Who dares wins OLR

[Bowbroom]

As usual the thread has wandered off topic, I am also getting fed up so my last offering will be this, some people for their own reasons think OLRs are fine, others think that they are the worst thing that ever happened to traditional racing as they pose the greatest threat to the sport’s existence

[Bowbroom]

By the way regarding the OLR that started this topic, there’s now 25 home only 1626 missing from the original entry

[king]

OLRs are ALL ABOUT MONEY. How many would test their birds in them if there was no money to be won?

[king]

OLRs are ALL ABOUT MONEY. How many would test their birds in them if there was no money to be won?

I would King. I would pick a OLR which would not be in the UK. But a good one that the top flyers around Europe use. This way my birds would be tested. but that would be after findings on the OLR. It is not all about money.

Why would you not give your birds away to fanciers to race for you in 'proper' races.? That way your birds would be racing AGAINST the actual top fanciers, instead of sending against just birds from top fanciers in OLRs. The advantage of this is your birds could RACE for several seasons, instead of a few 'training' tosses back to the loft for just one year.

[Anthony webster]

My opinion of one lofts in uk
There ain't enough staff once they have your money they don't care what's lost ,more they lose the less they spend on feed .
Then the people that support these races I'm guessing 80 percent of people that send to them don't race there self ,,see its pxxs easy to breed a pigeon but different ball game racing a pigeon so they breed n send them around one lofts I understand it but its rubbish,,
Breeding and rearing then training and then winning with ya own birds is beautiful, Breeding them sending them to absolute idiots to abuse and lose that ain't what it's about.

[Anthony webster]

You know why club n fed racing is going down hill
It's because men ain't men know more ,now they get offended by slightest little thing n quit ,,modern people just quit at everything when I run for school there was gold ,silver,bronze now every runner gets a medal so there all happy ffs ,see lads start racing they get thrashed ,then thrashed again they either just quit or they keep pigeons breed them sell them on elimar n send to one lofts , they won't race because they can't handle getting beat ,, but getting beat when u start is great u must pay your school fees n learn the hard way but learning the hard way makes you better n better each Yr, but quiting iv know time for em ,
It's just the modern way now it won't change in uk because the new generation ain't got fight or work bred in them there rather paint there nails n sit on a sun bed than build a pigeon loft n race pigeons.

[Anthony webster]

Olr
1 man can look after 100 pigeons real well and do them to a top standard
So these 2 men outfits in uk can't look after 1500,2000 birds proper ,they might get water changed n fed but they ain't exercising for 2 hours aday at a proper good pace ,there not trained right by road ,,there health is never right because u see 1 batch up high 3 batches down low going around like washing on a line ,so them 3 batches low are all ailing n unwell ,,
These outfits are a joke and are soulie set up two make money also to keep 2000 birds right you need a loft 700ft long by 6ft wide

[king]

But on a different tack, OLRs.
There is a bit of miss understanding about how these things are supposed to work, it appears.
There is outrage about the losses in the one loft races.
The whole, sole and only purpose of a one loft race is to find the best pigeon, or maybe best 10 or 20 pigeons entered.
May we agree on that?
Therefore, if there are for example 2000 pigeons entered, the aim is not to have 2000 pigeons get to the final. That would be totally counterproductive. To do that would mean you had 2000 untested pigeons.
The process is to start road training the pigeons, and bit by bit increase the load until the less able ones start to fall away.
I think the term is selection.
By increasing the distance of the training flights and the early races, by the final race only the best, maybe 20 percent are there, fit and ready. That is how it should be. In a properly run OLR every pigeon has been given an equal chance to make it to the final.
The fact is that the majority aren't good enough, just like the majority of club pigeons that are not good enough when the races get longer and the going gets tougher.
Most of the resentment against OLRs is emotional. It puts a spotlight on the fact that most of what we breed is not good enough. You can scroll through and sometimes it ain't pretty.

Well Murray most OLRs do just that. Lose them as quick as they can. They only need one bird left.

The fact is that the majority aren't good enough, just like the majority of club pigeons that are not good enough when the races get longer and the going gets tougher.

