The Art and Craft of versatile pigeon racing from sprint to marathon levels.

A brief background on the formation of the modern racing pigeon.

The Rock dove or Pigeon as its known have been used for millennia for their ability to find their way home to roost primarily to its nest site. Humans exploited this ability by using pigeons to send messages between two different locations. Approximately two hundred years ago in Belgium pigeon fanciers developed the racing pigeon by breeding together the former best examples of these message delivering pigeons. To test and measure their experiments they sent them away from their home (the loft) and then when they returned they bred the winners together thus overtime accumulating in faster speeds from greater distance, resulting in the modern versatile racing pigeon we know today.

Today the modern racing pigeon can in competitive races fly distances over 1000 miles and reach speeds of 100 mile an hour in short races.

The next age old question often pondered by fanciers is, is it nature or nurture the pigeon or the fancier which effects the performance of the bird?

Let’s look at the pigeon first. What is it that makes one racing pigeon perform and another racing pigeon not! The modern racing pigeon is genetically the same as other types of none racing pigeons. Recent studies have shown however that racing pigeons are more adaptive to use certain genes together giving them enhanced function in speed, endurance and homing abilities a process that is understood to be because of the selection through breeding for these traits. As an example if a fancier sends 10 bird’s to a short distance and continuously breeds from the first ones home overtime the flock will adapt to this situation and will become more proficient at this type of racing. Consequently if the same process was used for distance racing the same effect would happen for the flock. This is a very simplistic view to this process because of the numerous other variables mainly controlled by the fancier themselves, such as food, water, health and conditioning of the bird.

All this being said it is all incidental without the addition of the fancier who there would be no racing to exploit the potential of the years breeding and racing of the fanciers that came before.

So then let’s have a closer detailed look at the fancier that in truth controls and is ultimately is responsible for exploiting the pigeons potential for speed, distance, homing abilities and consequently  winning.

I could just cite the status quo what most seasoned fanciers will tell you, which is dedication and hard work, which is true but there are other factors which are at play which some fanciers are aware of and some fanciers to which this comes naturally to and consequently don’t recognise themselves. What is this hidden in plain sight factor I here you ask! Well it is all of the above mentioned and more. Have you ever asked yourself why some fanciers excel at winning with racing pigeons, fanciers that should they choose to win over all genres of the sport sprint, middle and long distance marathon racing achieving their objectives to the highest levels over substantial time periods. What is this mysterious phenomenon that these fanciers  possess that enables them to perform at this high level which we all in our own way try to emulate. Well like the racing pigeon we humans are genetically the same but we have  consciousness which gives us the ability to think. It is this ability that forms their mindset a part of their personality manifesting it’s self in the ruthless dedication to achieve their objective and be the best at what they choose to do. This personality trait can be learned in life or self taught from life’s experiences. This then can be described as the performance of the fancier, which can be measured by way of results. What then is it that makes a high achieving pigeon fancier? They possess a myriad of skills that they use to maximise their potential, these skills are to numerous to mention but can be summarised as planning, problem solving, budgeting, communication and self discipline. These skills are used to formulate objectives which they achieve with meticulous precision and are what businesses call SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, in a realistic timescale).  They are self starters, go getters that don’t give up until they achieve what they set out to do. Racing Pigeons is just the medium they choose and the pigeon is an extension of their own personality. So in conclusion is it the fancier or the racing pigeon, I’ll leave it to you to decide! But remember without the fancier there would be no pigeon racing!

Some points of note to ask yourself if you want to be a great racing pigeon fancier.

1. What is my objective
2. What’s my plan to achieve my objective
3. What’s my measurement of success
4. Can I and am I able to do this
5. Am I dreaming or can this be a reality
6. Am I prepared to invest my time, energy and money
7. Am I a SMART racing pigeon fancier

Of course the sport of pigeon racing not only caters for this small elite but all fanciers for a multitude of personal reasons, and that’s what makes this sport so great. So with the start of the racing season just on the horizon I wish you all a good one and I hope your dreams come true.

Yours in sport

Dave Bunker Brierley