Nick Siders at the American Pigeon Museum
What Is Important?
Spending some time to contemplate the spin or roll of the Roller to decide what I appreciate most I found has changed over the years. As a youngster it was all in the depth. I didn’t care really what the bird looked like to get to the greater depths just as long as it got there. My attentions began to drift away to the beauty of proper form and the style the bird exhibited in the roll. I heard phrases like “ball bearing smooth” being said and it was a soothing expression to my mind’s ear. I had thoughts on how the wings should be placed during the spin as to achieve this was being produce more often than not in at least my mind’s eye. Then thoughts about a high velocity spin began to grow and the idea that the spin should or even could achieve a point that the vaulted “hole” could not be seen. The violence of the spin simply made the spinning pigeon look like a ball of feathers as the feathers seem to fill “the hole”. Then I began to sense that a pigeon that does not break, but seldom was not as a fun time as the kit of rollers that was often breaking into a good size bunches and spinning. I was having much more fun and the pigeons seemed to be celebrating and having fun as well.
I broke the spin of a Roller down into four areas to be valued against. In no specific order I laid it out as:
Frequency
Velocity
Depth
Form and style
I asked myself which one of these parts was most important to me? What do I find most entertaining to me? What sooths me the most? What do I want to see every day in my Rollers that gives me the reason why I chose this breed in the first place?
It became obvious it was because of and from the roll itself. To me this was at least a small revelation and not in a biblical sense. For most of my Roller life I thought I was captured by the depth of the roll. I never thought of it being the Form and Style of the roll that is what won me over to Rollers. It was the act of the roll and not how long the roll was that kept me attached to this breed.
I then escaped further away from depth when I realized that if it was not fast I was not amused as I wanted to be. A slow rolling bird had no appeal to me and so I began to drift further and further away from depth as most important.
It also began to dawn on me that just to watch birds fly was not as entertaining as watching them do their performances. The frequency has to be often enough as to keep me interested, stimulate, and excited about this breed.
After due process I began to understand and realize that depth is very not very high on the scale as I once had put it; on top. What draws me to the Roller pigeon is the fact that the pigeon actually rolls; does those backward somersaults and does it with style and with a graceful form. When it all does happen it is done with velocity and you should not have to wait very long between these occurrences.
Now there is frequency to think about. I want more out of a Roller pigeon than just flight and I don’t look forward to wait for the performance to come so seldom that the fascination and excitement falls away. But, then again having too much frequency will bring on chaos and there never is any joy in chaos in a kit of Rollers or any team of activity human or bird.
For this flyer to arrange them in order of importance for him the following will demonstrate:
- Form and Style
- Velocity
- Frequency
- Depth
In my yesteryear’s you can turn the same ranking upside down. Literally. – Nick Siders