TAVEIRNE-RIGOLE Belgium “Dream Breed Lofts” by Les J.Parkinson

The never-ending trips in search of information continue and when we were on the continent Hans Verschueren took us to see one of the premier National breeding lofts in the Country and also helped a great deal with the information. Gust Taveirne and Frans Rigole of Koolskamp in Belgium have built up quite a Goldmine in their stock team that is responsible for many National winning performances. Over the years they have bought the overall breeding and race team of Serge and Jurgen Malfait. However that does excludes some years but did eventually included the 1st International Dax winner. At the present moment these lofts consist of 13 National winners and National Ace pigeons and we had the pleasure of seeing and handling them. The only problem being that the day was drawing to a close and I believe that we did not see the very best of this system that the partnership use. When you have read and digested the following you will know why they are called “Dream Breed Lofts”. Anybody who, has ever come into contact with pigeon racing within the modern day Belgian structure should be fully aware of Gust Taveirne as the man of the super results, the man, who into the pigeon-sport without mercy could achieved his aim. He was also a man who even in the seventies and eighties if not before was always seen to be buying a National winner or a national ace pigeon wherever possible. As mentioned earlier he had no fewer than 13 National winners and National Ace pigeons in the loft which then became the standard on basis of the performances. Because of the high standards set they are brutal in their selection to attain the heartbeat of his team. So he formed an own trunk to his family tree made from the very best that the Belgium fraternity had to offer. For anyone who visits these loft the standard is there to see and they will always be looking to improve on the already successful team of stock birds. . Quite a bit of this article may appear boring to some but for the breeding enthusiast it is a case of where they come from and where do we go from there. We all need to make introductions and move up a class in those introductions if we are to make the grade through to National level. As I have just pointed out these next few paragraphs may appear boring to some but when many fanciers read about the top continental lofts they are always after a bit more with the breeding. So I suggest that you take the next part of the article and see how and where the top National winners are bred. When you have read it read it again until you have digested the lengths that these fanciers go to in their pursuit of breeding the ultimate “Champion”. In a special edition of the “De Belgische Duivensport” in 1999 there was a centre page pull out highlighting these exceptional pigeons and the fanciers who have built their teams on them. It was only really reported on in 1999 the winners that have over the years come down from the “Dream Breed Lofts” stock but all has now been confessed to. It is a fact that this noble Taveirne-blood contributes to the fame of many different world record breaking performances. For example Desmet -Matthijs, Noel Lippens, Oscar Desmet, Vanhee, Florizoone, Devooght, Vereeke, Knock, Grondelaars, Peeters, and Ivan Delrue all owe a certain amount of their success to these lofts. The Gust Taveirne and Frans Rigole are still moving towards improvement better described as more of the Open Breeding plan. Without wishing to go on about a point and further the words printed above Gust Taveirne throughout the seventies and eighties bought the very best in Belgium that could be obtained. Three golden procurements were the ‘Witslager Desender’ the 1975 1 st National Ace-pigeon from Belgium. The ‘Een Witpen’ of the 1969 1 st National Ace-pigeon. The ‘Blauwe Angouleme’ represented Belgium in the Olympics. These pigeons formed the basis and it is still the underlying strength of the family to build upon top-performances at all stages and levels Over the years this run was enriched still further more winning blood and into this strong basis came different National winners and Ace pigeons. The majority of the present day Belgian pigeon sport knows what the Gust Taveirne family offering has. The breeding value of a pigeon to base their lofts upon. He went to see all the birds he required at source and . frequently he had not even had the pigeon in his hands but observed only alertly about the opportunity to grasp and to buy the pigeon if possible. So further introductions were sought and he acquired even more