The Elzinga combination (Harkema, NL)
The Elzinga combination could not be happier with their breeding hen Esmee. She delivered some great results as a racing bird before transforming into a phenomenal breeder. Esmee is related from her father's side to some of the best pigeons of Pieter Veenstra (Rolex, Golden Wing, Mr. Blue, Special Blue), and she has some German origins from her mother's side as well. Click here for the full pedigree of Esmee.
Esmee, super class hen for the Elzinga combination
Esmee gained a reputation winning a 1st NPO Province 11 Friesland against 4,269 pigeons in 2014. She was the fastest pigeon in the race, with a field of 10,975 racing birds. She won 17 prizes 1:100 as a racing bird, including most notably:
1st NPO Châlons-en-Champagne 479 km 4,269 p. 2nd Sittard 241 km 6,763 p. 4th NPO St.-Truiden 274 km 20,435 p. 7th Duffel 259 km 4,022 p. 8th Gennep 168 km 2,788 p. 21st Weert 169 km 3,706 p. 37th Sens 590 km 6,036 p. 43rd Sens 590 km 8,725 p. 67th Gennep 168 km 2,788 p. 70th Auby-lez-Douai 374 km 12,133 p.
With this palmares she became an Olympiad Pigeon in the 2014 Olympiad in Budapest, where she represented The Netherlands in the allround category. This makes perfect sense, because she managed to finish high up across many distances. Esmee has the following titles on her palmares:
2014: 1st ace pigeon allround and 19th one day long distance in the WHZB/TBOTB competition 2014: 1st pigeon champion one day long distance and 2nd ace pigeon general long distance Province 11 Friesland 2014: 2nd national pigeon champion one day long distance NPO 2013: 9th ace pigeon allround (5th hen) in the TBOTB competition 2013: 11th yearling allround (9th hen) in the TBOTB competition
After her excellent racing career Esmee became even more valuable in the breeding loft, with several of her youngsters and grandchildren having already won an important victory. Take for instance the young birds' race from Morlincourt on 3rd of September 2016, which was basically dominated by the pigeons of Tjeerd and Joost Elzinga: they managed to win a 1-2-3-4-etc. of 3,088 pigeons in District 2 of Province 11. In addition, they had four pigeons in the top 10 in Province 11 Friesland overall, with a 2-3-5-6 of 7,348 pigeons. Three of them were closely related to Esmee and to Blue Hope, another invaluable breeder in this team.
Blue Hope, top breeder for the Elzinga combination
A top result from Morlincourt
We would like to elaborate a bit about the race from Morlincourt, just to highlight the impact that Esmee has had on the pigeon family of Tjeerd and Jouke. Like we said, they won a 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th NPO against 7,347 pigeons, and three of these pigeons are closely related to Esmee:
3rd NPO (NL16-4280403) is a grandchild of Esmee. See pedigree. 5th NPO (NL16-4280389) is a grandchild of Esmee. See pedigree. 6th NPO (NL16-4280356) comes from a full sister of Esmee. See pedigree.
Hallilujah, sire of a 3rd and 5th NPO Morlincourt
In addition, a son of Esmee with ring number NL16-4280385 won a 1st Tilburg against 7745 pigeons this season. Tjeerd and Jouke have named him Max, and we wonder if he could be just as talented as his namesake Max Verstappen? The truth is that they have both won an important victory in their debut season. The pedigree of Max can be found here. One of Esmee's granddaughters, racing hen NL16-4280419, won a 1st Weert of 4768 pigeons this season, and she was also the best ace pigeon YBs in Entente De Eenheid. Her name is Victoria, and she comes from Mr. Sky, an excellent son of Esmee. Click here for Victoria's pedigree. One of Mr. Sky's grandchildren won a 1st NPO Laon of 2,657 pigeons for the Lokhorst combination this season. We are more than convinced of the exceptional breeding qualities of Esmee. How about you? Her impressive references are beautifully summarised in her family tree below.
Father and son Elzinga have an fine collection of pigeons in their loft, and they do everything they can to get them ready for the important races. As you can tell from the following palmares, they have really found a good approach:
Morlincourt: 1-2-3-4-24-55-57-88-128-158-164-172-222-273-ect.(40/25) of 3,088 pigeons
and 2-3-5-6-etc. of 7,348 pigeons in the NPO race
Weert: 1-8-9-11-14-27-48-51-70-82-84-ect.(45/22) of 576 pigeons
Nanteuil: 1-4-8-11-23-32-35-36-37 etc. of 206 pigeons
and 7th of 8,552 pigeons in the NPO race
Tongeren: 1-7-19-21(10/4) of 109 pigeons
and a 1st place of 815 pigeons
Tilburg: 1-9-10-21-28-30-31-32-34-36-39-47-48-49-50-53-ect.(58/28) of 619 pigeons
and a 1-21-23 of 7,745 pigeons
Weert: 1-2-7-8-23-26-29-30-31-34-35-41-47-ect.(46/22) of 464 pigeons
and a 1-6-29-33-74-86 of 4,768 pigeons
Tilburg: 9-44-56-62-84-86-90-94-ect. (10/10) of 4,440 pigeons
The 2016 championships
Like every season, the team added several championship titles to their already impressive palmares this year. Let's take a look:
1st General Not nominated Entente "De eenheid" 300 members 1st Loft young birds Entente "De Eenheid" 1st Loft young birds Rayon de Walden (8 clubs) 1st Loft young birds District D 120 members 1st Pigeon Champion young birds Rayon de Walden 1st Pigeon Champion young birds Entente "De Eenheid" 2nd General Champion Rayon de Walden 2nd Emperor General Rayon de Walden 2nd Champion young birds One Day Long Distance Fondspiegel 2nd Loft young birds Long Distance Club 3rd General nominated - Rayon de Walden 3rd Loft natour district D 120 members 4th Loft middle distance Entente "De Eenheid" 4th Loft natour Enente "De Eenheid" 12th Pigeon champion young birds one day long distance FondspiegelWho will be next?
We have yet another racing season coming up; will 2017 prove to be another great year for Tjeerd and Jouke Elzinga? We think it will. They have high expectations for 2017, due to their impressive team of breeders and an excellent group of racing birds. We will be keeping an eye on their achievements throughout the year.