“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.

Ponderosa UK Stud – Weymouth.

I had a day off from our holiday in 'Broadchurch' (West Bay) in September to undertake some loft visits to do filming for the YouTube channel. I visited two Dorset National winning lofts and the Ponderosa UK Stud in Weymouth. It was a sad visit as Tony Hayne and Mary Bartlett were retiring and closing the Ponderosa down over the next year. I've known Tony and Mary for 40 years, having a great association with them over that time and on my visit we had a last photo taken. This was my third visit to the Ponderosa in 2016. Previously Terry Haley and I made the 130 miles drive down to Dorset to visit the Ponderosa in Chickerell, which is sited near the wonderful south coast holiday resort of Weymouth. The stud owners, Tony and Mary, invited me to bring my pigeon photography box down to Chickerell on that occasion to photograph 40 of their premier stock birds, for a new feature on the Ponderosa Internet Website. I don’t usually take the box out of the house and I think this was only about the third time it had gone out of my front door since I built it all those years ago.

The Ponderosa UK Stud moved ‘lock stock and barrel’ into their new Chickerell facility in September 2009 and the brand new complete must be described as fantastic. The new site is just along the lane from the old Ponderosa site and the new pigeon living quarters are a carbon copy of the old lofts. The original 26 breeding sections, including automatic cleaning nest box were relocated in the new site, as was the 20 holding flights which house the birds for sale. The only new facility in the pigeon breeding quarters is the under floor cleaning, which are deep pits under a wooden slatted floor, and this is cleaned out at regular times. The ventilation in the whole Stud is brilliant and the inmates looked in ‘mint’ condition and wonderful health. The new complex has a function room, restaurant, pigeon shop and a wonderful flat, en suite bathroom, for traveling fancier to stay over. The new VIP room was very impressive, with luxury seating and wide scene plasma TV. When you enter the new centre, you first arrive in the reception area and from this, doors lead off to the really nice coffee lounge, picnic area and pigeon accessories shop. The breeding pairs are housed in the stock wings, containing short, middle and long distance strains. The whole stud is sweet and clean, with the inmates looking in first class condition. Ponderosa UK has 320 stock pairs and the stud wings are split up in sections housing 12 pairs, and the birds sun themselves in large flights at the rear of the wings. There are other wings with flights, which houses the birds for sale. On request, the loft manager, Tony Hayne, is happy to let you handle the birds you are interested in.

The strains which we house at the Ponderosa UK Stud are: (Short Distance) Janssen / Arendonk - Janssen Bertie Camphius - Luc Van Mechelen - De Klak - Hearmans - Causters - Van Loon - Brad De Joode - G & S Verkerk - Ad Schlaeckens - Van Dyke - Kannibaal
- Gaston Van de Wouwer - Meulemans – Troyes - Deschacht - Denduyver - Vandenabeele Minderhoud - Desmit Mathjis – Ceusters: (Long Distance) Van Wanroy - Van De Wegan – Stichelbout – Muller A.

Many winners are reported every season, with birds bred at the stud. Some recent Ponderosa winners are: Preece Brothers of Wales won 2^nd, 5^th section, 3^rd, 17^th open BICC International St. Vincent in 2013 with pigeons based on the Ponderosa Muller and Van Geel / Jan Aarden of Alun Maull. Dave and Vince Padfield of Wales continue their brilliant success with their long distance family based on the Wim Muller / Jan Aarden pigeons. Dave and Vincent have won at least seven Nationals and they won 1^st, 2^nd open Welsh SRNFC Tarbes, 1^st, 2^nd, 6^th, 7^th Welsh SRNFC, 27^th, 33^rd, 52^nd, 88^th open NFC Tarbes, 8^th open BICC Barcelona, 3^rd open BICC Tours, 30^th open BICC Pau International, 1^st section, 1^st open BICC St. Vincent (566 miles). Tony told me that Steve and Paul Kulpa of Berkshire had won a long list of premier positions and have been customers of the Ponderosa UK Stud for many years.

