Belgians by choice

HERMAN — At Corey’s Belgians, one could expect to hear a bray out of the blue or a neigh coming from the barn. That is because 47 horses and 12 donkeys reside on the 120-acre farm Diane Corey and her late husband, Milton, started over 50 years ago.

“Milton and I went to Battle Lake to buy a team of horses so we could participate in the Grant County Wagon Train,” Diane said. “The couple that sold them to us told us said we would love them so much we’d start raising them; we laughed because they sold us a team of geldings.”

Though the scientific aspect was not quite right, the loving them part was.

Today, Diane, along with the help of her son, Michael, and daughter, Michelle, raises Belgian draft horses for breeding stock and showmanship. The breed has become their prized possession and way of life since it all started in 1976.

“It’s like a disease,” Michael said. “Once it gets in your blood, you just can’t get it out.”

Diane, Michael and Michelle breed, raise, show, and sell draft horses. They also raise miniature horses and miniature donkeys and raise a few Quarter Horses for riding. Michael farms nearby for a living. He handles most of the feeding and is also in charge of breeding. Michael knows the pedigrees on their farm the best, Diane said.Michelle and her husband, Bruce Sperr, manage a 200-head cow-calf operation on their own farm nearby. Michelle’s skills as a certified veterinary technician come in handy at both the Belgian farm and her own.

Diane spends part of her day as a rural mail carrier. She said she still holds the checkbook, and while she can manage most chores on her own, things are much more attainable when they work together as a team and rely on one another.

“Whoever gets home from work first is usually the one who starts on the evening chores,” Diane said. “We all live within about a 15-mile radius, … so we’re all close by.”

While Diane’s children were growing up, the Coreys spent summers horseback riding together. In 1976, the Grant County Wagon Train was developed to celebrate pioneer heritage. Participants would travel through the countryside in horse-drawn covered wagons. It was then that the Coreys transitioned from riding horses to the Belgian hitch, Diane said. The wagon train traveled around towns within and near Grant County. Over the years, they visited Ashby, Elbow Lake and Vining, among others. They also camped at historic places such as Kensington Rune Stone Park and Elk Lake Campground. One year, the wagon train even started at the Corey farm, Diane said.

In 1989, the Coreys traveled to Montana for the 1989 Great Montana Centennial Cattle Drive, a celebration of Montana’s 100th anniversary of statehood.

“Our trip to Montana was the best vacation I’ve been on,” Diane said. “We cooked right out of the back of our chuck wagon — … canned roast beef and raw fried potatoes. Cowboys walked past, hoping they could join us.”

Diane said they took their team of Belgian horses, a couple of riding horses, a nine-person tent and provisions to last them the six-day, 60-mile journey from Roundup, Montana, to Billings, Montana. In all, 3,000 riders traveled in 200 wagons, driving the herd of 2,800-plus head. It was one of the largest modern cattle drives.

“We still sell colts out there,” Michelle said. “We keep in touch and have a lot of friends in Montana to this day.”

The Corey family continues its involvement locally as well. The Grant County Fair has been on the agenda for many years. Michelle sits on the Grant County Fair board, and she said that, aside from the one year during the coronavirus pandemic when the fair was cancelled, the Coreys have attended for 50 consecutive years.

“My great-grandma told my dad that if we took our animals somewhere, we were not to leave them, … that we were responsible for them,” Michelle said.
“So, ever since then, we’ve slept next to wherever our horses went. Dad and I would get a stall next to our horses, and there we slept, right in the barn, a tradition that still holds today.”

Corey’s Belgians regularly compete in halter classes at the Minnesota State Fair amongst other high-prized stables and breeders. They are proud to have come home with numerous blue ribbons and a couple of reserve champion banners. The Coreys said the fair has always been a great way to stay connected to the horse community.

“The horse community, … we’re a different kind of community,” Michelle said. “We get each other.”

While they are there to compete, they all share a love for horses, and that unites them, even when the competition is high.

“We are surrounded by horse people who would come help us if there was ever anything we needed,” Michael said.

The Coreys’ focus for many years was wagon ride events such as Santa Days, wedding receptions, parades and trail rides. They pulled their team of draft horses, which always consisted of a stud and a mare, as regularly as they could, Diane said In 2020, the family decided to wrap up that portion of their business. Though Milton passed away in 2011, they kept the business going but found that a big part of the joy was missing without his help in driving the team.

“It was a lot of work; … it wasn’t like we’d just load them up and go as most people would think,” Michelle said.  “We’d wash the horses before every event, groom them, load everything up. … We’d be gone all day.”

Now, they pick and choose what their days look like, and each day might be a little different. Last summer, the Corey family was trail riding along the streets of Minneapolis and Minnehaha Park, participating in an urban trail ride fundraiser put on by the Minneapolis Mounted Police Unit.

Madeline Corey, the daughter of Michael and his wife, Peggy, had the honor of selling Moose, the horse she bought when she was 10 years old, to the MMPU. The unit consists of only 10 horses. Moose is a black Percheron-Quarter Horse cross, and Madeline worked with and cared for him up until he joined the unit in 2023. Madeline was invited to Moose’s graduation ceremony, where she got to meet his new rider, along with the police chief.

Moose recently had the honor of representing Minnesota and the MMPU this past summer in Washington, D.C., for a presidential event. The Coreys keep up with Moose’s new life via updates the MMPU shares through their foundation’s Facebook page and website.

Facebook continues to help put Corey’s Belgians on the map. Interested parties are reaching out to the family about their animals. The Coreys’ miniature horses and miniature donkeys are often spoken for before they are even born, Diane said.

About 15-20 foals are born at Corey’s Belgians every year and sold to buyers from across the country. Spring foaling is a busy and exciting time on the farm, Diane said, as they anxiously await and care for the expecting mares and newborn foals.

“There have been so many opportunities provided to us that come from our horses and our farm,” Michelle said. “Even though (the animals) keep us tied down at times, I don’t know what we’d do if we didn’t have them.”