(On Election Day, we'll have updated coverage throughout the day and night on explorehoward.com)

Hay and grain fields stretch over the hills into the line of trees along the horizon. The pastures closer to the barns and the house are bright green, the grass is trimmed in that precise way that gives it the look of a golf course.

The mother of a champion thoroughbred is grazing in the field by the pond, just a few hundred yards from the "Preserve Agriculture, Vote for Slots" signs along Route 97.

Elsewhere in Maryland, the debate over whether slot machines should be legalized is, on some level, largely hypothetical: the answer to a budget problem, a political issue, or even a moral wrong.

But here in western Howard County, where some people still make a living with horse farms, the stakes are higher.

"For us, it's our livelihood," said Katherine M. Voss, co-owner of Chanceland Farm in West Friendship. "You'll see a wholesale exodus of breeders" if the measure fails, she added.

"It's about survival," echoed Brice Ridgely, who, with his wife Mary Anne, owns Spring Meadow Farm in Cooksville. "Maryland is struggling. If the horse industry fails, you'll see houses where there are now farms."

Spring Meadow, the birthplace of the acclaimed 2004 champion Declan's Moon, was preserved when the development rights were sold to a conservancy many years ago. Most of the 200 acres that make up the property are hay and grain fields, and Ridgely farms another 200 acres of rented land.

The crops supply Howard County horse breeders. But those breeders -- who are Ridgely's customers-- could be forced to leave the state if the slots measure is defeated at the polls on Nov. 4, he said.

A boon to breeders

Under the proposed constitutional amendment, 15,000 video lottery terminals, or slot machines, would be allowed at five locations around the state. A big chunk of the proceeds would be used to fund public education.

But seven percent of the gross slots revenue -- an estimated $95 million in 2013 -- would be used to enhance horse racing purses and funds for the horse breeding industry, according to a September report prepared by the Maryland Budget and Tax Policy Institute.

Slots may not be the only solution to the industry's woes, but to Ridgely, they are "a light at the end of the tunnel.

"If the measure fails, the breeding farms are doomed," Ridgely said. "A lot of them have already left."

When Ridgely's parents bought the property in the 1942, it was a dairy farm. But since the mid-1970s, hay and grain crops have been farmed. He and his wife have about 20 race horses, plus a few draft horses to help with field work.

"My wife and I are interested in preserving this for our children and grandchildren," he said, sitting in his living room with photos of their five children and eight grandchildren on nearly every table and shelf.

Chanceland Farm

A housing development once seemed inevitable for the 191 acres along McKendree Road near Frederick Road in West Friendship. The property was divided into parcels and named "Chanceland Farm" on the county land records.

In 1987, when Voss and Robert T. Manfuso bought the property, Voss thought "Chanceland Farm" was a good name for a horse farm.

Today, Chanceland, with its paddocks, an indoor arena and a five-furlong training track, is home to about 75 horses, including 25 mares.

Voss and Manfuso also keep nine horses at Laurel Park. They employ about 15 people.

Under the proposed formula for dividing up slots revenue, the breeders would be able "make ends meet," Voss said. "That's what most horse breeders are looking to do.

"A few of us diehards have hung on," she added. "If the public turns it down, that's it -- game over."

'Farms will go under'

Gretchen Mobberley, who has been in the horse business for more than three decades, feels the same way.

"A lot of farms will go under," Mobberley said. "It's not just horse farms."

Hay and straw farmers, track workers, veterinarians, tack stores, feed dealers and other workers ancillary to the industry will be affected, she said.

Mobberley and Grady Griffin bought Summer Hill Farm, a 125-acre property on Frederick Road, in 1990, after another farm they owned was squeezed by development.

"These farms are going to go to developers. When they build houses, they'll need more roads and schools," Mobberley said. "It's a vicious cycle."

Mobberley and her daughter, Bird, care for their nine horses boarded at Laurel Park. Griffin runs the farm, which is home to about 30 more horses, and has both indoor and outdoor arenas.

States with slots are offering breeder bonuses -- portions of prize money given to the breeder of a winning horse -- that are several thousand dollars, she said. In Maryland, the bonuses are several hundred dollars.

Mobberley said that although Maryland would be getting slots late, "It's better than not at all. We're desperate."

Like other slots supporters, Mobberley doesn't believe that hardcore gamblers are going to play slots. "You see buses from retirement homes. That's the type of person it attracts," she says. "It's not bums who are betting their last meal."

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