TMRC Show Report

(Lydia dictated this to me two weeks ago.  I totally forgot about it and didn't see it until after I posted my report of the show.  Lydia had some good information in here that I failed to include, so I decided to post it as well.) 

Fortunately for us we have two active rabbit clubs in the area that each host an ARBA show each year.  The Truckee Meadows Rabbit Club hosted this year's show at Cold Springs Middle School in north Reno last Saturday.  Even though it was a double open show and not particularly well-attended, we still managed to be stuck there until 6:30.  That's what happens when two of the three judges devote their maximum attention to each and every rabbit.  Fortunately, we were advised in advance that we had some super slow judges so we had no illusions about going home early.

We considered not even attending the show because none of our rabbits had a great coat.  Well, Becky's junior black buck looked fine, but he was Becky's rabbit, and Becky wasn't going to be attending the show.  The other rabbits had all shed their coats within the past month, so they weren't looking like winners.  But Mom thought it would be a good idea to get as many rabbits as possible registered, and so that is what we did.

Muddy Buddy finally made weight, just barely.  ARBA rules state that a rabbit must weigh in within a certain range to be registered.  At nine pounds, Sage was perfect.  Her sister, Phantom, however, is a total porker and was almost sent home to go on a diet.

Another reason we went to the show was to have all of Snowball's kits assessed.  Charlotte evaluated them first so as to be sure that she wouldn't be influenced by Seth's and Julie's opinions.  She was so happy to have Seth and Julie agree with her completely in selecting the best two rabbits, and really, all the rabbits.  Julie also spent a whole lot of time with Charlotte and Lydia in helping them understand what to look for and what to watch out for in rabbit bodies.  It was a tremendous help. 

Best of Breed

 I'm a few weeks late in reporting about the Truckee Meadows show in Reno.  Vacations will do that.

Anyway, the girls weren't particularly excited about going to this one.  They didn't have any rabbits that they felt could do well on the table in the open class (youth class is for youth only; open class is for everybody).  They knew Julie would be there, and Julie has nice rabbits.  But I persuaded them that it would be a very convenient time to get rabbits registered.  And they also needed to have Lydia's litter of ten kits evaluated for show or wool quality.

Charlotte clerked for show A.

                                    
 Charlotte was asked to clerk for show A.  She'd never seen paperwork in this style, and no one told her what had to be marked where, so she and the judge had to re-do some stuff at the end.

So we went.  Despite the fact that it was only 30 minutes from our house.  We knew it would be a very long day.  Two of the three judges have a reputation for being on the slow side.

Julie did have some very nice rabbits, but a new person, Jill, had a doe we knew would be doing the winning.  She was gorgeous. 

I think Jill's chocolate tort doe is in the bottom center of this picture.

 And indeed, she did win.  We were all happy for her.

The show was progressing slowly, so we worked on getting rabbits registered.  We were thrilled to have gotten Muddy Buddy up to weight and to have been able to maintain his weight to get registered.  He really doesn't like going to shows and will go off feed while he's there.  And he is a picky eater, so it is hard to get him to gain weight.  He weighed in at 7.10, so he was good to go.

Fudge is on the smaller side, like her dad (Muddy Buddy), but she also made weight.  The same weight as her dad.

Charlotte was really anxious to get Sage registered, as she already has five legs.  We're hoping she'll be in good condition for the Placerville show in August.  Sage needs to win a leg as a senior in order to become a grand champion.  Sage weighed in at 9.0 lbs.

And finally, there was Phantom.  Charlotte did not want to get her registered and refused to bring her to the show because she was sure she was overweight.  But I called my husband and asked him to bring her for us.  Charlotte plopped her on the scale.  Because Phantom is a bit of a porker and quite wiggly, the needle on the scale bounced around a lot.  The registrar decided the needle was hovering right at 10.8 lbs.  Happy day!  Phantom got registered!  Charlotte had to admit that I was right again.

Phantom

We spent a great deal of time at lunch and after having Seth, our 4-H president, and Julie evaluate Lydia's kits.  Charlotte evaluated them beforehand to see how well her assessments lined up with the others'.  She was very happy to see that she was in perfect agreement with them.

It was probably around 5:00 or 5:30 before the French angoras were called up for show B.  We had an amazing 16 rabbits being shown that day, more competition than the girls have ever had before.  The judge was really nice and a bit faster than the show A judge.  He quickly moved through the senior does (and picked Jill's chocolate tort again--no surprise), senior bucks, junior does, and junior bucks.  Coal was the last rabbit he looked at.  And he just gushed over him.  And gushed.  Julie had told us earlier in the day that while most judges are going to select a senior doe as best of breed, every once in a while there is someone who will favor a junior buck.  And we got evidence of that.

Out of a field of sixteen rabbits, Coal won Best in Breed!

Coal

School's Out!

Charlotte and Lydia maintain the blog as part of their school work.  But now that school is out, they have this crazy idea that they no longer need to post on the blog. 

Which means I will have to do it over the summer. 

And that could be difficult, because summer is for gardening and spinning and knitting and vacations.

But I'll try.

Kits For Sale!

Please see the new blog page with all the pictures--"Kits For Sale--Litter of Snowball and PB."

They're awfully cute!