Mary Allen
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Nevertheless, several factors must be right for a pigeon to be called beautiful. Both breeders and the standard summarize this under the term “overall impression”.
Standards dictate what a pigeon should look like. Incidentally, this applies to all animal breeds that are purposefully bred. While functional things are described in detail for many animals, for example, this is not the case with show pigeons. With them, the focus is clearly placed on the external appearance. Show pigeon breeding is therefore breeding for beauty. This is a clear difference between the carrier or flying pigeon breeds. Their looks don’t matter as long as they’re fast or show a special flying style. Nevertheless, there are also breeders who prefer a special appearance in terms of color, markings, or a certain type.
But the problem lies precisely in this subjective feeling. What is beautiful? A question that everyone would answer differently. If this were not the case, they would all have the same breed of pigeons. Finally, you breed the pigeon breed that you find particularly pretty. When you consider that around 350 pigeon breeds are listed in the standard, it makes it clear how different breeders’ tastes are.
An interesting aspect of the standards is that the judging order is different for all pigeon breeds. With any breed, the overall impression is paramount. But what is behind the term overall impression? Anyone who thinks about it will think of keywords such as harmony, interaction, and coherence of the racial characteristics or beauty – well-known terms that are difficult to put into words.
Many Breeders are Operationally Blind
There’s a good reason why the overall impression comes first in the rating order. Those responsible want the whole animal to be captured and viewed at first glance. Only then is it a question of assessing and classifying according to quality. Nevertheless, one cannot be separated from the other. A connoisseur will look at a pigeon and then categorize it. If there is no surprise in the hand evaluation, the first and thus final judgment has already been made.
The overall impression has the task of not overestimating or overestimating any breed characteristic. It is therefore also the best guarantee that no racial characteristic moves too much into the foreground. Especially with regard to a discussion about extremes in animal breeding, the overall impression is the most important argument against it. If the overall impression is correct, a racial characteristic cannot be overemphasized, let alone extreme.
The harmony of the whole is the key to success. Breeders like to be a little bit in love with a certain animal. Either it comes from a special pair that can only produce outstanding young animals. It has already shown its best side in the nest. Some pigeons are already in the nest at around 20 days as if they knew they were the most beautiful. Or the pigeon shows a feature in such perfection that one becomes almost blind.
When breeders look at the pigeon, they always see the great hood, the beautiful bands, the wonderful head profile, or something similar. So breeders are a bit biased and only see what they want to see. At the latest when the pigeon is presented at an exhibition, disillusionment usually sets in. The judge is not wearing the rose-colored owner glasses. He looks at the pigeon impartially and is the first to grasp the overall impression. He immediately recognizes the special characteristics of the breed and also the not-so-curved padding. He does not know the history of the pigeon and its breeder.
The top animal of the collection is therefore in the rarest of cases this animal favored by the breeder, but a different one. This animal must also be racy but in its entirety. For the incumbent judge, the old thesis is true that one is not looking for the 97-point animal. It has to offer itself.
Useful to Read the Standard
The harmony and the interplay of the breed characteristics agree better with such pigeons. In addition, there is usually the fact that there are pigeons who want to present themselves. By the way, this is a phenomenon that one experiences quite often. If you take a breeder and show him his pigeons, he will probably also choose a harmonious pigeon as the best. So again a pigeon where the overall impression is right. Interestingly, this game can also be played with people who have nothing to do with pigeons. This works very well even with very unusual pigeon breeds. Many people even find some downright ugly.
Nevertheless, people usually choose an animal that is harmonious, where the overall impression fits. The more extravagant a breed has to look according to the standard, the more important is the interaction of the individual characteristics. The pigeon fanciers have already recorded this a long time ago and formulated the standards or the desired specifications accordingly.
If there are any problems with regard to the expression of the breed characteristics, then this is due to the standard interpretation. Therefore, it always makes sense to take a look at the standard and read up on it there. The framework is clearly formulated and it would be a shame to move beyond it.
Racial characteristics are one thing, harmony and the overall impression are another. If the overall impression isn’t right, nothing is right at all, or to put it another way: Without a coherent overall impression, everything is nothing. Maybe that’s why he’s at the top of the ranking list.