Ariën - De Keyser (Tielt-Winge) wins 1st Prov. Tulle Vlaams-Brabant with 'Willem One'

Tielt-Winge - Ariën - De Keyser impressed again during the national flight from Tulle last weekend. Their pigeon, with ring number BE23-2001662, took first place at provincial level against 757 yearlings. At national level, this pigeon managed 22nd place out of 5,751 yearlings and finished 62nd out of 13,634 old and yearling pigeons combined.

The winning pigeon: 'Willem One'

Since 2024, Ariën - De Keyser has played not only with pigeons from PEC, but also with pigeons from the well-known Chinese pigeon collector Mr Xing, aka 'Kaier'. Kaier has invested, among others, with the now well-known 'Flying Dentist' Willem de Bruijn from the Netherlands. This race from Tulle was the first national long distance race in which Ariën - De Keyser participated with pigeons from Kaier, as well as with pigeons from origin Willem de Bruijn. Hence the name 'Willem One' for the winning pigeon, which stands for three things: 1st provincial victory with Kaier pigeons, 1st provincial victory with Willem pigeons, and 1st place provincially.

When scrutinising the pedigree, you immediately see that 'Willem One' is descended from absolute top pigeons. On his father's side, he is a grandson of 1st Nat. Ace pigeon Great Middle Distance KBDB 2021 'Real Dream' of Olivier Poussart coupled with the world famous pigeon 'Armando' of Joël Verschoot, an absolute top breeder who raced the following impressive palmares:
1st Olympiad Cat. C Poland 2019
1st Nat. Ace Pigeon KBDB Long Distance 2018
3rd Nat. Ace Pigeon KBDB L.D. 2017
On the dam's side, 'Willem One' is a grandson of 'Secretariat' by Willem de Bruijn with the following record:
1st Nat. Ace Young Pigeon WHZB
1st Ace Young Pigeon Half-Fond SS
2nd Ace Young Pigeon Pipa Ranking
2nd Ace Young Pigeon Afd. 5 RO
also the bloodlines of 'Uranus' and 'Murphy's Law' flow through 'Willem One'.

The character of 'Willem One'

The winner is a rather small blue cock, very soft of feathers, a nice whole as a pigeon and also with a very good character. This means a pigeon that only stands out positively: he listens well, trains well, eats well and always sits nicely stroked with a striking charisma or appearance. He does not have this charisma from strangers, his parents too are very striking pigeons with a lot of charisma.

Ariën - De Keyser is more and more convinced that the charisma of pigeons in the loft is just as important as all the physical characteristics one looks at when handling them. Super pigeons usually have that special striking appearance and can already be distinguished on the loft from the ordinary prize flyers.

A successful start

'Willem One' only flew as a young pigeon as far as Soissons and was put to full use from the start to gain as much experience as possible before the start of the bigger work. So he flew to Sermaises, Vierzon, Bourges, Soissons, Argenton, Vivonne and now Tulle, among others. At Argenton and Poitiers, he won nice prizes and came home remarkably fresh.

Quality above all

Quality shows itself quickly, both in the lofts by their character and in the results of the races. Although there are endless methods and systems, each system only works with excellent pigeons. Ariën - De Keyser is increasingly beginning to appreciate Willem De Bruijn's statement: "Good pigeons and all the rest is nonsense."

The importance of a good system

Conversations with super pigeon fanciers often revolve around breeds and pairings, while conversations with regular fanciers often revolve around products and systems. While both are important, the good pigeon takes precedence to achieve results. Constantly changing systems is a killer, according to Ariën - De Keyser.
Their system is simple but effective: the winter is crucial, then the pigeons must be super healthy and train extremely hard to gain the condition that will benefit them all summer. Once the season starts, fitness gets stronger every week through weekly flights and increasing kilometres. Good nutrition (Pascal uses Matador and Vanrobaeys), propolis & honey (by-products produced by bees) and products from Vydex (Carbosol, Recovery, Super Power Plus, and Entrodex) play an important role for Pascal. For health and more energy, Ariën - De Keyser has relied on Wonder Pigeon daily for more than 10 years.

Future successes

With this win, the tally for Ariën - De Keyser now stands at 82 provincial wins. The milestone of 100 is slowly coming into sight and the ambition to reach it remains high.
On to the next provincial victory and congratulations from the whole Herbots team Pascal!

Maarten Herbots