In East Flanders, right at the Dutch border, lies the rural village of Assenede. While in other municipalities they still rode on dirt roads, in Assenede, you could already stroll along the cobblestones. We loved our cobblestones so much that we would bite them in two, which is why we are called "The Cobble Biters." This indicates a very tough character.
Since Saskia and Franky work continuous shifts with weekends included, sometimes a lot of juggling has to be done to maintain a regular routine in training and feeding the pigeons. As a result, beautiful races are sometimes canceled due to lack of leave.
What makes our hobby so wonderful is that a small fancier can sometimes outperform the big lofts, even in a strong local like fondclub Eeklo.
What made the day of La Souterraine even more beautiful was being flagged as the first provincial with the almost longest distance at 1144 m/min. That's what you do it for as a pigeon fancier. The pigeon that achieved this is "Den Hilaire," from Hilaire Verplancke. He had bred a pair of young pigeons for an enthusiast, but due to circumstances, they ended up with me. So far, he has flown four National races:
- Issoudun, 18th National / 14,757 pigeons
- La Souterraine, 4th National / 4,907 pigeons
- Limoges, 1281st National / 17,356 pigeons
- Tulle, 748th National / 4,185 pigeons
In his veins flows blood from the Chris Hebberecht strain from the "Gentleman" line, Johan Hebberecht (winner of 1st National Valence and Brive), Alex De Zutter, and Freddy Strubbe.
'De Limoges', a pure Aelbrecht pigeon that is certainly worth mentioning, as it still flew at the top at Limoges at six years of age, doing so five years in a row.
The foundation of this loft is still based on the pigeons of Marcel Aelbrecht, direct children from 'de Perpignan', 'de Cerafin', 'de 970', and 'de Michael'. Since Hok Demely had pigeons from Marcel's Perpignan, children from 'De Tulle' were purchased; this one is the father of 'Mister Unique,' who flew 1st National Limoges and 2nd National Brive within 14 days, also from the line of 'Mister Argenton' (2nd Nat Argenton), 'Mister Queret' (3rd Nat Queret and 5th Nat Limoges). Herlinde Bundervoet also occasionally sent one towards the polders as they also had pigeons from Marcel's lines.
In 2020, Franky visited the brothers Marc and Franky Van De Walle from the lines of 'De Monti', 'Den Bordeaux', 'Brive Expres', 'Dark Angel', and 'Queenzo'. They came to strengthen the lofts.
At Xavier Verstraete, three hens (daughter of special Xtra, Daughter Artist, and daughter Blauwe Filou) arrived at Assenede from the line of Topstar.
In 2021, the journey went to Wevelgem to Gino Clicque, where the son of 'New Piraat' was purchased, 18 eggs, and a hen as a birthday gift from the children.
In 2021, the 4 best widowers were transferred to the breeding loft.
In 2022, they started with 26 widowers and one small loft of yearling hens, but due to time constraints, these were quickly halted.
The National race from Tulle (6 nights in the basket and 1st released lost) and a poor flight from Fontenay (warm weekend) threw a wrench in the planned program.
The young males are well trained and do not fly further than 300 km; the young hens are sometimes flown further and this is on a sliding scale.
In this fierce struggle to stand on the highest podium, the lovely circle of friends we built is of immeasurable value, thanks to many pigeon fanciers.
Regards, Saskia and Franky