The Ponderosa has a very long list top winners with their bloodlines over many years and the latest was put up by Tony Swain of Dorchester in the 2014 racing season. He recorded 1^st open Central Southern Classic Flying Club Yearling Derby from Messac with his good blue hen ‘Elaine’ and she was bred at the Ponderosa UK Stud, from their Ad Schaerlaeckens bloodlines. Her dam ‘6374248’ is full sister to a cock that is responsible for 1^st open BBC National Vire in 2010. A great line of Schaerlaeckens stock birds breeding National and Classic winners in the UK. As a young bird in 2013, ‘Elaine’ flew her first race from Mangotsfield on the north road and a week later flew Guernsey on the south road with Central Southern Classic Flying Club. This game little hen was one of a small batch of youngsters obtained from the Ponderosa UK Stud and she has won several prizes, with the highlights being: 1^st open CSCFC Yearling Derby Messac, 10^th section, 22^nd open CSCFC Messac (2641 birds). I visited Tony’s loft in Dorchester and he describes his set up as ‘eco’, with the lofts being very basic and set in a very rural area of Dorset. We went out of the back door of the Swain’s farm type house and had the walk 100 yards through a field containing pigs, sheep and chickens, to reach his lofts, which were sited against the back brick wall of the village church. Tony is a long distance enthusiast and has won many prizes through the years from all the main race points including, Barcelona, Pau and Tarbes. One of Tony’s best pigeons in recent years was his good blue chequer cock, ‘Reliable’, and his wonderful performances must give him a champion status, winning: 2009: 1^st Weydor SFC, 1^st section, 87^th open NFC Tarbes 529 miles (3,808 birds): 2010: 6^th Weydor SFC, 20^th section, 56^th open CSCFC Tarbes (606 birds): 2011: 1^st Weydor SFC, 4^th section, 401^st open NFC Tarbes (3,290 birds), 1^st Weydor SFC, 3^rd section, 18^th open BBC Bordeaux 410 miles (935 birds), 1^st Weydor SFC, 2^nd section, 263^rd open NFC Saintes 352miles (4,131 birds). I met up with Tony on my visit to the Ponderosa in September 2016 and he was in the process of moving his lofts to a new field in Dorchester. Elaine’s horse is stabled there and Tony keeps a few sheep in the field next door. He had enjoyed a good season with two widowhood cocks in particular: ‘95446’: 1^st Weydor SFC, 11^th section, 37^th open CSCFC Pau (519 miles), 1^st Weydor SFC, 3^rd section, 132^nd open NFC Tarbes (528 miles): ‘22383’: 1^st Weydor SFC, 2^nd section, 10^th open BBC Coutances, 4^th Weydor SFC, 28^th section, 46^th open BBC Messac, 3^rd Weydor SFC, 31^st section, 131^st open CSCFC Fougeres, 2^nd Weydor SFC, 13^th section, 44^th open NFC Messac, 4^th Weydor SFC, 12^th section, 337^th open NFC Saintes. Wonderful pigeon racing.

Another fancier who has been very successful with the Ponderosa UK Stud bloodlines in recent seasons is Charlie Riley of Dorchester and he recorded 1^st, 2^nd section, 1^st, 2^nd open NFC Fougeres (7,054 birds) in 2012. Charlie’s Fougeres National winner was his champion blue cock, ‘Olympic Flame’, and he is down from the very successful De Klak / ‘Bartoli’ bloodlines, and this wonderful cock has now been retired to the stock loft. The second bird on the ETS from Fougeres was the blue cock, ‘Maggie’s Boy’, and he was bred from Ponderosa De Klak / ‘Bartoli’ stock birds. This game cock has a won several premier positions for the Riley loft including: 2012: 2^nd Weydor SFC, 2^nd section, 2^nd open NFC Fougeres, 3^rd Weydor SFC, 9^th section, 78^th open NFC Cholet: 2013: 5th section, 121^st open BBC Le Mans. Charlie says winning 1^st and 2^nd National is his biggest thrill in his 40 years in the sport of pigeon racing. Two wonderful De Klak racing cocks!

