A lot has been said about the 75 year old sprint champion Arie den Hartog. He has been able to excel in the sprint, the middle distance, the young birds competition and the natour season after season. 2015 was another impressive year for him, as you can tell from his best results and championship titles of 2015, which we included below:
Asse-Zellik 136 km 4,195 p.: 2-12-13-15-16-etc. (23/43) Quievrain 202 km 4,502 p.: 1-2-3-17-23-24-25-35-36-38-etc. (29/41) St Quentin 271 km 4,175 p.: 1-5-6-10-18-19-20-22-etc. (30/39) Pt. St. Maxence 349 km 965 p.: 1-3-6-12-23-etc. (13/26) Feluy 172 km 1,159 p.: 2-7-15-21-22-23-25-etc. (17/23) Feluy 172 km 1,608 p.: 5-7-8-9-11-17-18-etc. (23/27) Quievrain 202 km 1,658 p.: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-11-etc. (25/26) Duffel 107 km 784 p.: 6-7-9-11-etc. (18/25)
Arie has been very successful with the young birds as well:
Morlincourt 307 km 1,026 p.: 1-3-8-21-etc. (17/32) Duffel 107 km 4,538 p.: 7-8-13-15-27-29-32-34-37-etc. (19/52) Feluy 172 km 4,132 p.: 4-12-14-23-30-etc. (28/51) Quievrain 202 km 3,435 p.: 2-6-22-27-60-etc. (19/41) Niergnies 244 km 2,589 p.: 3-5-6-12-41-44-etc. (17/41)
He won the following championship titles in Province 7 and Region C1:
Region C1 Sprint 2nd nom; 1st not nominated Middle Distance 4th not nominated Young Birds 1st not nominated Natour 2nd nom; 1st not nominated General Sprint 3rd nom; 1st not nominated Province 7 Sprint 6th nom; 1st not nominated Middle Distance 16th not nominated Young birds 1st not nominated Natour 13th nom; 2nd not nominated General Sprint 15th nom; 1st not nominated
His pigeon collection consists of 12 breeders, 40 racing birds and about 60 young birds. 30 pigeons are raced in total widowhood, while 10 racing cocks are raced in widowhood with the hens always being kept at home. The type of pigeon breed that is kept here originates from Koen Minderhoud (Koudekerke, NL), either obtained directly from him or obtained rom B. Vermeulen (Breukelen, NL), combined with Arie’s own collection of Janssen brothers pigeons. Over the years Arie has managed to create a solid pigeon breed, and many of his top class pigeons have been introduced in previous articles. We would now like to discuss a few other racing birds that have played a key role in this success story.
NL07-1129073 Rambo 1
Rambo I is one of Arie’s most important stock breeders. The sire of Rambo I comes from a son x daughter of Rambo of D. and L. Van Dijck (Zandhoven, BE). The dam is a daughter of super class breeder Den 231 of the late Flor Engels. Click here for the full pedigree of Rambo I. Countless top class pigeons have been bred from Rambo I over the years, including most notably Melvi, Ramzi and Roza.
NL09-1994148 Melvi
As we said, this pigeon is a daughter of Rambo I. The dam of Melvi is a 100% Vandenabeele, and she was bred from two grandchildren of Wittenbuik. Click here for the full pedigree. Melvi won 16 prizes in 2010, which resulted in the title of 10th National Pigeon Champion sprint, along with several more titles in the TBOTB and WHZB competition (see picture). She has developed into a top class breeder as well: one of her youngsters is Merlin (NL12-1377558). The sire of Merlin is a son of stock pigeon De 50, which was a middle distance champion from 1998 to 2001. Click here for the full pedigree of Merlin. Merlin became 6th Pigeon Champion sprint in Region 4 in 2014, and he went on to win 17 prizes and the title of 5th Pigeon Champion sprint in Region C in 2015. His best results include:
5th Pommeroeul 3,276 p. 3rd Morlincourt 1,503 p. 5th Duffel 2,749 p. 9th Nivelles 2,560 p. 9th Quievrain 1,009 p. 12th St Quentin 2,235 p. 16th St Quentin 2,270 p. 50th Niergnies 9,473 p. 50th Nantieul 16,112 p.
