Comb. Poelman

The Poelman combination consisted of Ep (that sadly passed away in 2017) and his 44 year old son Harco – that has to take care of the pigeons on this own now. Ep Poelman was a son of one of the greatest pigeon champions of the previous century, which means he was raised amid the pigeons. He learned a lot about keeping pigeons from his father and best friend Roef Poelman. This team of father and son Poelman achieved spectacular results back in the days: they won every prize in the club and at regional level, and even in the NPO competition. The most famous pigeons in their combination were Superas 660, Black Power and Black Power Lady. Unfortunately Ep was forced to sell his collection in 1997 due to personal reasons. Ep was very sad about having to sell his collection, and he did not even attend the auction. Gerard Koopman purchased Black Power and Black Power Lady, with which he was able to breed several top class pigeons. Black Power was for instance the sire of his outstanding Amore (1st National Ace Pigeon long distance 2002 and Olympiad Pigeon 2003 in Lievin). Other fanciers, including The Leideman brothers, Harm Vredeveld, Tjipke & Auke Bosma and Foppe van der Meer obtained pigeons from them as well, and each of these fanciers achieved great results thanks to the Poelman pigeons. This shows that the Black Power bloodline has a proven record in pigeon racing. This bloodline can now be found in top class pigeons all across the world.

After this first successful period Ep spent a few years without pigeons, until he returned to the town of Erica. He became the loft manager for the long distance champion Jos van der Kolk, and the two played in a combination for a few years as well. Due to a busy job and the fact that he is mostly fond of the overight long distance, Jos decided to leave the  combination after a while. The Poelman combination continued to exist, as Harco became a member in 2008, as a part-time caretaker. Harco is now focusing on races of between 100 and 600km. He will be racing a team of 24 cocks next season, and breeds 80 to 100 youngsters every year. In addition, he has approximately 24 breeding pairs and 16 feeding pairs.

The current collection of pigeons is still heavily based on the old Black Power bloodline. This is thanks to two brothers and one daughter of Black Power and Black Power Lady, which was mentioned in the introduction. Many of the youngsters and grandchildren can now be found in the Poelman lofts. Poelman is friend of Siebren Wierstra (Twijzelerheide, NL), with whom he has done joint breedings as well. Several great pigeons have been bred by combining the own breed with youngsters from the best lines of Siebren. Poelman also obtained eggs from Frans Rondags (Lafelt, BE), which came from his top breeders Conqueror, Koke and Geschelpte Crack. Another four pigeons were obtained from Herman Dijkstra (Beckum, NL), whow has been really successful with pigeons of D. & L. Van Dijck in recent seasons. The four Dijkstra pigeons were bred from a son of Bourges. A hen of super class breeder Amigo from the Appelmans brothers (Oetingen, BE) has shown to be an invaluble breeder as well.
Ep and Harco managed to breed many successful pigeons by combining these different bloodlines, and we would like to introduce some of their current stars.

Wondere Arrow (NL10-1135664) and Fleur (NL10-1222875) are without doubt the number one stock pair of this combination: they have bred a countless number of top pigeons. We give an overview of all top 100 prizes NPO/Province that have been won by youngsters or grandchildren of this outstanding pair:

 2nd NPO  Tessenderlo   4,387 p. and 1st   781 p.
 4th Prov Quievrain     5,579 p. and 1st 2,331 p.
 8th Prov Hapert        6,724 p. and 6th 1,500 p.
 9th NPO  Asse-Zellik   9,042 p. and 5th 1,774 p.
 9th NPO  Sint Truiden 10,715 p. and 2nd 2,234 p.
11th Prov Wijchen      10,186 p. and 1st 2,246 p. 
15th NPO  Pommeroeul    6,885 p. and 3rd 1,336 p.
15th NPO  Gien          5,606 p. and 2nd   502 p.
19th Prov Quievrain    11,260 p.
34th Prov Wijchen      10,186 p.
39th NPO  Gien          5,606 p.
39th Prov Boxtel        8,161 p.
42nd Prov Quievrain     9,746 p.
50th Prov Boxtel        8,161 p.
55th Nat. Reims         4,913 p. (Juniors Derby)
77th Prov Hapert       11,146 p.
88th Prov Morlincourt   5,943 p.
91st Prov Hapert        8,188 p.
97th Prov Duiven        5,552 p.

Wondere Arrow is a son of Wander (see earlier) and a grandson of NL83-815. This NL83-815 is also the sire of the legendary pigeons Black Power, Black Power Lady and Superas 660. He is also the grandfather of the amazing Amore of G. & C. Koopman. The dam of Wondere Arrow is a granddaughter of super class breeder Arrow of Siebren Wierstra. Fleur is a daughter of Super Son Bourges of D. & L. Van Dijck. The dam of Fleur is a daughter of Herman Dijkstra’s winner, which was a 2nd National Ace Pigeon sprint in 2003.

 4th Prov Quievrain  5,579 pigeons
19th NPO  Quievrain 11,260 pigeons
39th NPO  Gien       5,606 pigeons

3rd Hasselt     9,841 pigeons
5th St. Truiden 3,062 pigeons
6th St. Dizier  3,010 pigeons
9th Nanteuil    2,100 pigeons

NL12-1102348 Meisje
Meisje is another very talented breeding hen of Ep and Harco. The sire of Meisje is Blue Tiger, which is an inbred pigeon to De Jan. De Jan is a full brother of Black Power. The dam of Meisje is Beauty Rondags, which they obtained from Frans Rondags. You can find the pedigree of Meisje here. One of the successful youngsters of Meisje is Torro, which has won the following prizes:

 2nd NPO Tessenderlo 4,387 pigeons
 3rd Duiven            431 pigeons
 3rd Pommeroeul        255 pigeons
 4th Hapert            168 pigeons
25th Hapert          1,193 pigeons

Tara, winner of a 1st from Wijchen (2,246 pigeons) was bred from Meisje as well. In addition, the youngster NL14-308 won a 1st Santa Olala (595 p.) and a 3rd Badajoz (484 p.) in a Spanish One Loft Race. Fastboy is another very talented pigeon that was bred from top class breeder Meisje.

NL15-1229415 Fastboy
This talented young bird won a 1st prize from Quievrain as a young bird against 1,532 pigeons (and a 7th NPO against 5,488 pigeons) and a 1st Boxtel against 2,544 pigeons (and a 9th Prov. against 8,161 pigeons) this season. As we said, the dam of Fastboy is Meisje; his sire is another son of the renowned breeding pair Wander x Famous 08 of Nico-Jan Koenders (Westervoort, NL). Fastboy was not the only successful young bird, as you can tell from the following prizes won by this team’s young birds:

Boxtel       2,800 p.: 2-3-13-43-44-67-84-etc.        (3rd and 6th 4,405p.)
Tessenderloo 1,892 p.: 1-10-12-13-15-16-28-39-41-etc. (3rd 3,047p.)
Boxtel       1,481 p.: 1-7-11-15-38-39-42-43-44-etc.  (9th Prov. 8,161p.)
Quievrain    1,532 p.: 1-3-13-18-39-69-73-etc.        (7th and 10th NPO 5,471p.)

A very solid breed
Ep started to achieve great results with his Black Power bloodline already in the early 1990s, and many other fanciers have taken benefit from this solid pigeon breed. This bloodline continues to provide a basis for highly successful racing birds, both for the combination and for other fanciers. You can tell from the countless references both at home and abroad. Ep and Harco have been able to breed another top quality pigeon family with the help of their good friends Siebren Wierstra, Frans Rondags, Herman Dijkstra and the Appelmans brothers.

Written by Sjaak Buwalda.