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THE HARDEST ROUTE - PART 4
ONE MAN'S MISSION TO WIN AGAINST THE ODDS IN NORTHERN
SPAIN
And the dream comes true!
by Sergio Capín Barreda
After 15 years with racing pigeons I finally can say:
“I have a pigeon at home from the long one in race control time”. Not only 1,
but 3 pigeons have returned home along the 5 days of race control. 383 pigeons were basketed last 19th of July for the long one. They were
liberated from 460 miles on Saturday 21st of July in Lebrija (Sevilla-South of
Spain). At the end of the 5th day 92 pigeons were controlled in race time. My 3
pigeons were classified as 38th, 70th and 93rd (my last arrival wasn´t
controlled because the ETS was off). But I´d like to tell you about some
aspects of this racing season.
This year, Asturian races were different. The racing
season was delayed for political reasons and as I predicted, the results
improved. Racing pigeons need good weather conditions for getting fitter. And
here the safest months of the year for mild temperatures, clear skies and many
hours of light are June and July. Year after year we use May for the short
races and hundreds of pigeons are lost between fog and rain. Many fanciers call
it selection of pigeons. I call it slaughter of pigeons.
Some fanciers are afraid of the heat in the south of
Spain where our pigeons are released in the last race of the season. I always
have said if we avoid heat waves, no problems exist and better results will
come. So, I hope after this season, the “worried” fanciers will agree with me.
I consider this aspect as the first condition for success.
About the winds… I don´t remember a year when winds
blew predominantly from W and SW along the summer months. Undoubtedly SW winds
help our pigeons to return from the south racepoints… And west winds help my pigeons
to return to the east part of the province where my loft is situated but…
The worldwide financial crisis affects the sport too.
This year only 4 local fanciers of my eastern area sent pigeons to the races.
So this year the nonexistent “batch factor” was extremely unfavourable. My
pigeons returned as individuals, not as followers: since the first race from
150 miles, to the last one from 460 miles. A big task for inexperienced
yearlings!
In general terms until the long one, many fanciers had
lost very few pigeons. I thought, as I mentioned above, the best weather
conditions and the winds help a lot for this. I could think this racing season
was “easy”. But when I think about the few pigeons sent by local fanciers, the
lack of the batch effect and 100% of my pigeons returning solo from 150 miles,
I reconsider my opinion and feel very, very proud of my pigeons. All the merit
is theirs!
Regarding marathon pigeon training, I´d like to tell
you about the lack of time spent flagging the pigeons. And the saving of fuel
spent on car tosses. As you will have read in my previous article, Cameron
Stansfield from the UK sent me some gift birds of his which he felt confident
would cope with the environment here, and we have corresponded regularly by
e-mail about the best way of overcoming the extreme conditions here. Until this
season, I was reluctant to believe Cameron’s words when he said to me:
“training is overestimated in marathon pigeons”. Also he pointed out that Dave
Goddard practices sending lightly trained/raced pigeons to Palamos 700 miles.
But this season I have proved this assertion is true. I allowed my pigeons to
fly freely around the loft creating a stress-free environment for them to
enhance their homing instinct. Perhaps in a populated area it doesn´t work
because the aim is to beat your neighbour. But when your aim is to receive a
pigeon from the long one, you must delete from your mind all the Belgian
theories about systems, preparation, motivation… It´s all rubbish for racing
pigeon selection in an hostile environment like this. You must adapt your
pigeon management to the environment, because the environment will never
change.
Last year 53 youngsters were reared. After the female
sparrohawk selection and 3-4 car tosses from 20 miles last autumn, 46 pigeons
(the YBs and some adults of previous seasons) were wintered into my small loft.
15 or so YBs fewer than previous years. So, another lesson: avoid overcrowding
when you are searching for success with pigeons. Quality, not quantity! A calm
environment into the loft is synonymous with high immunity and lack of illness.
My pigeons received medication against trichomonas only one time, last January
before PMV vaccination. Not vitamins, not antibiotics, not electrolytes, not
honey, not cider vinegar, not garlic, not brewer’s yeast… Nothing. Only
minerals full time and Gerry Plus mix plus peanuts.
I keep my pigeons in the loft from October to January
because of the predator pressure in the winter months. Perhaps the predator
population in the UK and Spain could be similar, but the number of predators
per fancier is infinitely superior here than there. I´m sure Asturias has the
highest population of peregrines and sparrowhawks of all the Iberian Peninsula.
After 3 car tosses from 30 miles with success last March,
the 22nd of April I suffered an “Asturian pigeon disaster” with the hens’ team
from a 30 miles car toss: I lost 10 of the 15 hens liberated. I can´t explain
this result yet. But the consequence was I had too many ardent cocks into the
natural racing team 6 weeks before the racing season started. Another lesson:
car tosses here are a lottery and a waste of time. One day you receive all your
birds quickly and another day you lose pigeons from the same place. It makes no
sense to lose good birds from 30 miles. Not for me, of course. So I´ll never
give them car tosses in spring time. My selection criteria will be to separate
the wheat from the chaff as youngsters using short YB races to select
individuals and then send them as yearlings directly to 150 miles without any
car toss along the spring months, just allowing them to fly freely around the
loft. I have experienced this aspect with good results after the hens’ car toss
disaster. I didn´t toss them anymore until the first race. So they were sent to
their first official race after 3-4 x 20 miles tosses as YBs and 3 x 30 miles
tosses as yearlings more than 6 weeks before the first official race. As Keith
Bush said in the book Roads to Rome: “…at the end of the day, the only thing
that matters is BLOOD.” And he was right!
When a foreign fancier studies our results from 500 km
(1 mile = 1.6 km), he laughs. Their pigeons spend the same amount of hours
flying from 500 miles than ours from 500 km… What´s the massive difference?
