We are confident that every extreme long distance fancier in Germany and Western Europe knows who Rutz & Sons are. This pigeon family gained an excellent reputation, thanks to the numerous spectacular victories at national and international level.
Their home town Blieskastel, a small city in the Saarland region, around 25km to the east of Saarland's capital Saarbrücken, has in fact become world famous as well.
The father-son combination Rutz & Sons
The pigeon family
They used to be a team of four: father Karl-Heinz and mother Adelheid, and their twin sons Sven and Jens. Adelheid traditionally played an important role in the morning routine of this pigeon loft. Unfortunately, she passed away in February 2018. And Karl-Heinz is no longer actively involved in keeping pigeons either due to health issues. As a result, Sven and Jens have to try and combine their daily jobs with the running of a pigeon loft. They were happy to hear that a former renowned pigeon fancier, Werner Röckel, was willing to take over the morning routine in their loft. And it appears that he is doing a great job, judging from their recent achievements.
Barcelona specialists
They complete all the races on the national and international calendar in the extreme long distance, and with great success. Rutz & Sons are always there to claim a top result. Still, their number one race has always been Barcelona. It is difficult to believe how many top results and exceptional prize percentages they have achieved in this race. They had basketed 136 pigeons for this international classic across the last four seasons, with which they were able to win 97 prizes. This makes for an impressive prize percentage of 71.31%, which is a stunning result. Where does this impressive palmares come from? I think this is mostly the result of a collection of exceptionally gifted pigeons, pigeons with exceptional origins and pedigrees. And there is something else: Rutz & Sons are always looking for pigeons that are even better, and that can easily be merged into the existing family. But that type of pigeon is hard to find of course.
But back to Barcelona. We take another close look at the 2017 edition of this classic, which was for sure one of the most difficult races in history. It took the pigeons quite a bit of time to get home, it took them way too much time in fact. Not a single pigeon arrived home on the first day; the first arrival came on day two, at 11:08am. And no more than two marathon pigeons had a velocity of over 800 m/min. How dit Rutz & Sons perform in this demanding race? They had basketed 37 birds, and their pigeons arrived home one after another. Their first pigeon was clocked at 13:52, and by 21:45, a total of 16 pigeons were back home. The team claimed a total of 25 national top results, which is something to be proud of!
And how about the 2019 season? We saw a fairly straightforward Barcelona classic this season, where Rutz & Sons claimed 23 top results with 31 basketed pigeons. It shows that they have a highly versatile pigeon collection indeed.
Let's not forget that Rutz & Sons also claimed 23 top prizes at international level of 15,981 pigeons.
National results in Barcelona between 2016 and 2019
Barcelona 2016 nat. 1,278 p.: 8-10-34-40-59-77-110-117-122 etc. (19/33)
Barcelona 2017 nat. 1,202 p.: 7-9-29-30-35-36-41-43-44-49-64-67-69-77-79-84-111-151-153 etc. (25/37)
Barcelona 2018 nat. 1,121 p: 17-26-50-56-60-61-64-75-76-79-80-89-91-107 etc. (25/35)
Barcelona 2019 nat. 1,130 p.: 9-20-31-35-49-52-62-64-67-72-73-76-97-103-113-122-124-125-130-147 etc. (23/31)
And we look at their international achievements from 2016 to 2019:
136 basketed pigeons and 97 prizes = 71.31% prize percentage
Rutz & Sons - Allerlei
The fanciers claim a 2nd National in the 2019 race from Pau with Ghost Rider 0709-220. This racing cock arrived home early in the morning. Sven and Jens had spotted this bird as he arrived home at around 4:40am. He was just sitting on the roof of their house though; he did not go straight for his pigeon loft, due to the fog. And that was rather unfortunate: a national victory had been a matter of just a few seconds. This 220 originates from 0709-16-1569, which in turn comes from two pigeons of Batenburg-Van de Merwe; the sire is in fact a grandchild of New Laureaat!
And let's not forget Wonder Lady 0709-16-1569. This hen claimed a 2nd National Narbonne in 2018, and she was 3rd Olympiad Pigeon in the marathon in Posen. It goes without saying that she is now one of the team's breeders.