When visiting Charlie’s home in Blandford Forum I was amazed to see his old bird racing loft in his front garden and the stock and young bird lofts in the back yard. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever seen someone’s loft in their front garden! Needless to say the Riley loft set up was very smart, with the 30ft old bird loft being completely close down with Perspex windows for the widowhood system. Charlie tells me, good ventilation is paramount in good loft design and he has never used deep litter on the loft floors. He races twenty cocks on a basic widowhood system and these racers are mated up at the end of January, with National and Classic racing in mind. The cocks only get two or three 20 mile training tosses to kick the season off and they are never broken down during the racing season. Charlie told me he never shows the hens on marking night and the length of time the cocks get their mates on their return on race day, depends on the length of the race, the longer the race, the longer the hens stay in the nest boxes. The cocks race the whole of the early programme in preparation for the later races and then they race every two weeks up to 350 miles. The racers are fed on mostly Versalaga ‘Super Widowhood’ mixture and get the normal grit and minerals. Three other premier racing cocks at the Blandford loft are: the blue cock, ‘219’ who was also bred from Ponderosa UK Stud stock birds and he recorded in the 2014 racing season: 1^st section, 10^th open NFC Messac. The handsome blue pied cock, ‘926’, has won: 2014: 1^st section, 3^rd open CSCFC Messac, 3^rd section, 69^th open NFC Saintes: 2013: 8^th section, 109^th open NFC Carentan, 20^th section, 247^th open NFC Saintes, 19^th section, 115^th open BBC Niort, plus other positions and the blue cock, ‘514’, is the winner of five top prizes including: 2013: 3^rd section, 10^th open CSCFC Messac: 11^th section, 98^th open NFC Cholet.

Charlie has 24 pairs of stock birds and these are mostly De Klak bloodlines, with a couple of pairs of Delbars and Kirkpatricks for the long distance. The breeders are paired up in December and are houses in big brick built loft with flight at the back of the property. They are fed on low maintenance food, purchased from the Ponderosa Stud and Charlie tells me, one of his top stock pairs have bred four separate section winners. He breeds between 50 and 100 young birds to race each year and they are fed on a general mixture. The babies are put on the ‘darkness’ system and get about five training tosses up to 30 miles before the first race. When they come off the ‘dark’ in June they are raced naturally to the perch. Charlie is not into inbreeding his family of birds and told me the moult period is very important and calls for special feeding once the birds are split for the winter.

Charlie was born in Bridgewater, Somerset and his mother was a keen pigeon fancier.  When he was a lad he was interested in athletics, particularly cross country running and won prizes running for the school and county. He has always liked pigeon all his life and got his first racing birds in 1974, and these were a pair from Colin Garth of Shaftesbury and a pair from Bill Hands of Shillingstone. The two Crossways club members, George Dench and Reggie Isles help him get started and his first big prize was 2^nd Berwick in the big young bird open race. Charlie’s first birds were Kirkpatrick, which he housed in a 8ft x 6ft shed and won prizes racing up to Thurso in the Dorchester club. He says his early mistakes were the normal ones, bad training and over feeding.

He is a self-employed gardener / maintenance man and says his partner, Maggie, is very keen and is a great help with the pigeons, including the training. Sprint / middle distance racing is preferred and Maggie says their family’s race well up to about 270 miles, with most of their racing being from France. Charlie says he has no real opinion on the eyesign theory and has shown, and won prize at the local club event, but dedicates himself to racing his pigeons. He told me he thinks the sport has definitely improved in the last 20 years and if he could he would stop mid-day liberations, and introduce control on birds of prey. He maintains ‘you only get out want you put in’ and says the partnership who do it best is Bill and Bryan Woods of Shaftsbury, who he rates as the best local fanciers.

Ahmed & Omar Al Hamli of Dubai (ALHAMLI TEAM). 

I first became aware on the two brothers, Ahmed and Omar Al Hamli of the United Arab Emirates, through my association with the Ponderosa UK Stud in Weymouth and they have had great success racing the Ponderosa bloodline for many years. They race in partnership as ‘ALHAMLI TEAM’ and their lofts are at their home in Dubai. The 2016 season had seen them win 1^st and 9^th open Alshaheed 520klm (final race) One Point Race with 100% Ponderosa UK Stud Verkerk / Gaston Van De Wouwer pigeons. They live near the sea, so swimming and fishing were their main hobbies when they were very young. The Brother’s late father was a pigeon keeper and Omar told me, ‘Keith, he only kept them as pets, but treated them so amazingly and I think his way with the birds was the main factor that made us so keen on the pigeons. He kept pigeons and we were there watching him, and gradually we got involved. We got our first racing pigeons in the late 1980’s, when my brother came across some racing birds offered for sale in the market and they were a pair with ‘NL’ rings on. He purchased them, but of course we were not sure what to do with them, except breed from them. My brother, Ahmad, was eager to know more about racing pigeons after he purchased the Dutch pair of pigeons. He started to search for any information on racing pigeons and actually came across an old Arabic book called, ‘The Animal’ (Kitab al-Hayawan). It was written sometime in the 9^th century by an Arab professor named, Al-Jahiz, and he covered a chapter on racing pigeons during that time, and how valuable these birds used to be. He wrote that a pigeon was worth 1,000 Dinar (currency used at that time) and compared to 30 or 40 Dinar for a cow’.

