Poussart Olivier (Vaulx/Chimay)
1st National ace KBDB middle distance 2021
1st National Bourges 33,140 old birds 2022
1st National Bourges 24,221 yearlings 2022
1st National Chateauroux 1,956 old + yearlings 2022
Vaulx/Chimay. If we have to point out one colony in Belgium that has worked its way to the top of national pigeon racing in just a few years’ time, we will undoubtedly end up with Olivier Poussart. Impressive what this Walloon fancier has put on paper in recent years.
Remarkably, Olivier lives at the very front of Belgium. Vaulx is just in the province of Hainaut, all the way in the south of Belgium, so as soon as the first arrivals of a national race become known, the name Poussart is usually the first to be mentioned on the “online reporting site” of the KBDB. Knowing that the distance between the north of Belgium and Vaulx is no less than 150km (you read it correctly and is not a misprint), it is always a long anxious wait for the Poussart family to know whether they will be beaten or not.
Despite being one of the first fanciers to live in Belgium, they have built up a more than impressive record. Where will this story end… The sky is the limit!
6 National wins since 2016
Many fanciers dream of nailing a national win against the proverbial ceiling once in their entire career but with our Walloon friends, the counter of national wins already stands at “6”, including no less than 3 national wins last season!
In 2016, hen “Lady Bourges” (B15-1069465) took Bourges national against 19,885 yearlings (fastest of 39,602 pigeons).
In 2018, hen “Helena” (B18-4094895) won 1st national Gueret against 7,175 olds (fastest out of 20,063 pigeons).
Spicy detail. The mother of “Helena” is “Lady Bourges”. Talk about a winning family!
In 2021, it was up to cock “Patrick” (B20-2020332) to notch up national Tulle against 7,267 yearlings – also fastest of 12,334 pigeons – on his palmares.
And then last season 2022. The fairy tale started on the first national flight of the new season namely Bourges national when, with a difference of 23 seconds, 2 pigeons dived to the drop board practically at the same time. Those two pigeons were hen “Stripes Twices” and cock “Tobacco 550”
1st National Bourges 33,140 old birds, also fastest of 57,631 pigeons with “Tobacco 550” (B20-2020311 – original Hok Bommerez)
1st National Bourges 24,221 yearling birds with “Stripes Twices” (B21-2072829 – original Hok Bommerez)
1st National Chateauroux 1,956 old + yearling with “Justine” (B19-1140182). This was on the last national race of the season where the number of participating old and yearling pigeons is not high. On the same race there were 17,165 youngsters though and the 1st and 2nd prizes were won by Weijtjens Theo (1542.81 m/m and 1542.73 m/m). Olivier Poussart won the 3rd prize nationally with B22-1132017 and this in the same meters per minute (1542.00 m/m) as Theo’s two pigeons. Or how a few seconds can make a world of difference.
Important footnote to last season’s national wins 2022. We want to clearly mention that the wind blew at a disadvantage (easterly) for almost an entire season. There were only a few national races that were flown with partly westerly winds and that is what is needed for the Poussart colony to score early national. So almost every chance they had they struck
National ace KBDB “Real Dream”
And the impressive record is not over yet.
How about their rankings in the national KBDB championships:
1st National Ace pigeon heavy middle-distance yearling KBDB 2021
1st National Champion middle distance old + yearling KBDB 2019
3rd National Ace pigeon middle distance KBDB 2019
3rd National Ace pigeon speed KBDB 2019
4th National Ace pigeon middle distance yearling KBDB 2019
For those who know the difficulty of ranking in the national KBDB, will surely be impressed.
“Real Dream” (B20-1104528) became national ace yearling KBDB 2021 great middle distance with an impressively low coefficient of 0.367% over 4 national flights:
His results are:
1st National (z) Bourges 1,120d.
2nd National (z) Argenton 1,429d.
10th National Chateauroux 22,196d.
13th National La Souterraine 14,037d.