This loft in Blieskastel is home to an incredible collection of strong performing birds. As always, Rutz & Sons will only breed youngsters from the very best bloodlines available.
National top 20 placings in the past five years (2015-2019)
1. national Pau 2015 2. national Pau 2019 3. national Carcassonne 2016 4. national St. Vincent 2018 5. national Marseille 2016 5. national Narbonne 2018 6. national Agen 2016 6. national Perpignan 2018 7. national Barcelona 2017 8. national Barcelona 2016 9. national Barcelona 2017 9. national Barcelona 2019 10. national Barcelona 2016 11. national St. Vincent 2019 11. national Narbonne 2019 12. national Narbonne 2015 13. national Narbonne 2019 13. national Marseille 2015 14. national Perpignan 2017 15. national St.Vincent 2019 15. national Pau 2018 16. national Narbonne 2019 16. national Perpignan 2016 16. national Marseille2017 17. national Marseille 2018 17. national Barcelona 2018 19. national Barcelona 2015 20. national Barcelona 2019 20. national Perpignan 2016 20. national Narbonne 2019
This makes for a total of 30 national top 20 prizes, 9 of which were won in 2019 alone. Their 2019 season was clearly a major success!
Two highly successful seasons in 2018 and 2019
1. Coup de la Wallonie 2019 1. national Ace Pigeon Narbonne 2016 - 2018 1. national Ace Pigeon Perpignan 2016 - 2018 1. Heinz-Seegmüller-Wanderpreis 2019 2. national champion international races 2018 2. national champion international races 2019 2. Mittelmeer-Cup 2018 2. Atlantik-Cup 2018 2. Heinz-Seegmüller-Wanderpreis 2018 2. national Primus inter Pares 3. national Ace Pigeon Barcelona 2017 - 2019 3. national Olympiad Pigeon Posen 2019 4. national Ace Pigeon Barcelona 2017 - 2019 4. Atlantik-Cup 2019 4. national Primus inter Pares 4. national Ace Pigeon Barcelona 2016 - 2019 5. Mittelmeer-Cup 2019 7. national Ace Hen internat. races 2018 7. national Ace Hen internat. races 2019 9. national ace Hen internat. races 2018 10. Golden Barcelona Pigeon 2019
The pigeons of Rutz & Sons were outstanding in other lofts as well:
We take a look at the achievements of the pigeons related to Rutz in 2018 and 2019:
1. National Montelimar Belgium for Lardot Thibaut (Bourseigne-Vieille) 1 National St. Vincent for Lauer & Sons, Althornbach, 948 pigeons 1. International Marseille hens for Thomann & Spitzbarth, Walsheim, 2,130 pigeons 1. National Marathon Ace Hen for Lauer and sons, Althornbach 1. National Agen for SG Zoller, Zweibrücken, 1,349 pigeons 1. National Agen hens for SG Zoller, Zweibrücken, 633 pigeons 1. National Marseille for Thomann & Spitzbarth, Walsheim, 1,360 pigeons 1. National Perpignan for Peter Nitsch, Boppard, 863 pigeons 1. National Perpignan hens for Peter Nitsch, Boppard, 379 pigeons 1. Regional Perpignan Zone 1 for Ernst and sons, Winterbach, 483 pigeons 1. Regional Perpignan Zone 2 for Peter Nitsch, Boppard, 303 pigeons 1. Regional Barcelona Zone 1 for Ernst and sons, Winterbach, 339 pigeons 1. Regional St. Vincent for Lauer and sons, Althornbach, 288 pigeons 1. Regional Marseille for Thomann & Spitzbarth, Walsheim, 520 pigeons 2. National Barcelona for Ernst and sons, Winterbach, 1,121 pigeons 2. National St. Vincent for Lauer and sons, Althornbach, 766 pigeons 2. National St. Vincent hens for Lauer and sons, Althornbach, 328 pigeons 2. national ace hen 2019 SG Zoller, Zweibrücken 3. regional Pau Zone 1 SG Zoller, Zweibrücken 530 pigeons 3. International Marseille for Thomann & Spitzbarth, Walsheim, 9,387 pigeons 3. International Ace Pigeon Barcelona 2016-2019, Mahut Jean-Francois 3. national Pau SG Zoller, Zweibrücken 1,356 pigeons