Rik Cools (Ruiselede) wins 1st and 2nd provincial Argenton

We are at the end of June and Rik Cools and his wife Mieke can already look back with more than satisfaction on the 2023 season.Characteristic of this season is the increasingly hard competitions with a strong northeasterly wind or northerly wind and working weather and warm temperatures. But Rik's pigeons are not afraid of work.

A nasty start by the birds of prey

Yet it was not all roses and moonshine in Ruiselede. In the preparation of the season, the racing teams were plagued daily by the attacks of the birds of prey. And they did this successfully. A number of hens were eliminated and also and especially the youngsters were attacked daily, resulting in relatively large losses. A lot of attention had to be paid to when to release the pigeons and when to train them to prevent greater damage.

Pigeons can handle a lot

The specialist with hens, who has been known for years, has already won a considerable series of real top prizes in 2023. His team of madammen had the right form quite early in the season and this pace of performance has been maintained to date. Rik is an expert in the game with hens. He was one of the pioneers who successfully turned this into a real pigeon art. They train hard, short and powerful, are reliable and you can work with them every week. They live in the aviary during the day and in their resting loft at night. There are no rollers or rubbers on the floor to avoid mating. Through years of selection, the most lusty lines have been removed.
A successful collaborationRik once laid the foundations of his colony with pigeons from his own stock (the then famous Cools-Blancke tandem) and then set up a more than successful joint breeding with Gaby Vandenabeele at a later stage. These pigeons, supplemented with a few individual toppers, are still the basis of the colony.For a number of years now there has been a more than successful and successful co-operation pigeon exchange between Chris Debacker and Rik. Both know each other from their studies and roughly focus on the same flights and distances. A number of youngsters are exchanged every year, with the intention that the hens will be placed in the lofts of Rik and the cocks in the lofts of Chris. This has already produced great successes with national victories, provincial victories and ace pigeons as a result. A win-win for both and this good tradition will be continued.

2023 is already a top season !

Although there are still a series of races to reel off, the 2023 season can already be considered a top season for Rik. The schwung was there from the beginning of the season and the hens trained well and were tight and smooth. This soon showed in the results and from the first races first prizes were played and many top prizes.
The ladies clearly felt like it and have continued this rush to date with great success.
Some thick close prizes have already been played but the real icing on the cake was put on Argenton national last Saturday with a 1st and 2nd provincial Argenton. It was a beautiful, correct flight and that is precisely what Rik's pigeons perform best on. It may be hard work, they are strong enough to then work their way to the front of the pack.

Here are some of the fine results from the past few weeks :

Flight results April-June 2023
15/04 Arras 6-7-9-11-35-... / 499 d. (21 pr. op 35)
30/04 Clermont 1-2-3-4-9-21-... / 823 d. (29 pr. op 34)
06/05 Fontenay 1-3-4-11-12-13-14-14-16-17-... / 281 d. (15 pr. op 19)
13/05 Orleans 1-3-5-8-9-13-16-18-... / 942 d. (18 pr. op 19)
20/05 Chateaudun 1-2-7-8-9-13-26-39-40-47-... / 449 d. (19 pr op 23)
27/05 Bourges 20-45-176 / 980 d. (3 pr op 3)
03/06 Chateaudun 2-32-44-47-50-55-86-97-... / 2.650 d. (23 pr op 29)
09/06 Argenton 24-279-333-386-... / 13.103 d. (4 pr op 5)
24/06 Argenton 1-20-24-63-135-171-... / 2.943 d. (15 pr op 20)
24/06 Argenton 2-7-114-162 2.454 d. (4 pr op 4)

As can be seen, the pigeons fly first prizes very easily and the years of selecting for winners is clearly paying off here.

1st and 2nd provincial Argenton is a nice reward

In addition to a very high prize percentage, they continue to score tops. So last week on the national flight Argenton, it was party time at the Pannenmeers. With a 1st prize provincial in the yearlings and a 2nd prize provincial in the old birds, there was reason enough to crack a bottle.

The winners on duty were :

Happy BE22-3026495 : a hen bred by Chris Debacker. It was no surprise that she could do this as she already won 1st Clermont, top Chateauroux etc....  On her father's side, she comes from Chris' own breeding lines. Along mothers side she is a product of the Fyther-Gloria line of Bert Vanden Berghe coupled with the best of Jan Hooijmans. A toppedigree that also lives up to it in results.

Gella BE21-3062685 : A hen that can typically serve as an example of the cooperation between Rik and Chris. The father is a cock from Chris with the best of the best of this loft in his blood. The mother is a hen from Rik and can mainly be traced back to the top loft Luc & Hilde Sioen. Luc & Hilde are the specialists with hens on the heavy middle distance, with many a strong reference on top.  A very nice pairing that led top very strong results.

Gella flew a nice list of winners this season with the following top results on 3 national races:

- 23rd Argenton from 13,103 pigeons
- 382nd Bourges from 21,075 pigeons
- 2nd Argenton from 2,943 pigeons / 23rd from 11,259 pigeons

About the care we can be quite brief. Rik mainly sticks to the mixtures of Beyers and the by-products of Röhnfried. Without being naive in the medical follow-up, pigeons are kept quite natural but care is taken that they lack nothing to perform top notch. Old known brands, a well thought-out and experienced system of playing...but above all a base of pigeons that can and want to win....and the eye of master Rik who knows how to bring such a team to top performances !

Already congratulations for the current season...but we are not shocked when toppers still fall from the sky in Ruiselede !

Congratulations from the Herbot team !

Geert Dhaenens