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History of the Holle Cropper
With this article we want to make a little more understood how the Holle Cropper developed from an upstanding flying pouter to the elegant bird it is today. The Holle Cropper is a pigeonbreed from Dutch origine, His forefather was known as the "Uploper" already discribed by Willughby in 1678. Also paintings have been found which contain impressions with the Uploper present. Best know is a painting by d'Hondecoeter in the same era. The Uploper is known as the forefather of other west european pouter breeds as well.
		Source:"http://www.vriendhol.scali.eu.org"
	Until the 1800's not much happened with the breed. The "Uplopers" were kept as flying pouters, and were populair mostly in The Hague, Amsterdam and Groningen. Though we deal with the same pigeon here, there was difference between the pigeons from the different cities. From 1800 crossings were made with the "Groninger Slenk" to come to a somewhat smaller and rounder cropper. Until 1900 the "Amsterdam Balloon" didn't change much. Transformation to the bird we know today started in 1904 when the Holle Kropper Club was founded. A first standard was published and new crossings with the"Slenk" and Fantail were made to accomplish a bird with a horizontal stange and a neck carried backwards, leaning on the back. The "three cicles of Tuijt" were a great tool to see if the Holle Cropper, as it was called now, could stand up to the measures of the new standard. Great improvings were made within 20 years, though the true horizontal stange was not a reality yet.
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Drawings of Gink from these years show the developing of the Holle Cropper. Firts bird to reach the standard was a famous cock bred by Henry Rey from The Hague in 1925, called the King. This white cock can be seen as the sire to all the Holle Croppers from then on. It was considered almost a miracle this bird showed a horizontal stange and never had problems keeping his balance.
		Painting van Gink 1922
After WO II breeding was started again, and the English Modena was crossed into the few Holle Croppers that were left. These crossing gave the birds with the right balance and stance and developed brest depth and width, so the Holle Cropper could be seen really in 3 circles. Although development after WO II was fast, it took until the present time to achieve the real standard that was written and rewritten some times in a hundred years. The Holle Cropper nowadays is so strong it hardly needs crossing with Modena's or other breeds to give it the necessary roundings, depths and volumes. Nowadays the Holle Cropper is known and bred all over the world. Altough there is difference in interpretation of the standard, everywhere the birds can stand to the standard. Aim for the next years is to try and get all the breeders around the world in the same direction, so quality of the Holle Croppers around the world will be the same everywhere. A new challenge to everyone that's involved with the Holle Cropper!
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