Kirkton returned to Top View Farms after 25 years in Army

GRIDLEY, Ill. — Growing up in a small town with a graduating class of 23 in 1983, Mike Kirkton wanted travel the world.

“Boy, did I get to do that. I ended up staying for 25 years,” said Kirkton, who retired from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant colonel and battalion commander at Fort Leonard Wood in the Missouri Ozarks.

Kirkton operates Top View Farms near Gridley where horseback training, riding and other services have been offered since it was started by his grandfather in 1928.

“My grandfather was training horses, Saddlebreds, and had a lot of Percherons because he farmed. That was the main way to farm back then was horse power,” Kirkton said.

“He started training horses, had clients and then when my parents kind of took over the business they went totally private. There were no outside clients or outside horses there.

“As a kid, growing up in that environment on that farm, I baled hay, which is always done on the hottest day of the summer.

“My family would make 29 horse shows a year. We traveled all over the country. I would even start school late because we were at the Illinois State Fair in August, and when I would finally get home and go to school, it’d already been going on for a week.”

The farm still includes 80-plus acres of tillable ground.

“My parents started to cash rent the ground almost 30 years ago to a good friend of theirs. His two sons cash rent it from me‚” Kirkton said.

After retiring from the military, he took over the family’s horse business, but there were some initial challenges.

When he retired, his wife, Janet, was still in the Army, serving as a colonel, and was a professor of military science at the University of Tennessee at Martin. It was a two-year assignment and she had one year to go before her retirement.

“She talked to her branch in the Army about staying one more year. They said, ‘no, you’re not, you’re going to Iraq,’” he said. “We had both been through combat deployments before, but this one was a little bit different.

“As a lieutenant colonel, she went to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad as a planner on the joint staff and did that for a year. Now, we have five kids, our two youngest were still at home, and so I became a single parent for a year — best year of my life; worst year of my life.

“Because of that, we decided to move the business back up to Illinois. We were in Tennessee. We really weren’t doing American Saddlebreds at that time. Where I was at in Tennessee wasn’t a great location. So, we came back to Saddlebred country in central Illinois and we did that initially.”

The Kirktons first moved to Morton in 2008 and rented a facility for horses. After having to move to a second barn for another two years, he asked his parents about constructing a new facility on the home farm.

“Interest rates for new constructions were so good and we could quit paying everybody else’s mortgage,” he said.

“We had a small barn at the home farm and I added on to it. I added an additional indoor riding facility, a kitchen, bathroom. We were going to have clients out there, so we really added on a lot and we built our business out there and actually did great. I loved having the business there and walk out the back door to do chores.”

Janet retired from the Army after 21 years and worked at Caterpillar for over 15 years before retiring this past September.

Horse Advocate

Kirkton has stepped back from the horse training side, but continues to be an advocate for the horse industry. He’s president of the Illinois Horse And Pony Breeders and Exhibitors Association, a nonprofit organization.

“It’s the state’s oldest equine organization. I’m still involved in that helping promote the breed and what it can do. So, I wouldn’t say I’ve completely retired because I do travel for it quite a bit,” he said.

He also had a four-year stint as superintendent at the Illinois State Horse Show.

“I devoted a lot of my time and everything else to managing the horse show because I cared about it. For the Illinois State Fair, that horse show is our state championship, and that was my approach to it. I was able to increase prize money,” he said.

“I was pretty lucky with the fair manager, Amy Bliefnick, who helped me increase the prize money for participants, which I thought helped out a lot. That’s all gone today.”

Kirkton also entered the political arena, serving as a member of the Livingston County Board until 2022 when he ran for state representative in the 105th District.

He lost that election to Dennis Tipsword in what was then the new 105th that was carved out from the 106th during redistricting.

“I love campaigning. I love meeting people. I love researching the issues, to be able to talk about what’s going on in Springfield, what I think is good for the county or for the district, what’s not good for the county or the district,” Kirkton said.

“The No. 1 business in this district is agriculture. That’s the biggest moneymaker in this district of this county. All the businesses around depend on agriculture.”

Farming History

The family has a long history tied to agriculture. Kirkton’s great-grandfather was the first Illinois Farm Bureau vice president when it was formed in 1916, later served as IFB president and was instrumental in the creation of the Illinois Agricultural Association.

“My grandfather, my dad’s dad, farmed. My uncles all farmed. My dad initially started farming until he had an accident with a horse and then wasn’t able to farm any more. He then sold insurance for County Companies,” Kirkton said.