top pigeons including the acclaimed ” 76″ of Torrekens, the Olympia pigeon from Belgium. The “Limoges” of Gerard and Michel Van Hee, also an Olympia pigeon the National winners of Dax from Pauwels National Champion of Brive, off Leyseele, the Nationa winners of Montauben off Coudou. Also the “Chico” of Pol Bostijn Gust Taveirne spent years on the task so that he could continue with the top team of stock that he was building. It was inevitable that it would happen and some years later Gust Taveirne joined forces with with Frans Rigole. Together they built a breeding loft that is based on the golden procurements of Gust Taveirne. Together they looked for more and more to find the best National winning bloodlines available and up to the present-day they still succeed in in purchasing many exceptional pigeons. For example one such purchase was “Gentiel” of the Lambrechts-Lismont a pigeon with 11 firsts and three within the first 40 National positions. There are also nine children out of the “Vliegend Wonder” of Noel Lippens; the “Vital,” 1 st National Ace- pigeon; 3 children out of the “Majestic” of Venus, 21 firsts in races flown. The “Zwarte Vechter” 1 st provincial “Ace-pigeon of Westflandern with 5 first prizes and they possess the children out of the Best of Gaston and Danny Devooght. They are on the search for such points with their own blood and to bring it back into their own loft to further strengthen their family tree.how can they get any better? We can already tell from the above that the pigeons of Gust Taveirne are at the structure of many celebrities on the continent where their own family had been involved. Take a look at the breeding of “Vital “of Noel Lippens of 1 st National Ace-pigeon from Belgium we find the blood the “Miljonair” of Taveirne overlying the celebrity top-breeding-bird “Blois” Taveirne. The “Groten” of Desmet Matthijs came out of a son the “Een Witpen”. The “Crack” the deceased Oscar Desmet was an original Taveirne. Into the “Kennedy” and “Bambino” lines of the World famous Vanhee family we find the blood of the “Blauwe-Angouleme” respectively the “Witslager Desender.”. The grandmother of the “Manu,” 1 st National Ace-pigeon on the wide-route of Gaston Devooght is from the original Taveirne- Rigole bloodlines “Een Witpen”. Also Florizoone the 1999 National Belgian master is successful with the pigeons of Taveirne- Rigole . The well known “Felix” and his descendants as well as the “Little Barcelona”. The “Urgestein” Roger Vereeke have much of “Witslager Desender” blood in their veins. Likewise it is the very same with Barcelona specialist Knocks. Also deceased Jan Grondelaars and Peeters Ace drove to Gust Taveirne to buy pigeons. The super-pigeon of Arthur Laflere 1 st . National Limoges and the 1 st National Brive winner within 14 days had 25% blood of Taveirne-Rigole.. Completely topical we note that Stany Hollevoet in 1999 five times National master from Belgium on the wide-route has no fewer than 95% Taveirne-Rigole pigeons in the loft . On these top 1999 performances one has to take off ones hat; 6 th National Limoges against 11,799; 6 th National Limoges against 24,084, 8 th National Limoges against 10,737 OB’s. Ivan Delrue] out of Bovekerke who in 1999 for the second time became general master of the Belgian Verstandhouding. A singular wide route pilot named “Kiekeboe”. This Crack won 1998 9 th National Dax and 1999 the 23 rd National Dax To the Halfte is this Vogel a Taveirne- Rigole.Luc Sioen out of Moorslede wins in 1999 the 1 st and 10 th National of La Souteraine with two original Taveirne- Rigoles. Even the event in 1999 saw a Taveirner-Rigole pigeon was the winner Luc Sionnen also the 17 th National Bourges against 20,172 pigeons. And so we could continue for a considerable time on the winners coming down from these pigeons. . There search for new stock continued and in 1999 the duet of Gust Taveirne – Rigole Frans despite tremendous interest from abroad sought out and bought the overall champion of the largest wide route champions from Belgium. These were the pigeons of Serge and Jurgen Malfait and although big foreign interest existed Gust and Frans set out at 6am and made the deal of their life. With the purchase of the overall Malfait family “Dream Breed Lofts” can continue to go forward in their quest for breeding supremacy in their stock lofts. The performances of these pigeons are gained amongst them, what as many standardise the best wide route breeding bird all of time the “Olympics Gran Canaria” at least 10 top fliers have brought forth amongst them the 1 st International Dax of 1996. Gust and Frans will never be satisfied with the stock in the loft because they are always looking to improve with such birds as the “Narbonne” 36 th National Narbonne of 1994 against 5.006, 49 th National Narbonne of 1993 against 2.349 and 73 rd National Pau of 1995 against 1,935 pigeons. The “Montauben” of 23 rd National Dax of 1997, against 3.276 pigeons, 64 th . National Narbonne of 1996 against 6.092 pigeons, 75 th National Pau against 2.268 pigeons. 