Reinventing the Sport of Racing Pigeons
When the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, one of the many things they banned was pigeon racing. This interesting sport is actually popular in many other parts of the world as well, but has seen a decline of late with dwindling interest from the younger generation.
Pigeon racing has an interesting history. It seems to have come from the ancient practice of using homing pigeons to deliver messages and grew into a racing sport out of that. Pigeons, being very intelligent birds, have an ability to fly to a designated area and back again, and are ideal for racing purposes. By adapting this sport in a few ways, is it possible to get young people interested in it again and get a revival of sorts in the world of pigeon racing.
The game is probably in the hobby and recreational section of sports, not having a proper governing body; however, it does have rules and regulations that need to be abided by and followed. Wikipedia gives us an explanation of the sport: “Pigeon racing is a sport involving the release of specially trained racing pigeons, which then return to their homes over a carefully measured distance. Pigeon racing involves the flying of a specific breed of pigeon specifically bred for the sport, the ‘Racing Homer’”.
These birds are trained to fly competitively to reach the highest speed and fly faster than other pigeons they are racing against. Now, how exactly does one train a pigeon? It probably involves a lot of practice: training to fly in a straight line and to fly the distance in the shortest possible time, rewarding a good practice with treats. A lot of pigeon trainers probably take a lot of time and patience in training their pigeons over many years to get them to become superb competitive racers.
This particular sport is very popular in many parts of the world, like India, China, Afghanistan, and even in the UK. Its fame might also be because of the affinity people hold with pigeons. The special type of pigeons that are used in racing, the ‘Racing Homer’ breed, have been reared over many years to give them the ability to be trained as racing pigeons. It is like specially bred horses that are trained to become racehorses. These pigeons have a genetic lineage that allows them to become great racing birds.
There seems to be some aspect of pigeons which attract people to collect, train and race them. They are very intelligent birds and one of the reasons they are popular could be that even when set free they return to their homes unaided. They have specially developed homing sensors in them that allow them to navigate and return to their point of origin. What though can be done to increase the popularity of this sport among the youth of today, to keep the interest alive, and make sure it doesn’t get relegated to the history books and eventually forgotten along with many other ancient sports?
The first thing that needs to be done is to make the sport seem a lot cooler than it already is. Admittedly, racing pigeons that fly off and return to their homes unaided is pretty interesting in itself, but it needs to appeal to young people too. One suggestion could be to start a tournament for racing pigeons, make teams, with the event being televised. People could also be invited and encouraged to bring their children along to witness the awesome abilities of these very quick birds. Once their interest has peaked in the sport, pigeon training and racing academies could be set up. Once these sorts of training facilities are set up all across the country and then slowly the world, the sport of pigeon racing will get the revival it so desperately needs.
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