The majority of fanciers send there BEST birds to OLRs (remember it costs them money)
And I've found the majority of club birds start to come BETTER the further the race. (most club losses are in the first 3 races)

Maybe I'm emotional Murray, but OLRs DON'T have the birds welfare as a priority. If a training race is hard, what ever is in the loft go's to the next race, even if birds return days later. Meaning UNFIT birds get sent with zero chance of them getting home. Is that what those sending want? Their birds treated as a dispensable commodity?
Many say the set up of the loft is total transparency they hide nothing, but how many lost birds get reported? and what happens to them when they are returned to the loft? Who pays the cost?

Why are losses so bad when they race on days when no other racing is taking part? They have the sky to themselves No chance of clashing. Yet they still fcuk up. Some might ask why don't they race with others to help them home? Well, when this has happened the OLR birds are ALWAYS 100s of yds behind, and that doesn't look good does it? The best example of this was the MNFC OLR. They recorded ZERO returns when over 100 birds were clocked flying over 300 miles! which was over 100 miles further than the OLR birds. What excuse did they have? The birds had HELP and still failed.

[PeteDerby]

I don’t know the Who Dares Wins guy save that he came to my place to pick up a stray. He seemed very genuine and was here within the hour to look after the bird. I’ve had people tell me to kill them, feed them a chuck them out, or some not even bothered to call me back. He by contrast wanted to make sure it was ok.

Second point, I happened to be in the Channel Islands the weekend of that race. If it was me I’d have brought them back given the weather, but it was clear enough at liberation time so maybe they hit rough stuff one the way?

Third point about the big losses, someone on here made a good point about One Loft birds not having to learn how to break or get back from multiple directions. That aside, I was at the loft this morning of a very successful international flyer who was telling me about the large number of very experienced flyers with excellent birds who are increasingly facing such significant losses that they are giving up due to the heartbreak. He was predicting the end of the fancy because it’s getting worse year or year and nobody knows why therefore can’t do anything about it.

It was a very sobering conversation and, sure, I’ve met people who’ve said things akin to “must have shit birds or don’t know how to fly them”, but clearly that’s not the reason as the fancier this guys were referring to are the exact opposite of that.

[king]

I don’t know the Who Dares Wins guy save that he came to my place to pick up a stray. He seemed very genuine and was here within the hour to look after the bird. I’ve had people tell me to kill them, feed them a chuck them out, or some not even bothered to call me back. He by contrast wanted to make sure it was ok.

Second point, I happened to be in the Channel Islands the weekend of that race. If it was me I’d have brought them back given the weather, but it was clear enough at liberation time so maybe they hit rough stuff one the way?

Third point about the big losses, someone on here made a good point about One Loft birds not having to learn how to break or get back from multiple directions. That aside, I was at the loft this morning of a very successful international flyer who was telling me about the large number of very experienced flyers with excellent birds who are increasingly facing such significant losses that they are giving up due to the heartbreak. He was predicting the end of the fancy because it’s getting worse year or year and nobody knows why therefore can’t do anything about it.

It was a very sobering conversation and, sure, I’ve met people who’ve said things akin to “must have shit birds or don’t know how to fly them”, but clearly that’s not the reason as the fancier this guys were referring to are the exact opposite of that.

When I first began racing in the early 70s most fanciers raced young birds to educate them. Bred around mar/April. A few races then stop them (95% raced Natural up to 200 miles in around 6 races)
Today many breed very early Dec put them on darkness, start training when the birds are too old, and then try to race them like old birds. The race programs have been extended to 12 or more races with far too many short races, often going to these short races too many times.
I raced birds for over 55 years and often flew the entire program to the coast or even further with the Nationals to 350+ miles. And one thing I learnt is if you have good pigeons they don't need lots of races. I've had ybs birds fly right to 350+ miles or 200 miles or just have one race and have had good birds from all 3. (my last ever old bird winner had only one race as a yb, and even nighted out)
Maybe if fanciers treated YBs as replacements for lost old birds instead of trying to race them like old birds, they would have many more left.
I used to enjoy YB racing but shortly before I finished racing I stopped racing ybs altogether not just because of losses but I was sick of sending healthy birds to their first race only to pick up some illness in the race basket. In the last 4 years I raced, I only trained my ybs to around 50 miles and in that last 4 years could count on one hand the number of birds I lost training.

I know Ant Webster on here is doing what I would have done if I was still racing. And just train them private to the first race point.