“A lot of farmers will tell you that I’m not a real farmer, because I have horses. Except I would disagree with that when I’m breaking ice out of water buckets in the middle of the winter in a blizzard. I’ve got to get grain. I’ve got to get hay. I’ve got to get bedding. I’ve got to get rid of it. I’ve got to clean those stalls. Chores are chores. Just because I’m not riding in a combine does not make me a farmer.”

Military Career

Kirkton began his military career right after high school by applying to a military college. He received a scholarship and enrolled a two-year program at New Mexico Military Institute where he was commissioned second lieutenant at 20 years old.

He then had the option to go into active duty or go into the National Guard, complete his last two years of education and then go on active duty.

He opted for the National Guard and completed his education in two years at Illinois State University.

“I was focused on getting through school because a lot of my peers were on the five-year-plus plan. I wanted to be done in two years so that I could get on active duty and go do things for my country, because I really I had a desire to do that,” he said.

“At military college, I immersed myself in that environment quite frankly and really had a great time. I learned a lot at school and I learned a lot of my National Guard unit, as well. It’s one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer, but as an officer there are other things going on during the month.

“You would be surprised to find out how much guard stuff the Illinois National Guard soldiers actually do during the month in order to prepare for those weekends and those summer annual trainings.”

When he went on active duty, Kirkton volunteered to go to Korea where he spent 14 months as 2nd Infantry Division rifle platoon leader.

“At that time in the DMZ, the American Army still had combat patrols that we took out into the demilitarized zone. So, I led approximately 12 combat patrols into the DMZ as a lieutenant,” he said.

After his time in Korea, he was sent to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin in the Mojave Desert in southeast California, where he spent just over two years and was selected to be the aide to the commanding general of the center.

“I’m an infantry officer by trade, and I got selected to go to the Armor Advanced Course for Captains. It’s where you learn to be a company commander, quite frankly. Then I went to the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas,” he said.

“I was a Bradley Fighting Vehicle company commander at Fort Hood and then deployed to Desert Shield and Desert Storm. We lost three in Desert Storm, so we saw plenty for 100 hours — it was a long 100 hours.”

Kirkton returned to Fort Hood after Desert Storm for another year where he received a second command. He was part of Project Warrior.

“You either did what they called observer controller time or what they called the Dirt Combat Training Centers which train large units for deployments like the National Training Centers and they also had you go to the school and be an instructor,” he said.

“I got selected to go to Fort Knox, and I was a small group instructor at the U.S. Army Armor and Cavalry School. I trained captains to be company commanders, and I’d been through combat as a company commander. So, it kind of made sense.”

After his stint at Fort Knox, he was transferred to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas for Commander General Staff College.

From there, he went back to Fort Irwin where he was assigned to the Black Horse Regiment, the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, and then was a battalion XO.

He was the regimental S3 operations officer for the Black Horse Regiment during his last year before retirement.

22 Moves

Kirkton wanted to see the world and he did just that over his 25 years in the military. It included having to move 22 times.

“I accomplished what I wanted to do. I loved the Army. Did I love it every day? No. There were good days and bad day. I got to go some places I don’t ever want to go back to again,” he said.

“I just loved serving my country and I served with some great people. I was really blessed. I had some great assignments and I fought for those assignments, like being the aide to the commanding general as a lieutenant. I sure learned a lot about the Army working for him.

“Being the regimental operations officer for one of the largest cavalry regiments in the United States Army at the time, I learned a lot there, too. You kind of build on those assignments and your experiences.”

Family

Through all of the moves over two decades of life, Mike and Janet raised five children that are making an impact of their own in military service and business.

Their youngest son, Matthew, is a junior in college at Grand Rapids in west Michigan.

Son Michael is a newly promoted second lieutenant in the Army’s new cyber branch and will be stationed at Fort Eisenhower in Georgia in early 2026.

Their foster daughter, Kaitlyn, was at Fort Bragg in North Carolina with Special Operations Command and recently moved to Washington, D.C., to work at the Pentagon. She’s a staff sergeant and is going to be promoted to E-7.

Son Dylan lives in Japan and works for the Sony Corporation. He went there as part of the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program.

He majored in journalism and minored in Japanese in college at University of Missouri, worked with the JET program for a year and then applied and got accepted by the Sony Corporation.

He translates contracts for the Sony Corporation in Japan, either from Japanese to English, or English to Japanese.

Their oldest son, Ryan, is working in retail in Minnesota.

“Janet and I have been very blessed,” Kirkton said.