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Three-and-a-half years ago, Robert McGinley was jolted by an urgent plea from his father, William.

The elder McGinley owned a successful electronics company, giving him and his wife Jane the ability in 1981 to buy Horizon Farms, a hilly and wooded 420-acre slice of equestrian heaven nestled in Barrington Hills.

Robert McGinley said his parents bought the property with a vision; a preservation mindset. They believed open space, country living and an equestrian lifestyle benefited the small community in which they lived and were actively involved.

“That’s why they bought it, that’s how they used it, and that’s how they wanted it to stay,” Robert said.

Horizon Farms will stay that way, thanks to the Barrington Area Conservation Trust, which helped make the property one of the largest successful private land preservation efforts in Illinois.

But that almost wasn’t the case.

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