Germain Imbrecht
Imbrecht Germain, "The living legend of the pigeonsport"
Germain IMBRECHT, Bornival
What Germain from Bornival in Wallonie near Nijvel already won is not easy to tell if you want to be complete. Germain is a very nice and friendly person, and has still the same realistic personality which he had so many years ago... There aren't a lot of fanciers in Belgium who can show us result list like this ex-farmer. In the last years he slowed down with the farming, and now he lives in a very quiet neighbourhood together with his wife where he can fully concentrate on the pigeons. Not that he has a super big loft, because Germain doesn't want that and he will keep on reducing his number of pigeons in the next years. It's not because he is tired of keeping pigeons, it's just because his son and his 2 grandsons live 50 meters down the street and they have about 50 horses and sometimes Germain needs to help a little bit.
A little bit of history...
For already many, many years the name of Germain Imbrecht has been very famous in the pigeonsport. He is not only famous in Belgium or Europe, but all over the world. Germain has already his place among all the big ones of pigeonsport. His pigeons have been so successful that Germain was someone of who people were always afraid to compete with.
Already in 1971, during his first auction of one round of youngsters all the famous and not so famous fanciers came from everywhere to have the opportunity to buy an Imbrecht pigeon. A few years later it appeared that the pigeons from this auction produced a lot of price winning pigeons. Now the ‘hunting' on the Imbrecht pigeons was even bigger. The huge popularity is clearly an improvement of the power of this extraordinary strain, the breeding value, and also, the high trust that all fanciers have in the Imbrecht pigeons. A fancier will never pay a lot of money if he knows the pigeon won't breed top pigeons, they only pay a lot of money if they are convinced of the breeding value of the pigeons. That's the most important reason why the Imbrecht pigeons are so popular everywhere in the world. In The Netherlands, the US, Japan, France etc... everywhere these pigeon went to the breeding loft to breed top pigeons.
These pigeons would become the pigeons on which he based his breeding. "Espor" with ring number 60/2371430, a pigeon of Desmet-Matthijs, was one of the best pigeons there ever were, this pigeon was really desperate to win. Germain was always a little bit nervous just before the pigeon should arrive, he was afraid something would go wrong during the flight. But all these concerns weren't necessary because "Espoir" always arrived home safely, and only a few moments after his arrival the pigeon was again full of energy.
However "Espoir" was always performing well on the short distances, this pigeon also had the intelligence and the strength to fly longer distances. The "Oude Roste Naessens", with ringnumber 64/679096 bred out of bloodline "Catrysse X Stichelbaut", was also a good racer, his biggest quality was his power of endurance next to his vitality. He never arrived home very tired, even when the race was hard and long. "O.R.N." was a beautiful son of "De Geschelpte Naessens" 56/3449254, a Catrysse pigeon, the mother was "De Rode Duivin" 56/344219 a pure Stichelbaut and on her turn a granddaughter of the famous Spain-racer "Bilbao" from the loft Naessens from Dottenijs.
The goal of Germain was to base his collection of pigeons on the irresistible winning mood of the "Espoir" crossed with the unbelievable power of endurance of "O.R.N." and the "Rouge de Villegas" who had the blood of Bricoux, Sion, Vandervelde and Van Der Espt in his veins.
Germain obtained this beautiful "Rode Doffer" ring number 67/2085605 of earl de Villegas, who used the farm and the fields of Germain as his hunting ground. This cock was one of the most expensive pigeons in the total auction of late Van Der Espt Charles. One descendant of the so many great descendants of these great pigeons took our full attention, is was the "Espoir" ringnumber 75/2118058 who became Ace pigeon long distance in 1978 and 1979. This pigeon was one of the big ‘hits' in the 31st Salon of the ‘Belgische Reisduif' in 1980. During the years the loft of Imbrecht became a synonym of brilliant performances nationaly and internationaly. Class pigeons at all distances and also the breeding quality is proven already. That's why not only Germain races well with his strain but also a lot of other fanciers in Belgium and everywhere in the world.
A new generation.
For the moment there are still several famous blood lines in the Imbrecht pigeons: of the "Fou", "Espoir", "Rouge de Villegas" and "Vieux Rouge Naessens".
The Imbrecht-colony counts about 20 breeding couples and 40 widowers of 2 year old and more. He will add 30-40 yearlings to that who still have to learn the racing because in their first year they only participated at some flights near to the border. The widowers are divided in 4 lofts. Half of them can raise a couple of youngsters and the other half has to be satisfied by breeding 2 times. In this case the eggs of the best racers are given to the feeders.
When the pigeons return of the race they receive very varied feed, to which the pigeons mostly don't pay a lot of attention to, because they pay more attention to their hen.
His pigeons only receive vitamins in the beginning of June just like Electrolytes, the day after the races. Germain doesn´t believe in giving medicines to his pigeons. He prefers to visit an expert.
The number of flights the yearlings have to participate in has increased a little bit the last years. In the past they only had to participate on 4 or 5 flights, now they participate at at least 8 flights, between those 8 there is sometimes Beziers or Perpignan.
The Legendaric "Fou"
This pigeon was fertile until he was 16 years old and died when he was 23 years old. Until he was 9 years old he participated at the races.
Germain prefers to race the long distance
The career of a long distance pigeon only starts when he or she is two or three years old. Germain avoids the races in April because the weather during this period is still too cold. If you do it anyway Germain says it will stop the increasing of the shape completely with the risk that the shape won't come back later in the season. Germain also thinks that there aren't any real long distance flyers. He believes it's all about the shapes and the muscles of the pigeon and the food that is adjusted according to the distance. The legendary "Fou" for example won first prizes on Angoulème, St.Vincent and Barcelona. But it didn't prevent him from making great results also on races like Quiévrain, Pont St. Maxence and St.Denis which are sprint distances
The pigeon "made" Bornival is world famous and honored because of his extremely high resistance in the toughest and hardest races. The number of national and international winners who have the blood of Imbrecht in their veins is increasing every day.
The small village Bornival is very proud on the performances of this fancier but he is even more know as the friendly ex-farmer...
Some last acquisitions
" La Marseille" 210665/2000
1ste International Marseille 2003 of 3.317 hens at Gilbert Villeneuve. France. (49th International)
Won o.a. : In 2002 - Frankfort 805 km - 2nd of 390 (hens) 5th of 1.544 pigeons.
Montpellier 2003 - 5th of 750 hens and 25th of 2.977 p.
Daughter 1st International Marseille 1999. - Dordin-Sion
Top performance 2004 - Has a big chance to win the Ace pigeon long distance KBDB
The "021" 1505012/2001 won following prizes in 2004
Montélimar : 11th - 2.571 pigeons (674 km) Coë Thomas & Nikolaas / Edited : Martin Degrave - 10/2004 Tags: I
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