# what makes a great racing pigeon



## g-pigeon (Aug 24, 2010)

excluding health which is a neccesity

what makes a great racer
is it the desire to get home quickly or is it the physical attributes of a bird that can fly faster.
sometimes you see it in people going to the same place. one is taking there time looking around and other people are just on the move walking as quickly as they can to get to there destination.


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## swaze (Mar 3, 2010)

Probably some combination of both or even 3 or 4 different things for the pigeon to be a truly great racer.

they need intelligence to figure out what is the shortest/fastest way home.

they need heart and desire to want to get home fast while not being distracted and great birds will also use that heart and desire to push themselves harder to get home. average birds fly just hard enough to make it home where great birds push themselves nearly to exhaustion to do it faster.

all things being equal a good to great body counts for something too. a bird with more muscle and better muscle is going to be able to fly faster than one lacking in muscle or quality muscle. a bird with a better structure and wing may also be able to fly faster and have more endurance.

toughness durability and natural health are also very important. great pigeons are usually very tough and don't get sick plus they also dont take as much work to get in condition they are always seemingly ready to go and they are capable of racing every week since they bounce back quicker than average birds.


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## hillfamilyloft (Jun 22, 2005)

Multiple diplomas, or a breeder of multiple diploma birds.


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## swaze (Mar 3, 2010)

hillfamilyloft said:


> Multiple diplomas, or a breeder of multiple diploma birds.


yeah I think he knows that, but that is just the end result. he is talking about the physical and mental characteristics that making a great racing bird great.

and yes I know results are the only thing that matter and the only true way to measure the worth of a bird but there are mental and physical traits that make a bird great it's not like it just happens completely at random.


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

If we all knew how to look at a bird and tell whether it was a good racer or breeder, we'd all have champs more than likely. If they are healthy and in shape, send them and let the races figure it out for you.
Motivation, to me, is not part of a good racing pigeon. It's what helps a good racing pigeon come home quicker. Use motivation to your advantage if you can. But as far as the bird itself, intelligence, homing ability, stamina, health, speed, etc. Besides health and the obvious things that you can control, the only way you can really test any of that is by racing it.


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## g-pigeon (Aug 24, 2010)

yes i know that

just wanted a opinion on what was the driving force
mental or physical

it is probably both in my opinion but i believe mental is what is driving them to exhaust themselves and get home quickly.


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## hillfamilyloft (Jun 22, 2005)

Read once that the looks of the bird and their tameness makes the fancier happy. In tern he makes his birds happy. If birds are happy they want to come home and the race records are better. So it stands to reason that if a fancier has birds that fit his needs better, they look like he wants them to, and give him satisfaction that they will win more. To answer the question, all physical types can win races. Health needs to always be sound. If their was a cookie cutter way of assessing good birds, then their would be a lot more guys winning. Good bird win, put those in your loft. Art Hees has short faced birds, my best breeder is my goofiest looking bird. The health and the molt make the biggest difference in performance. Good blood, good feather, and good health gives the birds a chance. You might look into the throat theory. This is based on science and not looks. Air flow to the bird. Feather is also science, how silky, width of the flights. Motivation and desire are all thing to look at. Put a hen on 5 eggs and watch her come home. One pin tails and eyes sign only please the fancier.


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## swaze (Mar 3, 2010)

g-pigeon said:


> yes i know that
> 
> just wanted a opinion on what was the driving force
> mental or physical
> ...


exactly without the mental toughness, desire, and drive even a bird with the best body in the world will be useless.....everybody has had a bird with a million dollar body and 10 cent brain.

but all things being equal if you take two birds with the same mental desire and drive to get home the one with the better body is going to be able to do it faster and probably have more endurance


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

Motivation is what drives them to get home, physical (and intelligence, which is mental, but I'm grouping it with this because it's genetic) characteristics are what allow them to get home. So you need both. They need to be comfortable in their loft, not stressed. Mates, food, water, nest boxes and perches, eggs, and babies all factor into the motivation. Good birds will still come home, but just maybe not as fast as they would if they had additional motivation.


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## hillfamilyloft (Jun 22, 2005)

g-pigeon said:


> yes i know that
> 
> just wanted a opinion on what was the driving force
> mental or physical
> ...


I would say both are important, but occur in order. 
Physical - get birds that can win
Mental -get birds smart enough to win
Mental- Motivate them give them a love for home
Physical - good air in the loft for good health, dry etc
Physical - manipulate light or wing to negate the molt issues
Mental- Give them a reason to come home day of basketing 
Physical- Horses for courses, Distance, terrain, winds etc. 
Mental- negate the human error (How smart is the fancier)


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## hillfamilyloft (Jun 22, 2005)

Forgot feed, which is physical for the bird and mental for the fancier.


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## hillfamilyloft (Jun 22, 2005)

In other words, you cannot have one without the other. Good birds can make up for bad decisions, but bad birds are just that bad birds. So in closing:
Physical for the bird and Mental for the fancier.


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## swaze (Mar 3, 2010)

good points on the fancier too because as we know without super health which comes from various things the fancier does and controls even the best birds won't win.

I would imagine you could take a phenomenal bird like Super 73 or 019 and put it in the loft of the worst fancier in any club and the bird would be basically useless. the fancier has to know what he is doing to make the bird a champion.


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## DEEJAY7950 (Dec 13, 2006)

Simple answer- Distance and Heart= a good racer!


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## swaze (Mar 3, 2010)

DEEJAY7950 said:


> Simple answer- Distance and Heart= a good racer!


yeah but what do you consider distance?

is a bird only could if it can go 400 miles? 500 miles? 600 miles?

i know a lot of these long distance guys who think a bird is useless unless it can do well from 500 or 600 miles. in fact they could care less about what the bird does in any race except for those distances

the funny thing is in most clubs 90% of the races on the schedule are under 500 miles so this mentality leads to placing all this value on a bird that only does well in 10% of the races

ideally you want a bird that can win from all distance 100 to 600 miles and some truly great pigeons do but the reality is even most good pigeons have certain ranges they excell at. they might be good from 100 to 400 or 400 to 600 but usually you gotta sacrifice a little bit of speed for distance or a little bit of distance for speed

is one really better than the other? guess it depends on personal preference.


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## ace in the hole (Nov 27, 2007)

The simple answer to this question would be it's parents. The makeup of a good racer is all genetic. 

It takes a good handler to bring out the best in the birds. A bad handler will go the whole season without ever seeing to real potental of his birds.


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