No charisma? (15-01-22)
No charisma?
Pigeon fanciers are not among the most gullible people on this planet, I sometimes wonder. Because in their drive for success, some seem to bite into everything like hungry fish. If someone says that doping does exist, an entire army joins him and many successful fanciers better inquire about the price of bullet-resistant glass.
CLEAR
Because now the losers, and they are by definition the majority in any sport, know why they keep getting beat up. That is not because they have bad pigeons, nor because they are poor handlers, no it is something else. They don't have the 'magic bottle' with the coveted wonder stuff.
That is why they throw themselves madly at every advertiser who dares to put in the newspaper that he has found 'it'. ‘It’ is the 'miracle cure' that the stars have used for years but always kept secret. And how they make the difference.”
Now that advertiser is finally so humane to reveal their secret. And what do the fanciers do, at least some? They are keen to have that 'miracle cure' that is now also within their reach as quickly as possible.
STILL SOMETHING
The craze about strains is another such thing. Tell your unknown sports partner that you play well and the inevitable question that follows is "with what kind of birds?" As if every good pigeon is of a certain strain. Sometimes you get the idea that the average fancier believes everything he shouldn't believe. Admittedly, I once had my doubts also.
You have to build your own family, you could read everywhere. And you cannot do without line breeding, inbreeding, compensation breeding. Until I checked what kind of people they were who proclaimed that. All of them the names you didn't come across in the only truth in our sport: The result papers. “An own family?” Come on, that's a joke, isn't it.
We know them, the men who claim to have their own well-bred stock. Those super champions who claim to never import a pigeon. If it is indeed fanciers who perform, which is rarely the case, they are not super champions for me, but super liars.
OWN EXPERIENCE
Because dear readers, I have handled a lot of super pigeons. Pigeons sometimes whose name is known in all corners of the world where pigeons are played. They were almost without exception products of crossbreeding. I say it more often:
The breeding couple does not make the super pigeon, it is the other way around, the super pigeon makes the breeding couple.
And those people who claim they can form such a breeding couple for you, sometimes for a fee? They are charlatans, often with language that is just as crooked as the thought one is limping on.
CALLING
Although I think I am a realistic person, I often feel like a voice crying in the desert. “AS is right,” I hear people say. But to quickly forget that. Just as they also forget the names of those champions who were always honest enough to claim that they do not have a breed of their own but that their star racers often came from crossings, or acquired pigeons.
In a previous life Gust Hofkens asked me what people actually mean by a breeding couple. Because, oh madness in the pigeon sport, what does the pigeon fancier want in 2022?
Heremans pigeons, Kittels, Harry's and so on, while a man like Heremans himself bred many of his star racers from pigeons that he imported. Often from completely unknown 'locals'. I mentioned Hofkens. If he knew about a good bird somewhere, he bought it. Or the children. And what happened after his death?
Fanciers were looking for 'Hofkens pigeons' and advertised with pure Hofkens strain. Especially in America. However… if there was anyone who pretended not to believe in strain, it was… Hofkens himself, the butcher from the town of Merksplas.
SAND
One of the reasons I enjoyed writing at the time was the idea of being able to rub sand out of the eyes of so many naive fellow sportsmen. It was a gross mistake.
Sometimes it seems that the fanciers accept everything as long as it is not the truth. Who believes the super champion in our sport when he says he doesn't owe his successes to drugs? Last year we won 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and so on in hard weather from more than 2,000 pigeons. 16 Birds entered, 14 prizes.
With 7 yearlings entered we won 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 11th, 40th in the FED against 669 pigeons. When all my 7 pigeons were home, two third of the participating fanciers were still waiting for their first bird. You don't want to know what was whispered behind the palm.
Sometimes I breed a good pigeon, sometimes even two good pigeons from the same couple. And what is the reaction of fellow sportsmen? They are so gullible to assume that the third out of that couple 'naturally' should also be a good one. If only it were that simple. The countless youngsters who also breed the greatest champions are living proof of their ignorance.
GRADING
Just about all champions claim to know nothing about pigeons. In the Netherlands you do have a (self-proclaimed) connoisseur, but the question is whether he is a champion.Admittedly, some people know a little more about it than others, but the tragedy of every grader is that they can make an attempt to judge the pigeon, but not the fancier. And yet it is not, say, 'a weaker back' or 'poor tailbone' that is often the cause of countless pigeons underperforming, but it is the owner who is to blame.
YOURSELF
Sometimes I think it's the writer's fault that people don't want to face the truth. So also to me. Take that German cult leader who was recently arrested. It is rumored that he soon had more than 100 followers, most of them women whom he was able to preach out of their clothes with playful ease.
Ever heard such a woman complain that she felt abused?Why he does and I don't, one wonders.The answer seems simple. Apparently I don't have it. No persuasiveness. Or Charisma as it's called these days. What remains is comfort and hope.
CONSOLE AND HOPE
The consolation that ‘to err is human’ and I am misunderstood. Because did you know that in 1964 they wanted to give Ronald Reagan a role in the film 'The best man?' He was supposed to play president but he was found unfit because of not having the appearance befitting a president.“You have to get harder again,” I sometimes hear. 'Back more straight forward.”Writing in the spirit of:
"You can eat any mushroom. In case of people being poisoned, you can always write: "But some mushrooms only once."
