There are probably very few sports in which the element of competition is as strongly present as in pigeon racing. In addition, it is also a strongly individual sport in which your clubmates are also competitors. On the other hand, the pigeon enthusiast also experiences pigeon sport as a team sport. A team in which the pigeon enthusiast is a coach and pigeons are players who have to deliver the performance. Really good performances can only be delivered if there are good pigeons with a good coach. That makes pigeon racing very attractive as a sport for all ages.
Exceptional performance capability
The pigeon sport is based on the special properties that the pigeon has. The most important characteristic is the pigeon’s ability to orientate and its urge to return to its home loft. In these flights the pigeon can bridge distances that are beyond imagination. It is about the combination of distance and speed. There are many bird species that make enormous journeys between the wintering areas and the breeding area. In doing so, they bridge distances that are many times greater than the flights on which the carrier pigeons are raced. But in speeding distances of about 1,000 kilometers in a row, there are few bird species that surpass the carrier pigeon. In the Netherlands, the flights with the furthest distances from Barcelona are up to about 1,200 kilometers. When the pigeons are released on Saturday morning, most pigeons return home on Sunday. A few years ago a pigeon arrived from Barcelona on Saturday evening! Pigeons that are released in St. Vincent on Friday at noon at distances of more than 1,000 kilometers, are home again on Saturday morning. It is a special sensation to see your pigeon return to the loft from such a flight. Of course such a pigeon is usually tired, but an hour later the effort of such a flight is often no longer visible. The pigeon coos, defends its loft and is courting its partner again! Of course, such a pigeon that has to be well prepared for such flights needs to regain its strength and, above all, to build up new reserves. In general, it is therefore wise to use pigeons for a new race after such performances no earlier than after about three weeks. If you fly with pigeons no further than flights of a few hundred kilometers, you can race the pigeons weekly.
Sports organizations
In the Netherlands there is one organization that organizes the pigeon sport, the Dutch Racing Pigeon Holders Organization (NPO). The organization has twelve departments that sometimes follow the provincial borders, but sometimes deviate from them considerably. In addition, the Netherlands has over 950 associations. More than 22,000 people practice pigeon sport in our country. Pigeon sport is practiced all over the world by hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life. There is an umbrella world organization, the Féderation Colobophile Internationale, whose headquarters are located in Brussels. The Western European countries also have a partnership, the Western European Confederation of Racing Pigeon Keepers. The secretariat is housed at the NPO in Veenendaal.
Organization of the sport
In some ways, pigeon racing is similar to many other sports. It is the case that not all racing pigeons are suitable for all distances. There are, as it were, sprinters and marathon runners among the racing pigeons and therefore various competitions are flown through. The shortest distances are called the vitesse or speed flights. These flights are limited to relatively short distances of 60 to 300 kilometers. In order to be successful on these flights, one must have racing pigeons that not only have a good sense of orientation, but are driven to return to the home loft immediately at high speed. After the sprint races we know the middle distance flights, also called middle distance. The distances on the flights take place over distances of 300 to 500 kilometers. There are many pigeons that can keep up very well in both the sprint races and the middle distance races, but there are also real specialists at these distances who mainly rely on short or slightly longer races. In addition to these flights, we know the flights for the real long distances, the so-called long distance flights. These flights travel over distances that can vary from 500 to 1300 kilometers. In the Netherlands, there is still a difference in a so-called morning or afternoon release. With a morning release, the pigeons are back home in the afternoon or by evening. In this way you can bridge a distance of 500 to 750 kilometers. With an afternoon release, the distances to be bridged are often longer, from 700 to 1,100 kilometers. If the pigeons are then released by noon, the pigeons are not able to reach the home loft the same day. They are then forced to rest. Only the next morning can one then, sometimes early in the morning, expect the pigeons home. These flights are therefore also called multi-day long distance. With these flights there are sometimes also flights that are unloaded in the morning. It is not uncommon for the first pigeons to arrive home on the day of release. That is why these flights are more commonly referred to as marathon flights.
