"THE JOY AND THE SORROWS OF PIGEON SPORT" By Rudy Fosselle Can't see the forest for the trees!

November!

A gloomy month, but also the month where a lot of pairing will take place again; selection will already have been done for most of us.

Selection, the "magic word" that will ultimately be decisive when racing resumes. The question is how high the bar should be set for that selection? One fancier will set the bar a little higher than another. Every discipline is different: speed, middle distance, and long distance. Speed ​​​​racers naturally know what they're dealing with much faster than, for example, a long distance racer, where it takes a bit longer.

In their own loft, old and yearling pigeons should have won half of their prizes 1 in 10, without doubles, of course! Regarding young pigeons, there's a big difference, depending on how they are raced. Those who race exclusively youngsters are usually in the race from the first flight, and are raced in widowhood or from the nest. Those who start later (like us) and only let them fly 7 x 155 km will naturally be less able to select them based on performance. However, we still like to see them "show off," even if they are basketed later for the first time and have to compete immediately against young pigeons who will already be flying a Noyon for the seventh time!

GOOD THINGS COME SOON!
They often quickly show what they're made of, whether you race sprint, middle-distance, or long-distance. It's a matter of knowing at the end of the season who gets to stay and who gets to go! Regardless of their performance as young birds, our best yearlings and old birds weren't always our best as young birds. This also has to do with how well you know your pigeons.

REINFORCEMENTS!
The days when people knocked on fanciers' doors to get reinforcements are long gone! The "light box" offers reinforcements every day; the days of auctions are almost a thing of the past. The nostalgia of the past is gone, no more waving newspapers to bid, where the caller could barely see the bidder because of the smoke in the hall. Where people often stood three rows deep just to catch a glimpse of the pigeons on display! These days, online bidding is practically impossible without even being able to hold the pigeons. You can bid day and night, year after year, from one site to the next, from enthusiastic youngsters to total or partial sales. I have reservations about sales of a specific year and older. You often see that it involves a few hundred pigeons, and yet they keep getting sold. The pigeon doesn't even have to have flown a prize; it could be a child, grandchild, sister, brother, great-grandchild, and so on! It's the buyer who decides whether to take the plunge or not, and it's all legal, it's allowed, and there's nothing wrong with it.
Personally, I prefer to acquire reinforcements from the fancier's home; contact with the person is very important to me. And I've often had good luck with it, as in recent years with the Vandenbrande Brothers, Lambrechts Cyriel, the late Roger Buvens, André Vanhoute, Albert Derwa, Maes Anthony, Chris Debacker, Wilfried Vandemaele, and Gommaire Verbruggen. Usually, it was just a few pigeons, not a whole lot, and often it was bingo! It's a matter of trust, and a self-respecting seller won't just send you packing. There are others, of course, who are only after your wallet, but believe me, you don't want to be like that. You can also have setbacks with a purchased pigeon, but a self-respecting seller will put things right!

LIVE AND LET LIVE!
Those who want to sell should do so, and there's plenty on offer, especially for those who perform well. If no one were selling, you wouldn't have the chance to strengthen your team, but there's a big difference. It's up to the buyer to make a choice and what they're willing to invest. We've had some expensive soup too, and that's normal. Not all of them are good, and that's unacceptable. A purchased pigeon gets two years of life here; if it doesn't work out, it leaves. They're not put on some kind of "lightbox" to be resold. It's so difficult to discover a breeding pair. If you do have one, take care of it, because it can be over in a flash. For me, a good breeding pair is one from which you regularly breed a very good pigeon, and of course, not all of them are good. If you're lucky enough to own one from which you breed winners up to the fourth generation, then you're in a good place!

LUCK!
Breeding requires a bit of luck, of course, but your best chance is with top-quality pigeons. Many fanciers breed from anything that sounds promising, thinking, "You never know." Personally, I don't like that and I don't participate, which is why we play the total game! I don't need hens that haven't performed, which, of course, doesn't guarantee a good breeding pigeon. But I'd rather breed from a pigeon that has performed well than from one you know nothing about. Is there anything you can do to maintain the good line?
Yes, I'm convinced of that, provided you first have those good breeders!
These were my first lessons in pigeon racing, more than fifty years ago. As a child, I was fortunate enough to meet a teacher who was unparalleled in sprint racing. A true fancier in the truest sense of the word; he handled a pigeon as if it were a diamond. His love for his pigeons was beyond words, which doesn't mean he didn't select properly; quite the opposite.
If you have a good breeding pair, make sure you breed a pair of summer youngsters from them every year. If you do this, select the best ones, and pair them back with your best a year later, the competition won't easily outpace you. And that brings us back to selling; you can't keep them and sell them at the same time!
Most pairs in the breeding loft breed three rounds, and then it's over. You have to take care of them.
You can also learn a lot from the pedigrees of good pigeons. Gommaire Verbruggen, at the top for over half a century, is a master at it. Just take a look at his pedigrees and his breeding strategy. The man from Scherpenheuvel might be helped by the Holy Ground not too far from his doorstep, but I doubt it. Gommaire knows the art of breeding, and that proof has been delivered for over half a century. And of course, every now and then a fresh dose of blood is needed, and Gommaire did just that in the form of two sons of "SERO SERO" (Anthony Maes).
The result is no longer a secret: "SUPERSTAR 645," a son of the incomparable "SERO SERO," developed into a super breeder at the Verbruggen household. Very interesting to examine those pedigrees. This is just one example of many; it often revolves around a specific pair. Another example is Chris Debacker's super pair, "Georges" x "Mieke" (Chris Debacker also has a finger in the pie in the breeding of "sero sero").

More on that another time.