86 th national Montauben of 1995 against 5.553 pigeons and 89 th National Narbonne of 1994 against 4,327 pigeons. The “Joris” 14 th National Dax of 1999 against 4.066 pigeons, 14 th International Dax of 1999 against 12.880 pigeons and 21 st National Montauben against 7.352 pigeons. Daughters “Zwarte Cahors” of 39 th National Cahors of 1996 against 9,043 pigeons Grandsons of the Olypiade Grain Canaria for example are The “Pandoer” of 15 th International Dax of 1999, The “Dax” of 45 th International Dax of 1994 against 6.779 pigeons and 46 th International Dax of 1996 against 6.491 pigeons. The “Provinciaal” 1 st prize Poitiers. The cream was purchased and the top breeding partnership of Gust Taveirne and Frans Rigole added direct 30 sons and daughters out of this phenomenal ” Olympics Gran Canaria”. I for one enjoyed this visit and although the day was passing us buy saw enough to tell me that this is a loft that we are going to hear a lot more about in the near future. They have built up a stock loft that even some of the top Belgium fanciers go to in the quest for better performances from the pigeons that they race. All the lofts are spacious and the birds have plenty of room with the grilled floors and healthy conditions that make a good loft. The birds also have access to extensive aviary’s which are also a benefit for healthy birds and when you look at the breeding as mentioned above you can understand why they are so well looked after. By the way I am sorry to have gone into so much detail on the pigeons that are housed but a feel that the quality is well worth the mention, after all that is where so many top National bloodlines come from. I have heard it said on many occasion’s that quality is better than quantity how can you define the two when you visit top lofts that churn the winners out year after year. The pigeons are all fed on the best corn and as was pointed out it is no use buying the best and expecting great things from them if you are not giving them the best conditions, feed etc available. You cannot win in pigeon racing with mediocre pigeons because the competition is getting that much better and a number of fanciers are working harder than ever to get to the top. Pigeon racing is a hobby that has become a business for many and that business is helping to improve the pigeons that we race through bringing together many top winning lines and then carefully bringing them together to produce a more superior pigeon. No matter how far down the road we look there will always be someone there wanting to improve their team of pigeons. I have said in the past that when you look at the sport 20yrs ago there has been a great stride forward in the breeding and racing of pigeons. 30yrs ago there were few pigeons flying the channel on the day especially when you got to the 400ml stage. Now it is a case that if you do not clock in from the 500ml race on the day there is something wrong. This is where the specialist breeder comes in to benefit the sport by bringing together quality pigeons and breeding to the best advantage and producing those better lines and bringing them to the fancier in general. The big problem is that there are some who do not have the insight into breeding a better pigeon and that has been proven on many occasion’s in the past. That is why like Gust and Frans we must always be careful about our breeding if we are to take the sport forward. Many thanks to Gust & Frans for their time and also to Hans Verschueren who took time out to take us to the lofts and act as our interpreter for the day. Hans believes that these are some of the best pigeons on the continent and who can argue with his judgement when you consider that the latest news from the Continent is that Verschueren & Son have just won 1 st & 11 th National Argenton. Since I wrote this article there have been many more National wins with these pigeons around Europe and the story will continue. I have further information on the building of this top class team of stock birds for a future article. These lofts have since bought in further National winners based on their own breeding. Les J.Parkinson @ Elimar Pigeon Services.