Exercising around home

[Andy]

Hope you manage to sort them out. Having moved a few times I know what it’s like moving and settling them to a new location.

[Murray]

Cross that bridge when we come to it. House still has not had a lot of interest, the increases in the interest rates every month is discouraging buyers.
On a different subject, we think they are flying hard and getting fit around home, and to a degree they are. But when I took them out on Sunday for a very short toss to get them focused, they arrived home puffing like anything. Four miles in a straight line at a mile a minute is a different thing from flying around home. It's a bit like race horses, I guess. You can train them at home until they look as fit as a fiddle. Jumping out from a stand and going racing speed sorts them out though.
That's the reason I like to toss them a bit. Going race speed in a straight line is a different sort of fitness.

[Murray]

Actually, we had three parties though on Saturday, and another one today.
We might be getting some interest.

[Andy]

Cross that bridge when we come to it. House still has not had a lot of interest, the increases in the interest rates every month is discouraging buyers.
On a different subject, we think they are flying hard and getting fit around home, and to a degree they are. But when I took them out on Sunday for a very short toss to get them focused, they arrived home puffing like anything. Four miles in a straight line at a mile a minute is a different thing from flying around home. It's a bit like race horses, I guess. You can train them at home until they look as fit as a fiddle. Jumping out from a stand and going racing speed sorts them out though.
That's the reason I like to toss them a bit. Going race speed in a straight line is a different sort of fitness.

I understand what you’re saying. But I’m not interested in really doing anything in the early races. The first real race I’d like to do well from isn’t until the end of June so don’t want them in peak condition for some time yet. Some steady short races will bring them into form when I need them to be. They are flying well around home at present so for me that is good enough at this point.

[Murray]

That's where you and I think differently, Andy. Even after years I still think like a jockey.
When you said the first race was only 35 miles to you, I immediately started thinking about how I would train the pigeons going to that race.
First, I figured out what I would feed them.
Second, I had a think about the tosses. I would probably go 5 miles twice, ( Yes, honestly ), 15 miles twice, and go to the 35 mile race point twice.
I reckon those pigeons would be 'Up to speed' on the first race. Not winning it, but not coming back from being dragged over.
Just how I would do it.

[Murray]

It reminds me of once, about 20 years ago, when I had a really nice team of youngsters.
The first race was from about 130 kilometres, or 80 miles.
I trained them up through all the stages, and the week before the first race I went 70 kilometres, or 40 miles with them. They did it easily, and I was thinking I was well placed for the first race.
Wrong.
I was not even in the top 5.
I had trained them 70 kilometres. Other blokes had trained them 70 miles.
You get back, what you put in, I guess.

[Andy]

It reminds me of once, about 20 years ago, when I had a really nice team of youngsters.
The first race was from about 130 kilometres, or 80 miles.
I trained them up through all the stages, and the week before the first race I went 70 kilometres, or 40 miles with them. They did it easily, and I was thinking I was well placed for the first race.
Wrong.
I was not even in the top 5.
I had trained them 70 kilometres. Other blokes had trained them 70 miles.
You get back, what you put in, I guess.

Back many years ago with the then strong Worthing club I raced widowhood. I didn’t train then either. Our first race was 90 miles. I won the first race and was in the cards every week from 90 miles right up to 650 miles often with 3 birds in the first 6 in the club.
Yes you get back what you put in but that doesn’t mean that spending hours training them will get results. Knowing your pigeons, observation, and good healthy pigeons is far more important. No amount of training will make a poor pigeon good or make an unhealthy, unfit pigeon win anything.
I just don’t think that training them from any distance as a team coming back to one loft helps at all when they are suddenly released with 2,000 other birds all going to different locations. They will instinctively fly in batches. It just depends on which batch they are in. If mine take a bit longer because of having to sort themselves out so what. All good experience.
If you want to know how good lots of training is just look at the various OLR’s. Big losses and well spread out in the short trainers, even though they are all flying back to the same loft. Even after loads of trainers there is still a very small percentage that make it to the final race. Why? Because I think many have been over worked.

[Murray]

I agree with the opinion about OLR. The birds are herded into transporters and send over and over, whether they are fit and healthy or feeling tired and off colour.
The lucky ones survive to the end.
Overworked is one word. Thrashed is another.

[Buster121]

Agree totally