Hooymans

HISTORY

Jan Hooymans and his spectacular Harry

His story begins when he was 10 years old. He was an only child and lived on a farm with his busy parents. Therefore, Hooymans was always busy fluttering around the chickens, rabbits or pigeons. But it was the birds that always caught his attention. So much so that in 1981 he became a member of the Kerkdriel pigeon club. His star bird is Harry, father and grandfather of great champions. 

Like almost all fanciers starting out in the sport, Jan began by getting pigeons from almost all his club mates. It was in 1985 that Hooymans decided to call the long distance champion, Jan Theelen, to acquire his first two birds in this discipline. It was not the first time that he went to Theelen to buy birds, for in 1989 he returned to get some offspring of his legendary 510. He also visited the Kuijpers brothers and the Saya brothers several times, where he felt at home. In the Saya loft he acquired 12 offspring of the legendary Abor. Due to his busy work outside the loft, Jan Hooymans' beginnings were not very fruitful and he did not win many prizes.

The year 1985 was the peak of his career as a pigeon fancier, as he became the overall champion of his club. Harry Visser was his mentor and the man to whom he is eternally grateful for his advice and unconditional support. For some years Jan was living abroad and setting up his own company and it was Harry, his right hand man, who took care of the pigeons at Hooymans. Over the years, his work took up most of his time and so Jan felt that gambling and investing in long distance birds was the most feasible way to go, as it would be possible to get results without investing a lot of time.

Hooymans had to make do with some good prizes from time to time as his work did not allow him the time to devote to pigeons. That is why Harry kept Jan's loft while Jan was working and those years were very good for both of them. Sadly, Harry died at the age of 63. His good friend Herman van Kraanen, who was a pigeon fancier, took over Harry's responsibilities. Unfortunately, Herman, too, died at a young age, aged 54. It was then that Herman's brother Cees helped him for several years while he found someone who could take care of his birds full time.

Partnership with Cor de Heijde

At the end of 1997 he met Cor de Heijde and Jan was impressed by the great variety of pigeons he owned. He soon realised that this partnership was the beginning of a success story. They were both obsessed with breeding top pigeons. After a strict selection of his own birds, Jan proceeded to use the best Cor's. In the following years, several rounds of Cor's youngsters were used, selected in the autumn and assigned to the best place in the breeding season. He has done this up to the present day.

The union with Gaby Vandenabeele

In addition to competing in extreme long-distance races (over 800 km), Hooymans had the ambition to excel in medium and long-distance competitions (between 500 and 800 km). Over the years, he came into contact with grandmaster Gaby Vandenabeele from Belgium. Jan was immediately impressed by the quality and appearance of Vandenabeele's pigeons. After consultation with Gaby, he made several crosses in his breeding loft with pigeons from the Kleinen line, the best Vandenabeele has according to Jan Hooymans.  The youngsters from these pairs were moved to Kerkdriel, Hooymans' loft, to be linked, a year later, to his own loft. Not long after these visits to Gaby, he started to win big prizes, however, the care of his birds was rather limited due to his company and Jan's work responsibilities.

Harry, his superstar

Jonge Bliksem (original Vandenabeele) was from the beginning a very good breeder but Hooymans had the feeling that he could find a better female for this male. During the sale of Gerard Koopman he bought one of the last offspring of the world famous Kleine Dirk, Dirkje. The result of this union is known all over the world. His star model, Harry (named after his first mentor and loft manager, Harry).  

In 2009, Harry, the immortal glory, won everything that could be won in the Netherlands. He did what no other pigeon in the world has ever done. He won two first prizes in the NPO (Dutch league), against thousands of other pigeons, and a 3rd position in the NPO, in one season, racing in one of the toughest disciplines like long distance and in three different types of weather. Throughout the 2009 season, Harry was in excellent form. He won no less than five first prizes and two second prizes in clubs. But a year earlier, in 2008, as an inexperienced adult bird, he showed that he was born for this as he won a medium distance race, downwind, competing against 500 birds, placing first at Morlincourt. He also came 19th against 20,920 pigeons. In the same year, Harry won 21st position in the NPO (1,198 metres per minute). Today, Harry is the boss in the Hooymans breeding loft. He is the father, grandfather and great-grandfather of a number of great racers who are inimitable, both in racing and breeding.

News

In 2009, Hooymans was still very busy with the family business and it is the arrival of Piet Broeders as manager of his loft, which makes progress and victories possible because there is someone who can devote himself seven days a week to his birds. Since Piet's arrival at Jan's loft, the flying has improved with great progress, achieving more than 10 positions in the NPO. In 2015, the tasks are redistributed in a new team, where on the one hand Mario focuses mainly on taking care of the racing team and Christian on the breeding team. Both under the supervision of Jan and Piet.

SOURCE: http://hooymanspigeons.com/en/harry/