Olivier, Justin, and Paul
Just to clarify. Racing under the name Poussart Olivier but in fact we should mention son Justin and Paul Santens (St Martens-Latem) in the same breath. Olivier says “I myself am a cabinetmaker by profession but through my brother Daniel, a nurse by profession, I came into contact with Paul Santens from St. Martens Latem. Fanciers who know Belgium a bit know that Vaulx/Chimay and St. Martens-Latem are not directly close to each other, but our meeting story goes like this. Paul Santens was a lawyer for many years in an executive position at Allergan, an international pharmaceutical company also with a branch in Belgium (Diegem). A major branch of Allergan specializes in innovative eye care, including treating cataracts with the most advanced agents. Paul Santens had become an expert in the field over the years, travelling the country to visit ophthalmic surgeons and show them the latest technologies. And so, during one of his lunch breaks, he came into contact with my brother Daniel Poussart, head nurse at the hospital in Chimay. Naturally, pigeons were discussed, and they stayed in touch. Paul Santens, who suffered more and more from back problems over the years, was no longer able to practice pigeon sport intensively himself and found a solution through my brother. My brother was more specialized in long-distance racing, but he named me because I did race the shorter distances up to middle-distance. That was more in line with Paul Santens’ ambitions and a few days later we saw each other for the first time. It clicked immediately despite the age difference of some 25 years. Paul first brought a round of youngsters and a year later, in 2014, all his breeders and main pigeons to Vaulx and became my faithful letter, partner and adviser. From St. Martens-Latem to Vaulx is easily just under two hours’ drive on Flemish and Ardennes roads. And yet Paul is present almost every week to wait for the pigeons, at least if his health (back problems) allows it.
Stay-at-home partner
Olivier sips his far too hot coffee and continues, “The racing team annually consists of about 30 cocks and about 30 hens. They are all played on classic widowhood with partners staying at home. Normally, during the winter period, the widowers are paired at the same time as the breeders and we deposit the eggs of the breeders with the widowers so that we have a 2nd round of the breeders sooner, but this season (2022) we have paired it only part of the widowers.
The ladies will be rested until March. Then they will be paired to start the season after 4 days on widowhood.
Here we put all our trust in the Beyers Galaxy mixtures. This is Light, Sport, Energy and Rui throughout the year. What we only add to this are the last 2 – 3 days a large portion of candy with peanuts. We mainly work on a quick recovery after the flight and here we mainly use the Schroeder Tollisan products. The last feedings before basketing we prefer not to put anything on the food, so they still have enough food inside. On the medical side, we visit Vincent Schroeder once a year and cure them briefly with Tricho Groen every 14 days and every other month we put something on them individually against coccidiosis. Against respiratory we try to do as little as possible, only if performance is not good enough. In terms of vaccinations, we leave nothing to chance and in autumn we do a cure + vaccination for paratyphus and in spring paramyxo, herpes and smallpox for all racers.
Stock breeding
We already told you that Paul Santens’ pigeons moved all the way to Vaulx. Paul himself no longer has pigeon lofts where he now lives. It is therefore predominantly Santens’ pigeons that form the basis of the current colony. Strangely enough, the basic pigeons are almost all of foreign origin: English and Dutch pigeons, coming from Mark Evans (Myrtle Lofts UK – strain Gaby Vandenabeele), Leen Boers (Gouderak, NL) and Geert Munnik (Noordbroek, NL). From the latter, Paul obtained nothing less than a son of the surely famous “Johnny Boy” (NL05-1844389).
His son, “Cardinal” will therefore have an important contribution to the strain formation.
In recent years, pigeons were very successfully obtained from Hok Bommerez (see national Bourges winners) and Patrick Vervloesem (Rijmenam).
If you ask us, we are convinced that we have not yet seen the very last of this colony. We have let several toppers slide through our hands and are seriously impressed by the quality present at Poussart’s place
We wish Olivier, son Justin and Paul the very best of luck.
Loft
Winner