Ahmed and Omar got their first racing stock birds in the 1900’s, when they met Dr. Ashraf Jaber, coincidently in the market, and he was a racing pigeon fancier from Egypt working in Dubai. It all started there for the Al Hamli brothers, with his help they obtained their first batch of racing birds from fanciers in Egypt and these were mostly long distance strains, including: Cattrysse, Desmet-Matthys and Andre Vermote. When they started up 30 years ago there was no internet or social media, so information about the pigeon racing sport was not available, especially in their part of the world. However, Ahmed said, ‘the great Janssen pigeons were very famous and we knew about them’. They started with pigeon brought in from Egypt and as previously stated, they were long distance, but they also raced them in short distance races (150klm to 400klm) with some good success. They raced only shorter distances races up to 400klm as this is the furthest point they can reach to the border with Saudi Arabia and could go beyond that, but it requires a complicated procedure and documents, plus a long waiting queue to pass the border. All these problems have forced their pigeon racing from day one to stay within the United Arab Emirates jurisdiction.

The brothers were the founder members, with three other fanciers, of the first racing pigeon club in Dubai and that was in 1990. It is called the Dubai Racing Pigeon Club and Ahmed and Omar still race in that club today. Their first loft, built in 1989, was a three section set up for the sliding door method. When I asked the brothers about their mistakes in the early days they told me that the biggest was and it is something they still really regret doing today, is sending pigeons to the races that were not 100% fit to do the job and sometimes loosing good birds with bad judgment. Another mistake was being fooled by what they called the ‘secret stuff’, which is commercial products and in fact what you need to win races is good quality and healthy pigeon. This is what all novices need to look for; no product in the world can help you win races if your birds are not healthy and top quality.

The Al Hamli brothers have won countless premier positions through their many years racing pigeons, including winning in the One Point Lofts, which has been a great thrill for Ahmed and Omar, seeing their name at the top of the result sheet many times. The most memorable thing of all time was being top winner in the One Point Loft of Riyadh, KSA, three years on the trot in the 1998, 1999 and 2000 seasons. Fanciers from everywhere participate in these events, including the Gulf countries, Belgium, Holland, United Kingdom and Spain, and the brothers are proud to say they were the only fancier to score in the ten open positions three years in a row. They won: 1998 2^nd open, 1999 5^th and 6^th open, 2000 8^th open and all the winners were brothers and sisters bred from their champion Meulemans sock cock, ‘King’, which was obtained from the Ponderosa UK Stud in Weymouth. A wonderful performance! In recent seasons the Al Hamli brothers have won a long list of premier positions in One Point Loft races including: 1^st, 2^nd, 2^nd, 2^nd, 2^nd, 4^th, 4^th, 4^th, 4^th, 4^th, 5^th, 5^th, 5^th, 6^th open and so on. The 2016 season saw their champion blue chequer cock, ‘343’, win 1^st open final race Alshaheed (520klm) One Point Loft Kuwait with a velocity of 980 mpm. They also recorded 9^th open and both pigeons were 100% Ponderosa UK Stud Verkerk / Gaston Van Wouwer pigeons.

