‘HORSES FOR COURSES’
By
Over the years you sit back and listen to the various pundits, oracles and experts, who themselves come in all shapes and sizes. They will tell you how to solve a wide variety of problems, which birds are best, what to feed, how to train your birds etc. etc. They can even fix the problems with your sex life at home, sometimes without you even knowing!!
Like
most of us you most probably only take notice of those ideas that already matc
‘hear that whic
Ever since the laws regarding the
importation of birds were changed I have been a devotee of the imported
strains, the Janssens, Muellemans, Houbens, Van Loons etc. In most cases these birds are simply faster,
easier to manage, they don’t seem to suffer the psychosis of some of the older
breeds such as the
It was only the recent win of
Jesse Egan and Marg Warren in the Greater
Denis Holt, who has long passed on, was a grumpy old bastard who found it easier to make enemies than friends, most probably due to the fact that he would readily offer advice to all and sundry as to ‘where they should go, and how they should get there’.
However, once past that gruff exterior he was a very knowledgeable and helpful person.
He also had an excellent eye for a good pigeon and experience in keeping and racing birds that had been honed over decades of involvement in the sport.
Denis was also the beneficiary of some imported blood that was brought into this country nefariously, many years before it became legal to do so.
For reasons best known to Denis, he and I managed to get along pretty well and I would visit him on a regular basis. We would argue the merits of the imports versus the locals, the need to breed and train strains of pigeons for specific distances and whether there would still be a place for the traditional Australian breeds in years to come. It was during one such discussion that he was extolling the virtues of the ‘Horses for Courses Theory.
The theory is nothing new, simply put..
SPRINTERS FOR SPRINTS &
DISTANCE PEFORMERS FOR THE DISTANCE
RACES.
As I said, it’s simple enough, they manage to do it with racehorses, greyhounds and even homo sapiens, so why as pigeon flyers don’t we do the ‘bloody’ same. Yes, the imported birds are magic, they fly fast and true but it is no earthly use sending them off to do a task that they are not designed to do!
All of this brings me back to
Jesse Egan and Marg Warren of the Greater
off-spring
off specific pairings are set for particular distances and races and are
trained accordingly. This is why they have now won the 600 mile race last year,
2005 and again followed up with a win in this year’s race, 2006, bot
These special birds are a cross of
Webber, Van Cutsem and
IT DOES HELP IF YOU HAVE GOOD BI
Greg, Marg and Jesse are living proof that we need to be more circumspect when we select our birds for races through the season. Do they sprint? Will they fly the water? Can they get home from 600 miles? Sounds easy but unless we take notice, consider our thoughts and then heed our own answers we will continue to waste birds needlessly
Picture # 1 “Hurricane Blue” BCC, the 2005 winner by 30mpm, again their 2nd bird would have also won the fed.
Picture # 2 “Home Alone” BCPH, the
2006 winner was home at
