I’m just reflecting on a barn where I rode in the 1990’s in Naperville, Illinois. It was called Fairlane Farms I believe, and it was a beautiful place. I’m wondering whether it still exists, or whether anyone knows what happened to it? Also, a friend rode at the Northwestern University Equestrian Center, does that facility still exist? I lessoned there once and as I recall, Dan Jayne of the the notorious Jayne family, trained there. It was only later that I learned the story insurance scandals, etc. Just trying to figure out whether those two facilities still exist… there were several beautiful TB hunters by a stallion named Hot Oil at Fairlane. All had really difficult temperaments, but under tack they were lovely!
I’m rather local to the area. As far as I know, fairlane farms (the name) is now affiliated with a developing subdivision. So unless the property has since changed names, it seems to have gone the way of a number of barns in the area. The only barns that are in Naperville proper that are of a larger size that still operate (as far as I know) are the former Fox Meadow Farms, since renamed under new ownership, and then Trillion (formerly Judgement, but they’ve done a lot of name changes).
If you can remember a street in proximity to it I might be able to give more detail.
I rode at Fairlane in the 70’s. It was on Hobson Road, and I believe later became Judgement Farms.
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I’d be curious if either of you could confirm if the current Trillion Equestrian (on Hobson, just west of 53) is the property you’re remembering?
Yup! That’s it!
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It might have been Hobson? It’s been so long! The barn was set back from the street with a few large jumping arenas on either side of the drive. Covered arena, with barn stalls to the right of the arena and pastures/turnout behind, is what I remember. A dressage court, I think, behind front jump arena on left, and just before barn… There were several TB there sired by stallion Hot Oil. The horses were all beautiful but difficult on the ground from what I recall. An assistant trainer named Lori and a very odd trainer named Raymond or something, quite a unique character…
Assuming this is the same facility on Hobson, it’s now “Trillion” (as others have mentioned), and has been for sale for ages with no takers. From the street, it’s looking pretty ragged. Hobson is an alley of mega-homes and beautiful trees, so I would have thought the property would have been gobbled up for residential use by now. Maybe some is low-lying/has water problems?
Fox Meadow is now Windridge, on Royce Road (seems like Bolingbrook, but is actually still Naperville, I think). Dark Horse is at the Naperville Polo Grounds, which is, oddly enough, actually in Plainfield (119th Street). Judgement, which was at the Trillion property on Hobson before it became Trillion, is now out in Oswego.
IIRC there were actually takers a while back for the Trillion land but they ran into issues with it not being incorporated Naperville? No fire hydrants in the area, so the people who wanted to buy the land ended up having their plans fall through for that (and assorted other reasons). It’s also prone to flooding so I believe??? can’t be (completely) developed? If I’m (still) remembering correctly, I believe the property is co-owned so sale is challenging to begin with, but they’ve started listing the house on-property on AirBNB/something and have been making bank with events (weddings, etc), so they’re not really urgent on selling. That said, all of this is all very second-hand news from having acquaintances who live down the road from it.
I so enjoyed my time there with the Kuhn’s. They played polo on the back fields. The Budweiser folks would come up from St. Louis at times. It was quite the family affair, and they had pig roasts for all their family and clients. Great memories!
Thanks everyone, I looked up Trillion and saw pics and while the front arenas have changed it definitely looked like the place down to the green barn. I emailed last night and they confirmed that it is. So neat to have that little mystery solved. Seeing inside the arena and barns brought back such a flood of memories from that era for me. Next, I boarded at Top Brass Farms in Orland Park which I believe also had some racing TB (owned by the owners of the property.) It was across the street from a forest preserve and adjacent to others, which made it a lot of fun and so beautiful out that way. I wonder what happened to that spot… I wish I could get in touch with my old friends from Fairlane but really only have first names to go on. Not going to get anywhere with that!
I’m so glad I came across this site. It brings back so many memories and answers a lot of questions. I rode at Fairlane in the late 70’s and was a hot walker for many years for quite a few Polo players. It was the most wonderful time for me as I loved (and still do) horses and horse people. I absolutely loved the Kuhns -they were wonderful to me. Does anyone remember Jennifer Kristy, or the Breitweiser girls?
