| Author: Bob Rowland | Title: Racing Restrictions |
| Date: 2003-03-18 00:33:28 | Uploaded by: webmaster |
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This post is in regards to the current discussions on shipping limits and any other racing restrictions. There are those that are trying to open things up, while others try to keep it small and without the level of competition possible with open shipping and federation releases.
The only good reason for having a shipping limit would be if our transportation equipment could not hold any more pigeons. WOULDN'T THAT JUST BE TERRIBLE if we had to get more equipment because our sport is growing and what we have is not sufficient to handle all our pigeons because we have so many. Then what would be so terrible about getting big enough equipment to handle all this competition.
I would love to see our sport go for the max. With shipping limits and boundaries come the excuses why someone is favored. What most forget is that there will always be people that will win, regardless of where they live or move to or how many pigeons they ship. They have what is referred to as animal sense and are generally quite successful in most everything they do.
We are also just beginning to utilize the sciences for better information and when you think how our sport has changed in just the last 10 years, it is amazing. Now it is up to us to get everyone competing on the bigger picture.
The stories come out about trailers or trucks going to the stations with room to spare so why haven't these great clubs, combines, or whatever, formed a federation where they can eliminate some of these hauling vehicles and transport their pigeons together? Does this make too much sense or is it that a few that can control the minds of the feeble have influenced them to think their birds can't compete. If this is so, why do those same lofts that fear competition get into open band races or ship pigeons to out of area races? If they are afraid of their local competition, they have the problem and not the sport.
Where I fly, I would love to have a wide open federation with the entire width of Florida combining their schedules and release points and going for the big releases. This DOES CREATE BETTER PIGEONS as those that can not find their way home will do you a favor. You don't breed more just like them as they are not here.
In a recent discussion I was told by some others that if we had a large federation release, some of our pigeons would end up in Miami. To that I responded and said that if they do, I will send a pedigree to the person that reports the pigeon to me.
We all hate to lose a good one but if you ship them to enough races, eventually they slow down or our friendly hawks have them for lunch. We never seem to be too concerned about losing one in the races to the predators but we are worried that we won't get the dummies home. AM I MISSING SOMETHING HERE???????
If the guy that only races a few pigeons is concerned that the big shippers will have an edge, then perhaps establishing a 5 bird nomination for Champion Loft, average speed, or whatever is a possible solution. This is much easier for the little loft guy to nominate his 5 out of the 30 birds or so he keeps while the big guy should have a harder time to nominate his 5 out of possibly 150 in his racing team.
Every pigeon shipped should have the opportunity to win the race but imagine how it is if the winner is not one of the nominated pigeons. By having each shipper nominate 5 pigeons each week, the playing field becomes somewhat leveled between the big shipper and the little shipper. The big guy may get the win, but the first nominated birds to be clocked will establish who is able to pick their pigeons. This should be a sport where we recognize ability.
When we begin picking our pigeons, we get much smarter as we are looking for all the little tells which show the pigeon is coming into condition. This is one of the reason the Belgians have it all over on us. When they ship, they are flying to win a prize and any pigeon that can not win a prize is costing them money. If the big shipper had to pay a $1 or $2 for capital money and only got back 4 times the capital amount for each pigeon they put in the prizes, it would become necessary to learn how to pick and also not to accept inferior results from their pigeons and breeding pairs.
I love racing the pigeons and generally I only keep a small team but I do not fear the guy that keeps many. In 2002 young birds, I began my training with only 42 pigeons and these included my Classic entries. Now I have neighbors that race and train 200 pigeons and they have a lot more work, expense, and everything else which comes from big numbers of pigeons. When I go to the training truck and all my pigeons fit into 1 shipping crate costing me $4, I am happy. These big guys need 4 or 5 crates at $4 each and their feed bills are large also. If they want to spend their money, time, and effort, to have this many pigeons, I say FINE! While my feeding costs and training costs were minimal my results were exceptional. We won 2 combine races while these big quantity racers did not. When we shipped 9 pigeons to the Classic and placed 5th, the shippers of 40 or more pigeons were not as lucky. There are always the exceptions to every rule and although the winner shipped a large number he had super results, but for each large shipper, most had poor results for that race. They did not get an appropriate value for all their efforts.
Another thing that is really ignorant is people trying to have flight rules as those with a little common sense can get around any flight rule. If the thought or intention of having a flight rule was to keep people from using steroids, they are being ignorant. If you want to stop the use of steroids, then test for steroids bit it is my personal belief that those wanting a flight rule are really feeling inadequate in their knowledge of how to work with the new systems. They don't want a rule to prevent cheating. They want a rule to keep others at their level of poor performance.
In conclusion, I choose to keep just a few pigeons but I do not try to keep others from competing with big teams and by having shipping limits or moulting rules or other restrictions. If they want to do this, they are the ones that are insecure. It is my opinion that the quality of our pigeons and our abilities as a handler is what will give us results. If you are not getting the results you want, then get better pigeons and begin going to seminars or start reading the new books as to what the sciences are revealing. Let those that wish to play with several hundred pigeons do it. If you are paying attention, you can be competitive with lesser numbers but of higher quality.
Bob Rowland,
SpringHill, FLorida USA
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