NL11-1491570 Ramzi
Ramzi won 12 prizes 1:100 and became 3rd Pigeon Champion middle distance in Region 4. The sire of Ramzi is again Rambo I. The dam of Ramzi is Super Koentje, and she is also the dam of 3rd Pigeon Champion sprint 2014 Region 4. Click here for the pedigree of Ramzi. The last top class pigeon bred from Rambo I is Roza (NL11-1491547), which is a full sister of this Ramzi. Click here for the pedigree of Roza. Roza became 3rd Pigeon Champion sprint in Region 4 in 2014 with 14 prizes. She did even better in 2015, winning 17 prizes, including:
1st Morlincourt 2,600 p. 29th Lessines 12,505 p. 16th Duffel 3,262 p. 22nd Peronne 2,556 p. 20th Pont St. Max. 4,332 p. 13th Quievrain 835 p. 14th Menen 1,984 p. 20th St Quentin 4,175 p.
NL11-1491578 Mila
Mila is another daughter of super class breeding pair Melvi x Son Stamduif 50. Click here for the full pedigree of Mila. Mila is now a proven breeder in Arie’s loft. You can tell from the many successful descendants of this daughter that Melvi continues to be a top class bloodline. Milou is one of those descendants.
NL13-1009030 Milou
Milou has become one of the most important racing birds in Arie’s breeding loft. She did great in 2015 until she got injured by a bird of prey. Several other racing birds of Arie were hurt that day. Milou was carefully basketed again after about six weeks, and she managed to win a 6th Quievrain (1,658 p.) after that. As you know, Milou is a daughter of Mila, and thus a granddaughter of Melvi. The sire of Milou is NL03-799, which is a 100% Minderhoud pigeon. The pedigree of Milou can be found here.
NL07-1539936 Jimmy
Jimmy plays an important role in Arie’s pigeon breed. This cock became Pigeon Champion one day long distance in 2011, and his best result that year was a 1st NPO Bourges Province 7. He was also the fastest in the NU (17,347 p.). He developed into a top class breeder later on. The sire of Jimmy is a grandson of Koen Minderhoud’s Koen. The dam of Jimmy is another granddaughter of stock pigeon De 50. Click here for the full pedigree of Jimmy. A daughter of Jimmy, Jindra (NL14-1739621), won a 75th Quievrain as a young bird (12,802 pigeons) and a 137th St. Quentin (10,974 pigeons). Jimmy is also the sire of Mika (NL10-1426288), which was never raced but became an invaluable breeder. The talented racing bird De 649 (NL14-1739649) is a daughter of Mika, and has already won the following prizes:
44th Quievrain 1,009 p. 51st Pont St. Max. 965 p. 58th Quievrain 1,658 p. 65th Asse-Zellik 349 p. 122nd St Quentin 1,544 p.
The dam of Mika is a granddaughter of Olympic Justine, which represented The Netherlands at the Nitra Olympiad. She became 2nd Dutch Olympiad Pigeon Cat. B. This pigeon gave several top class descendants before moving to the loft of Marcel Sangers (Eefde, NL), where she is now called Olympic Lotus. Click here for the pedigree of the outstanding Olympic Justine.
To conclude
These were just a few of many top class pigeons in Arie’s racing loft. This is without doubt one of the most successful sprint lofts in The Netherlands. As we discussed in a few earlier articles, Arie is very punctual when it comes to taking care of the pigeons and his loft, which he cleans twice a day. He still gets the work done despite being 75 years old. However, running a pigeon loft has become quite a task for him, and he decided to work with a smaller group of pigeons in the coming years. However, we are confident that he will continue to win many top prizes even with a smaller racing team. After all, Arie is a highly proficent fancier with a top class pigeon collection.