridle trails will become multi-use, non-mechanized, non-motorized public access trails and available for horseback riding by the local equestrian community. Stay tuned for further information as time progresses.