Wood fences zig-zagging across acres of pastures and tractors moving big, round hay bales toward small barns are part of a rustic landscape just a few miles north of Mankato’s downtown.
Quarter horses, Arabians and Peruvians are stabled at several on properties near a stretch of Third Avenue.
Rising early to care for horses has been a routine Kt Harrington has enjoyed since she was a young girl.
“Being there when the sun rises and seeing the mares with their little foals; it’s like Christmas morning every day,” she said.
The stable Harrington operated at Pegasus Circle is under new ownership, but she continues to train horses and riders on its grounds.
Samuel Allen, formerly of Rochester, purchased the 26-acre farm in April and began offering riding lessons in May. The stable’s new name, Top Line Performance Horses, refers to a set of muscles along a horse’s spine, the top line.
Equine training at the stable is provided in two styles that appear worlds apart.
Allen teaches Western-style riding, a method that’s a big part of U.S. rodeo competitions. For several years, Allen has helped 4-Hers prepare for barrel-racing contests at county fairs.
Harrington offers her expertise in dressage, a discipline that traces back to European military horsemanship. She and her horses have won awards in national and international dressage competitions.
“We look different. I’m gonna be wearing a cowboy hat; dressage people wear a different style of pants, and the tack is different,” Allen said.
He then described how Harrington and he use a similar technique when prompting a horse to do a lateral move.
“She calls it a leg yield; I call it a half pass.”
Their students get a marriage of both styles, Allen added. “We’re both big on the fundamentals and refinement.”
Several student riders take advantage of the lessons offered by both trainers.
Monday evening Allen worked with Nicole Blaschko, 12, of Garden City, who is preparing for 4-H horse competitions later this month in St. Peter. His lesson focused on how to guide a horse around a series of large plastic barrels.
Toward the end of the session, Harrington entered the stable’s large indoor arena to provide instruction in dressage moves. Her students learn proper postures and how to direct horses’ paces with precision.
Beautiful movement is the sport’s objective.
Shelly Blaschko, the young rider’s mother, found out about Top Line stables by word of mouth earlier this year. She’d been looking for help with one of family’s two horses. Rose had developed an aversion to entering her trailer.
“Sam helped her get over that,” Shelly said.
Allen’s equine background includes rehabilitating rescued horses and changing problematic behavior in the large animals.
He worked for Mayo Clinic before deciding on changing careers and starting anew in Mankato.
“The Harringtons built this; I have the luxury of getting a turnkey equine facility,” Allen said.
“It’s fabulous,” said Kt’s mom, Caroline Harrington, when asked about her daughter’s return from Florida to the Mankato area as well as the stable’s new training programs.
Top Line’s amenities include a 60-by-120 heated indoor arena as well as a large outdoor arena and a jump course. There are a lounge and kitchen near the arena, indoor and outdoor wash stalls, five grooming stalls and access to several pastures and horse pens. The property boasts several acres of trails.
Madeline Dubke, 19, of North Mankato, cleans stalls and helps with other stable chores. In exchange for her labor, she gets a discount on housing her three horses at TopLine this summer.
“I just love working here,” she said, then described her boss as easygoing and flexible.
A college rodeo competitor, Dubke’s rides will accompany her in September when she returns to the University of Wisconsin-River Falls for her sophomore year.
“I’m studying pre-vet and animal science,” she said.
Kt Harrington was a teen when her family, including her three brothers, moved from the Willmar area to Mankato. Her father, Ed, is a surgeon, and her mother is a horse woman.
“Dad had to agree to live within minutes from the hospital,” she said.
Limestone formations dominate a large swath of land on the city’s north edge — the perfect topology for raising horses. The land surface is not suitable for building sprawling housing developments or big-box businesses; however, the ground and its outcroppings are good for horses’ hooves and stomachs.
“The plants that grow there are good for grazing and water percolates down through the limestone,” said Caroline Harrington.
In 2006, she and her husband purchased Pegasus Circle Stables from Chuck and Peggy Draheim, who had developed the property’s buildings and acreage in the 1980s.
“The Harringtons added so much more!” Peggy Draheim said.
When the Draheims arrived in Mankato, Peggy was able to expand her love of horses into a business. She decided to raise Peruvians, a breed known for providing very smooth rides.
“At one time, we had 80 horses,” said Peggy, who’s a retired high school teacher.
The Draheims’ current home is in a new complex for seniors. Peggy now concentrates on creating and teaching art.
She regularly leads art classes at VINE Adult Community Center. A new exhibit there includes two of her sketches of Peruvians that were stabled on Pegasus Circle.
Her former neighborhood is still home to lots of “horsey” people, Peggy said.
Nicole Blaschko, who travels regularly to practice riding at Top Line, fits that description, too. For several years, she collected figurines of prancing stallions, gentle mares and cute foals.
Additions to the collection tapered off after her parents gifted her with Rose.
Besides riding skills, her daughter’s learned lots of life lessons from being responsible for the animal’s care, Shelly Blaschko said.
The more a rider trains with a specific horse, the more in tune each becomes with the other, and the better the performance is, Kt told The Free Press in a 2016 interview about an event at the stable.
Last week Nicole Blaschko and Rose demonstrated the harmony they’ve developed. After a lesson concluded, the young rider spread out her arms to stay in balance while standing up on the horse’s bare back. The animal stood motionless.