Heat, mountains, predators? Sometimes we have explanations, many times, we
can´t explain results. My general rule when comparing race difficulty here and
there is: 500 “Asturian km” is similar to 500 UK miles.
Finally, I´ll summarize the races for my loft this
season:
53 birds were reared in 2011 and 3 of them returned
from the long one. My realistic aim here is to receive each year 5% of pigeons
bred the previous season. So, this year aim was achieved!
First short race: 26 pigeons sent to 150 miles plus 4
more pigeons of another local fancier situated 2 miles away. So, a total entry
of 30 pigeons from the east part of the province, against 1600 pigeons of all
the province. I received 5 in race control; 15 after 3 days; 16 after 1 week
and 17 after 1 month. *17/26*
Second short race: 1 hen to 170 miles. No more pigeons
of my eastern area were sent. Against 1000 pigeons of all the province, I
received her in the evening of the second day. *1/1*
Note: I´ll name as long distance events our 500 km
races and as extreme long distance events our 700-800 km races.
First long distance race: 13 pigeons to 330 miles plus
17 pigeons of 2 local fanciers situated 15 miles from me. So, a total entry of
30 pigeons against 600 pigeons of all the province. I received 1 on the day of
liberation (first pigeon into the eastern area) and 4 more on the second day.
*5/13*
Second long distance race: 2 pigeons to 330 miles. No
other pigeons of my eastern area were sent. I received both pigeons: 1 on the
day of liberation at 21.25 h (here very dark) and the other in the afternoon of
the second day. *2/2*
Extreme long distance race: 8 pigeons to 460 miles
plus 8 pigeons sent by 2 local fanciers. *3/8*
First arrival was on Sunday afternoon. He's now
baptized as “Wiggins” (he returned an hour or so before Bradley Wiggins won the
Tour De France being the first UK cyclist to achieve this triumph) by
suggestion of my long distance friend Cameron. What a feeling when I saw
Wiggins landing over the roof of my loft. He was exhausted because of the heat.
Both his parents were sent to me as gifts by Cameron. His sire is an 09 cock
bred from a g.son of Brian Stansfield & Son’s 1st Section L NFC Pau 686
miles. The g.dam on the sire’s side was 2 x Pau 686 miles and is a half sister
to the 1st Section Pau cock, their common sire being a cock from Keith Bush out
of his Lerwick Gold Award cock but this time when paired with a g.dtr of Vend –
1st Open NFC Pau 666 miles for Jim Biss when Vend was paired to a daughter of
Turban – 2nd Open NFC Pau. (The dam of the 1st Section Pau Cock was bred by the
late Kenny Hogg of Lancashire). The dam of the 09 cock is a daughter of
Cameron’s International Cock - 21st Open UK Section Pau International 676 miles
in year 2007 x a Dark Cheq hen Cameron had out of the same race. The
International Cock is bred from a son of Graham Baker's 1st Section NFC Pau hen
who was herself a daughter of Graham’s Meritman winner of 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th
& 10th section NFC Pau 636 miles x a full sister to Brian Stansfield &
Son’s 1st Section NFC Pau. The Dark Cheq hen is out of an Ian Benstead cock x a
dtr of John Wills’ 2nd Open BICC Barcelona 700 miles. The dam of ‘Wiggins’ is
the ‘Tame Hen’, a blue hen gifted from Cameron. Cameron tells me he gifted a
daughter of this ‘Tame Hen’ to Graham Groom of Northants and she is responsible
for his hen which was in the top 20 open of the MNFC Bordeaux races in 2010 and
2011. The sire of the ‘Tame Hen’ is from a son of Meritman when Meritman was
mated with Barry Ford’s 1st Section NFC Pau 635 miles x the same daughter of
John Wills’ 2nd Barcelona mentioned above. The dam of the ‘Tame Hen’ was gifted
to Cameron by Graham Baker and is a daughter of Graham’s 4th & 8th Open
MNFC Bergerac 560 miles on the day, only 8 home on the day.
“Wiggins”: my
first extreme long distance pigeon in the clock ever
Next afternoon, a pretty small cheq hen now nicknamed
“Arra” after a beautiful cove situated near my loft, returned. She seemed very
“fresh”. Perhaps she found water more easily than “Wiggins” did. Her blood
contains Meritman again. Her dam is from a full brother x sister mating. The
sire and dam being from a g.son of Meritman, produced when a son of Meritman x
a Favori/Natrix hen from Jim Biss was paired to the dam of Cameron’s 3rd
section NFC Dax International 630 miles, the dam in question being a daughter
of John Wills' Britannia – 1st BICC Perpignan 620 miles. The mother of the
brother & sister pairing was gifted to Cameron by John Barnett and she is a
g.dtr of John’s 3 x Palamos hen over 800 miles. The sire of Arra is my marathon
cock (2 x 490 miles out of control; the only survivor of my old bloodlines).
“Arra”
Finally, a nestmate of “Wiggins”, now nicknamed
“House”, arrived. The reason for his name is that he is lame, like Dr. House.
His leg was broken last March and I put it in a splint but his ankle is a
little deformed still. When I was basketing the birds for the long one, I was
afraid of sending him when I saw his wing and tail feathers: he returned
injured from the first long race without 2 tail feathers which were at 70% of
his right length when he was basketed for the long one. Also he was basketed
without the third primaries of the wing. And the worst condition: although he
is a stark pigeon, he was very thin because he was exhausted from chasing a
pretty youngster hen. Perhaps this cheq cock is the best of the 3 birds I
received. Next
season will confirm.
“House” -
before his leg was broken
Parts 1-3 of Sergio's quest can be found in the Loft
Reports & Articles section on Elimar.
To be continued...