Competitions
In pigeon racing it is not simply a matter of every pigeon that comes home first has won. In general, the first 25% of the pigeons that are the fastest receive so-called prize points. The speed is expressed in the number of meters or centimeters per minute that a pigeon has flown. This can be calculated because all release places and pigeon lofts have a coordinate so that the distance to be covered is exactly known. The release time is also known as well as the time of arrival in seconds. By dividing the distance by time one gets the speed. The pigeon with the highest speed is the winner of the flight, followed by the pigeon with the second highest speed and thus the result is obtained. The pigeon that finishes first usually receives 1000 points. For example, when 4000 pigeons participate, there are 1000 (= 25%) so-called prize pigeons. The subtraction number by which the points descend is then easy to calculate. In this case it is 1. This number can be found by dividing the number of prize pigeons by 1000. This means that the pigeon that finished second gets 999 points. If there had been 6000 participating pigeons, there would have been 1500 prize pigeons (= 25%) and the deduction number would have been 0.75 and then the first pigeon would again receive 1000.00 points and the second pigeon would have received 999.25 points. This accurate count is important because many championships are multi-game with points from multiple games added up. The fact that the deduction number is different also makes it fairer, because to be second against 6,000 pigeons is always better than second against 4,000 pigeons. The championships and therefore the competitions are usually between pigeons from the same category such as sprint, middle distance, one day long distance and multi-day long distance or marathon flights.
In order to eliminate as much as possible factors that can influence the races such as wind and distance, the flights over short distances are raced against each other by enthusiasts within a small geographic area, usually a few clubs. As the distances of the flights become longer, the area of the participants also increases. In the furthest flights, the Netherlands is divided into four parts called sector, a southern, western, eastern and northern sector. Even if matches are played in larger game groups, the competitions in a smaller context, such as within the own association, also continue. For example, it can happen that one takes part in several competitions on one race.
Winners
A much-discussed topic is prizes that can be earned with racing pigeons. These are prizes with large amounts of money. Reality is generally slightly different. Winners of competitions are honored, whereby one can often receive a cup as a prize. Nothing special compared to other sports. In addition, there are sometimes flights where a car can be won. The participants in a race may then indicate pigeons with which they want to compete for the car prize. For example, per participating pigeon one must? 1.00 to ?? Add 2.50 extra. With this extra deposit, a car is bought that is donated by the fastest pigeon participating in the deposit. In addition, there are flights that are very prestigious and where a lot of money is offered for the winners. In the Netherlands these are mainly the flights from St. Vincent, Dax and Bergerac. For the international flights, the winner from Barcelona is especially popular among buyers. Not infrequently, these come from abroad where Dutch pigeons are popular. China, Taiwan, Japan, England and America are countries where many Dutch pigeons go. There is also interest to buy for the racing pigeons on the shorter distances. Here it is not so much the individual performance of one pigeon that is decisive, but much more the performances and championships of the pigeons of one fancier, his total team. However, it should be borne in mind that pigeon sport is always a hobby that costs most fanciers, just like all other hobbies, money.
Coach
In addition to the pigeons, the coach is central to the pigeon sport. He or she is the one who prepares the pigeons for the race. There is craftsmanship here. The owner must know his pigeons, he must be able to see whether his racing pigeons are completely healthy, in exceptional condition and whether they are able to deliver a good performance. To be able to judge pigeons, one must know them well and there must be a relationship of trust. The coach must be able to optimally prepare his pigeons for the races, not only with regard to the training, but also in the care and medical supervision. For the latter, many racing pigeon keepers have a relationship with a veterinarian who regularly examines the pigeons for parasites and common pigeon diseases. There is also a legally required vaccination against the so-called paramyxovirus which must be performed by a veterinarian. In the Netherlands, but also abroad, there are many veterinarians who deal exclusively with racing pigeons.
Pigeons
A good coach with a bad team may be able to come along, but can never deliver appealing performances. A good team with a bad coach will rarely make it in the sport. That is why the pigeon sport must also have good pigeons. These are just as rare as good top footballers or cyclists and skaters. There is no recipe for breeding good pigeons. One can only say that a good pigeon that is paired with another good pigeon probably has a greater chance of having offspring that are also good than a couple of which both perform poorly. Descent therefore plays an important role in pigeon sport without this giving any guarantees for good pigeons. One can only say that the chance of good pigeons with good parents is greater. This fact makes pigeon racing extra difficult. It is not an easy task to breed good offspring and once you have a good breeding pair, you have to be very economical with it. For beginners in the pigeon sport it is not too difficult to get pigeons. Within an association there are always members who want to help a beginner with pigeons, often just for free. You can also buy so-called late youngsters from a better pigeon keeper. These are generally affordable. With these late youngsters you can then breed youngsters a year later with which you can fly. Within the association there are always members who want to provide you with advice so that the step to practicing the pigeon sport is not too difficult. In addition, there are various books and works that can assist both the beginner and the advanced pigeon sporter in this wonderful sport.