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The Western American Trumpeter Club was formed to promote and improve the English Trumpeter pigeon through:

Exhibition Shows High Quality Breeding

To offer its members:

Instructive Assistance Competition

And
Present Awards

Harsen Wins Pageant of Pigeons

Yes Alan Harsen Wins the of Pageant Pigeons with a Great looking Champion English Trumpeter

By Robert “Bob” Nolan of Dana Point, California

The crowd was silent, the suspense was excruciating, as the final numbers were recorded on the point card...suddenly the silence was broken by cheers, handshakes, pats on the back and most of all a huge smile on the face of Alan Harsen. A new Pageant champion had been crowned, a new name to go up on the

honor roll of past Pageant champions. Alan & Penny Harsen came into the club c o n t i n u e t o

be small. Their progress was slow but steady, learning as they went they were always good supporters of

t h e c l u b shows. About three years ago they hit a wall, production was down and Alan knew he had to

do something. He disposed of quite a number of good birds that were getting old and had been spotty with fertility.

With a shot of new younger blood from Pamplona, Fife, and Fraire his production shot up and he also had a noticeable ascension in quality. Recently he has won the Most Promising, the Del Mar Fair and the crowning jewel of Pageant champion. Our judge John Heppner was quite taken with the Harsen yellow young hen. As he was judging he called it, "The bird of the future". Style and type were the area where this

bird really excelled. A lovely set of large flat muffs, an impressive high crest, neat narrow tuft and signs of rosettes were enough to give it a one (1) point edge over a white old cock of John DeCarlo Sr.

Alan is well liked in our group for his sportsmanship, humor, and willingness to work for the club. So it is not surprising that so many were happy to see he and Penny win their first Pageant championship. A bit on the

small side, it should only get better next year as it fills out and gets a bit bigger. Alan is in the process of producing a family of yellows that look very much alike. The shortness of this family is what you notice first. Pretty nice color as well sets the birds off with championship poise.

DeCarlo Wins Reserve Champion & Best

Opposite Sex

John DeCarlo Sr. had the second best bird in the show with a white old cock #507. This bird is building quite a show record as it was 2nd yearling white cock last year under Greg Pola and Reserve Best Young in 2006 under Bob Nolan. A very well balanced bird it just does not have any major faults.

Pola's Red Splash Best Yearling

Greg Pola's yearling red splash cock #1732 made it into the parade of champions point carding. He lost out by a total of 2.50 points to the Harsen champion. A large powerful bird with robust size yet good style his downfall was body and color points to the yellow champion. No doubt Greg will be building a wonderful

family of splashes off this bird. Best Yearling is a high honor congratulations Greg!

Art Pamplona who had won several Pageant champions in a row had the Reserve Best Young with a yellow young hen #1262. Beaten in her class by the Harsen bird she still was good enough to get the nod as the

second best young bird raised in 2008. Interesting how highly developed the yellows are where a 2nd place bird is able to beat all the winners of other color classes. If you want to compete in yellows you have some real competition ahead of you.

Richard Leimann Wins Division II

Some real spirited competition was evident in the division II competition as about 10 lofts were vying for honors. Richard Leimann, who flew with his dad Rick to the show from Cincinnati, Ohio, had his first Division II

win. He has been competing for sometime in the junior division and now is a full-fledged adult and showing he can more than hold his own with those many years his senior. Richard's winner was a black old hen #524. This bird was the 1st place black old hen and also Best Old Black, quite an honor for Richard to be sure.

John Harmon Has Best Junior Bird

Another first time winner was John Harmon of Payson, Utah. We are use to seeing Remle Barschdorf's name in the winners circle when it comes to junior competition. With Remle passing the age limit it opened things up for John. His winning bird was a blue bar young cock #2627. John's bird was also first in a class of six (6) blue young cocks and judged best young blue, an exciting win for a junior against adult competition in the blues.

Best Out of California Birds

The Pola red splash yearling cock was the Best out of State bird, followed by fellow Utah resident John Fife with a very fine red splash that has been a big winner wherever shown. The Leimann black hen got the 3rd

place prize money.

McGuirk Wins Raffle Bird Class

Following our pattern of first time winners Rick McGuirk of Phoenix, Arizona had the winning bird in the raffle class. It was a red self young cock and I believe Rick sold over $200 in raffle tickets and pocketed a nice cash prize to pay for his gas back home. The bird was raffled off and Alan Harsen (call him Mr.Lucky) was the winner of the McGuirk red. Yes Alan did have his lucky shoes on.

Who Won the Most Color

Classes

This is always an interesting question as it shows depth of quality in a loft. This year the competition was close but John DeCarlo Sr. came out on top, winning ten (10) classes while Art Pamplona who had that honor last year had eight (8) wins. No one else was close. Those two fanciers won 18 classes out of 28 pretty impressive depth of quality for just two lofts.