A laugh and a tear (19-02-26)
A laugh and a tear
'What people tend to call ‘bad luck’ or ‘fate’ is often nothing more than their own stupidities,' said Shopenhouwer.
That is something for the eternal complainers. One loses a lot of youngsters, the other has a failing clocking system, a third has problems with coli every year and the fourth has birds that trap badly.
'The champions are never unlucky' they sometimes lament, almost reproachfully.
Wrong. Even the greatest champions are hit by fate, only less. Furthermore, eternal fame and oblivion are sometimes very close to each other. A very small detail can make all the difference. I won't soon forget that memorable 6th of May for me. Real pigeon weather, my first nominated flew six minutes ahead against 13.203 pigeons and yet... I was disappointed afterwards.
Because of something that looked like bad luck, but was my own fault.
UNBELIEVABLE.
Some were shocked when they heard what time I had clocked and called. 'Whether I had looked carefully.'
I did indeed. That pigeon whizzed in so fast that I went to look at the clock for the second time. Of course again in a brisk trot. Yes, the pigeon was on it and the time was right. Then the third nominated bird also arrived. The euphoria was short-lived.
STRESSED
The second pigeon, not used to me behaving so stressed, had flown up to the ridge of the roof. I shouted and shouted, but in vain. Now I was 'lucky?' that there was a ball up for grabs and I did something I had never done before; Throwing that ball to a pigeon that came from the flight, hoping that it would fly up and land on the landing board. He did fly up, but he didn't land on the landing board, on the contrary. He had left.
'That must have been a stray bird. A pigeon of yours doesn't just fly away after the race' said a friend. I had my doubts. The fact that it was a blue one didn't mean anything. I have so many of them and there are so many. But something about his manners was not right for a stray pigeon.
THE OUTCOME
The first thing I did when I came back from the clubhouse was to go to the pigeon loft to see if everything was okay and especially if the 'third nominated' was home. Nope. Not at home. I liked the bird, did not like to lose it, so I sat down to watch again. Not a feather in sight.
Until I gave up and with a head full of incomprehension I started feeding the youngsters in a loft in a corner of the garden. And who was there?
My favorite in the loft where he had been as a youngster. 'That will cost you the championship' said a friend, when he heard it. 'And money' another knew. Neither interested me. That pigeon didn't get what it deserved, I thought THAT was bad. All the more so since it was my own fault. At the same time, I was also happy that he was back. Although 'back'. 'Back' from not being gone.
And then you should know that I once wrote that only simpletons throw a ball at pigeons coming from a race.
'Missed 6 May' was written on his 'poster' while in reality he should have won a very early prize. Since then, pigeons that came from the race never got the chance to crawl into the loft where they used to be. Especially with yearlings it is risky.
EVERY ONE
So everyone makes mistakes, even people like Klak.
Normally caretaker Cor always released his young around 15.00 hours, but that day the weather was so nice that wife Marie wanted to go to sea. So he got out of bed early and then the weather was already so nice that he couldn't resist letting go of the youngsters. In the evening he called. A third of the youngsters were missing and he gave me some addresses and asked if I would pick up his pigeons there. The lesson should be clear.
BABIES DEAD
Then there was that man who had been struck by 'other calamities'; pigeons dead after a combination vaccination against paramyxo and smallpox made by his veterinarian. That vet probably knew about cows, dogs and horses, but certainly not about pigeons. The production of 'the combi stuff' requires some skill and, very important (!), you are not allowed to vaccinate pigeons that are not in tip-top shape.
His pigeons were not and then to know that a good 'pigeon doctor' lived nearby who would certainly have seen that.
NOT SMART EITHER
Other example. Two good breeders (cocks) had stopped fertilizing at a much too young age. That is a double bad luck, because you mate your best hens with such, which means that a year is lost. Bad luck? Not at all. People know what often happens when you have some 'good' ones:
Everybody wants to be friends, they all want pigeons and all of the best, in this case of those two cocks. I bred too much from them and I was now paying a price for that.
ALSO POSSIBLE
Incidentally, the aforementioned super missed his prize the following week in the same beautiful weather. 'That can happen to the best?' Indeed, but in this case I should have known. If I have doubts about the form, I always pay attention to training. After his victory he was the last to leave the loft a few times when training and I have only had bad experiences with such ones.
And so it is now. Not only did he miss, he was also heavily pooled, because that's what you did in those days when good weather was predicted.
Pigeon sport is a laugh today and a tear tomorrow; as in other sports and all of life actually! At the Olympic Games, Belgian Sabrine Tas did not get on the podium.
The four fastest women finished within half a second, she fourth.
And that at the 5,000 meters! In the past, half a second after the winner meant the 2nd prize. Now 0,5 second is sometimes too much. ‘The laughter and the tears sometimes close together?’. Remember the laughter and forget the tears. Also better for your health.
In the middle Mr Rui Portugal