The brother’s current loft in Dubai is 32ft long and 10ft wide, which houses both racers and breeders. The racing loft is 22ft long, with a corridor and four sections for widowhood racers and stock pigeons. The brothers maintain the most important fact in good loft design is ventilation, especially with the weather in that part of the world. Because of the very high temperature and humidity in Dubai, the best thing to use in the loft is grilled floors, as it keeps the droppings away from the inmates, which helps and keeps things dry. They race their old birds on the ‘roundabout’ system, which they maintain is easy to operate and is less stress on the birds. Ahmed and Omar race both cocks and hens on the system and usually start the season with about 100 old and young birds. When I asked Ahmed about their racing system he said, ‘the system works like this: we separate the cocks and hens and we exercise each group alone for one hour every day, with no afternoon flying out. Once they are fit for road work they are trained up to 80klm (50 miles) every day alternately and the cocks don’t see the hens until the last couple of training tosses. The first race is 160klm (100 miles). On these last training tosses, they see their mate on arrival home for about 15 minutes and next day vice a versa Three days before the first race, no more road work, just an hour of exercise around the loft every day. On basketing day we don’t let them see one another and on their arrival home from the race they stay together for half an hour, but this depends on the race conditions and distance’. All the team race right through the program until the last race, providing they are fit and well to do the business and after the fourth race the hens are encouraged to mate together, which the brothers say might sound strange. The truth is if they mate together, they are hard to beat on the race day. They open the nest boxes and introduce the nest bowls on marking night for motivation and are very successful on a weekly basis up to 450klm (280 miles). Regarding feeding, the brothers use the same mixture all the year around, with no change and it is the same for the stock bird, old bird and young bird racers. They feed ‘Mariman’ mixture (breeding super power) and have tried break down in the past, and say feeding the same mixture all the year around, they notice the birds become healthier and in better shape. The brothers maintain that moulting is a natural thing that happens to pigeons and is part of their life cycle, and it is a big mistake to interfere with that. However you need to give the pigeons the rest more than anything else during the moulting time. They use the same corn mixture all the around and add brewer’s yeast twice a week, moist the corn with sedochol, one day with multi-vitamin in the water and plenty of grit and minerals.

Ahmed and Oma have 25 stock pairs and due to the weather conditions in the United Arab Emirates they start breeding in October and November every year. When bringing in new stock they take their time and observe the fancier, which might be over a three year period, just to make sure of his consistence of performance. Omar said, ‘this is what happened with Heremans-Ceusters back in 2003 and 2004. They were just about to come into view and we obtained our first successful Heremans-Ceusters stock birds’. Their birds are a mixture of short / middle distance families, which we have introduced over many years after they tried the long distance birds from Egypt. The brothers came across a book catalogue for the Ponderosa UK Stud in Weymouth and ordered some Meulemans and Janssen stock birds, and that was the start of a long and good relationship with Tony and Mary. That was in 1994 and in 1996 they introduced their Ponderosa Van Loon stock birds. The 1998 season saw Ahmed and Omar bring in ten late breds direct from Staf Van Reet of Belgium and these included two brothers of the famous ‘Den Don’ and ‘Favorie’. Then in 2004 they introduced the Heremans-Ceusters and Ad Schaerlaeckens stock birds and their latest introductions in 2012 were: Gaston Van Wouwer, Luc Mechlen and Johan Donkers. The Al Hamli brothers breed three rounds of youngsters every season, which total about 120 birds and they are trained hard, so normally starting the racing season with about 100 youngsters. They race every week, through the program up to the last race at 400klm. Feeding the young bird racers is the same as the old birds and are race the same, on the roundabout system. If they want to pair up they are allowed to do so, with the eggs being replaced with dummy eggs.

Ahmed and Omar both hold senior positions in the government sentor and with the massive pressure on their time because of their work, they sometimes find it hard to race their pigeons as would like. They now adapt their programs as per the time available and it has worked well so far. Their families are not 100% involved with the pigeons, but will help out when they are needed. Due to the limited distance of their country borders, 400klm is the maximum they can fly, which is to the border of Saudi Arabia, but the brothers tell me, in general the fanciers prefer shorter distance racing. When I asked Omar about his opinion on the eye sign theory he said, ‘in the beginning, yes we studied all the theories, eye sign, wings, body and tried to apply it, but these little creatures keep surprising us every time and mostly are against the theories. In the end we apply one theory, breed winner to winner, test the product by racing them and then keep the best’. In the beginning when the pigeon club became established in 1994, the brothers were very active with committee work, but in recent times they have had to take a step back because of the pressure on their time with work commitments. When advising novices they say the most important factor in successful pigeon racing is the management, but of course you need good birds. Pigeon racing is an art in its self and the only way to learn this art is to practice it and learn from your mistakes. Try, try and try again, until you have your own successful management!

Well that’s it for this week! I would like to finish this week’s article by wishing Tony and Mary a very happy retirement. They have done a fantastic job over many years, breeding countless winners for pigeon fanciers worldwide. Two more smashing people leaving our sport! I can be contacted with any pigeon ‘banter’ on telephone number: 01372 463480 or email me on: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keithmott.com)