ALLFLIGHT CARNIVAL CITY LOFT NEWS 12 JANUARY 2009

Many years ago I watched the Aintree Grand National on television. In this steeplechase race horse and rider have to overcome many hurdles like fences and pools of water to beat the opposition. Only about 20% of entrants finished the race.

On Saturday 10 January we had to take a decision to postpone the final race from Gariep Dam because of rain forecasted in Gauteng in the afternoon. We did not take this decision lightly; all the arrangements were in place and shipping the pigeons to liberation point again would require considerable effort and cost, as well as upsetting plans of fanciers who enjoys watching the birds arrive.

We based our decision on weather forecasts during the latter part of the week and on race day. The Weather Bureau believed that the pigeons would encounter rain and showers along the way, especially in Gauteng from about midday.

Pigeon racing as we see it is not steeplechase races where man place obstacles on the course for the competitors to overcome in order to win the event. Yes, there are birds better suited for wet weather than others, but because we never intend letting them race in the rain we do not train the pigeons such that they hone their wet weather skills. There are many examples of heavy losses in races in South Africa where birds were liberated in overcast conditions or had to fly through rain to reach their destination. We certainly do not want to intentionally become part of that statistic.

It turned out that the Weather Bureau was spot on this time: the truck driver reported sunshine most of the way home until about 11:00 when it started raining. Heavy showers occurred from about Koppies, which means that the pigeons would have struggled against rain for the last quarter of their journey, without jockeys to steer them through the obstacles.

We now plan to keep the birds in the air during the week for them to remain in top condition. We will then go back to Gariep Dam on Friday for an early release on Saturday 17 January 2009, WEATHER PERMITTING. Hopefully the birds will have a great race this time.

Please contact us if you wish to change your pools or pool additional pigeons.

Regards

Herman

ALLFLIGHT CARNIVAL CITY LOFT

"Winning is not everything, it's the only thing."

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