Strange thing happened on my way to a Rabbit Show...

... one of the rabbits I was showing as a junior buck (as of 2 weeks ago when I double checked him at 10 weeks old to make his pedigree), won BOV and BOSG as a junior DOE at the double show. Sorry this is gonna be a bit long...

so now that I have your attention I'll tell ya about our AMAZING day at my Netherland Club's annual "spring" show. It's called the North Coast Netherlands Super 8 Spring Double show (that's a mouthful). The reason for the super 8 is it is a double show (meaning 2 back to back shows, imagine a double header baseball game) and 8 because we only permit 4 different breeds of rabbits to compete (showing in 2 shows hence the 8 (2x4=), it's not an "all breed" show. Only Netherland dwarfs, mini rex, dutch and havana are allowed to show, always the same 4 clubs. We do this 2x a year, spring show starts our season and our Fall show ends it.

So this is my third year with this club,almost 4th. I was bringing 4 rabbits to show, 2 to sell, and a couple that were to young to show but needed tattoos (pedigree'd show rabbits have to be tattoo'd in their left ear to show, ARBA grand champion registration number has to go in the right, if you're lucky enough to get one granded out). I had all bucks (or so I thought) 2 senior (over 6 mos old) and 2 junior (under 6 mos old). My friend Steph and I sat down to do the tatoos right after I entered all the rabbits "officially" in the show, submitted my judges slip and judges comment cards and awaited first variety to be called. I was checking my 2 squirrel colored babies a brother and sister, Inga and Igor, to make sure I had the right rabbit for that ear #, Igor looked like a girl to me, when I double checked to make sure I had the right rabbit, but I was sure it was Igor, his face is completely different, so I had Steph double check "him" for me, only to confirm it was indeed now a girl. Sooo... I had about 2 minutes to have our club president pull my judges slips and everything to change my entry form a he to a she or Igor would have been disqualified (entered wrong gender, can't be changed after show starts). Well after going thru all 95 rabbits 2 tiimes (for both shows minid you) we found my slips and got it all changed right as the judge called the first variety. Whew...

Soooo My first rabbit is a senior chestnut buck, Mel, who placed 2nd in the first show and 4th in the second show, not horrid. I brought a siamese sable buck, Mr. Wonderful (or scooter as we call him), I knew was in horrid coat because he was moulting but I wanted to show him anyway. He hadn't been shown since he was a junior and is 1 leg away from his grand champion. He was first off the table both times because of coat but got some nice judges comments.

Then I had my 2 juniors to show, 1 buck, Prince, and now 1 doe, Igor (maybe soon to be Ava). Prince took first junior buck for both shows, but it was kind of a win by default as there wer no other junior squirrel bucks to show against but the judge did comment saying he should have been shown as a senior (which he is too young for he turns senior the end of march) 'cause if he did he would have prob. gotten a leg (won a major title like BOV or BOG) as he liked him better than the senior squirrel buck he gave best to

Then there was little Igor's turn... the A Show judge LOVED igor, gave amazing compliments to head, type, shoulders, literally everything you get marked for as major point factors. She was a little rough in her coat as she was losing baby fur going to adult coat (as she is only 12 weeks old) but he commented it was a nice dense coat, with good color, that should grow in beautifully. Here's where the good part comes in this judge put her up against the senior group since she was awarded Best of Variety (BOV) for her junior class... then Igor went on to BEAT ALL the other colors in her color group to win Best Opposite Sex for Group and variety (BOSG). This was quite a surprise... and this wasn't any YOUNG judge, this was one of THEE oldest judges in the circuit who has competitively bred netherlands himself, IN the squirrel color for over 20 years. YAY

So on to the B show... another old judge, well respected and more critical than the first judge (he's the one that gave my chestnut buck 4th place when A show judge gave him 2nd place just the show before). So he's goin thru the line of jr does to do his "pre-judging" line up. He gets to Igor, pulls her out and plops her on the table and igor just goes into a perfect pose... and the judge goes "oh my"... looks at her quizically and moves her to the first holding coop usually reserved for his fave or his worst opinion one depending on the judge (you never know until you learn the judge how he lines up his rabbits best to worse or worse to best). He takes the other jr does first, they get good comments so I think Igor is done for... he gets to Igor and plops her on the table and says "this is just a STUNNING rabbit, perfect in just about every way" (then breaks down the ways, head shoulders depth ect and shows everyone standing there why it's perfect on my rabbit). He also faulted her for her coat a bit but said it was an amazing coat, thick and dense with perfect ring color and coat color, he also ended up giving her Best of Variety (BOV) and put her against the seniors and she again took Best Opposite Sex for Groud and variety (BOSG). Now she goes to BEST IN SHOW...

For best in show there is Best of and Best Opposite gender for each color variety in each color group (something like 25 colors over 4or 5 groups) so that comes to about 30-40 rabbits (as some color groups had no entrants). So the judge has already eliminated a bunch of rabbits, keeps pulling out Igor and this black otter senior buck (who was stunning by the way, his black so shiney and his tan parts were sooo golden tan), and he says it's so close but I think I'm going to have to go with ... the black otter senior buck with the squirrel junior doe coming second... YAY...

So now for the major compiment from the judge, he had kept Igor on the table for a sec after everyoe else had taken their rabbits and left and he was talking to my club President, Tami, who I'm good friends with, she lives near me, and asks her if the owner of this rabbit was taking her to the Netherland dwarf Nationals coming up in April in Lancaster Pa (about 6.5 hours away from me and an entire weekend long fri-sun). Not realizing I was the owner and standing right there, I said Yeah... "I wish that was possible", the judge says "that's too bad because I think she's a real contender, this rabbit aught to be going to nationals" and Tami chimes in with "I'll take her for you" since Tami was already planning on going with some of her own rabbits already. So now I have my first home bred, home grown rabbit going to Netherland Dwarf Nationals in April. I'm not ARBA registered so Tami will get the points which is fine by me, she's taking care of her the entire weekend and driving her down so she desirves something... I as the breeder still get the win, IF she wins anything.

So in summary in case I lost anyone... Igor got 2 BOV, 2 BOSG, and second place in best in show... mel got a 2nd and a 4th, and Prince got 2 first places with nice compliments by default. And my siamese sable... Ironically named "Mr. Wonderful", well he wasn't so wonerful today...

So that was my saturday... how was yours???

wow. .lol.

A nice read Kel thank you.

It sounds like you had a very good and win-ful day.

and wow im so glad you've been enetered or recommended for the nationals. thats a great achivement

i cant wait to hear how you do in april

Recommended for nationals. Not entered yet Tami is taking care of that this week. For a new comer like me to the hobby breeding my own home raised nationals competitor and another 1 leg away from his grand championship (despite his horrid showing this weekend) it is an amazing accomplishment as I know people that have been doing this a lot longer than me, have a LOT more rabbits and have yet to win a major or go to nationals with anything that has a chance of being competitive.

Thanks for the compliment. I'm really surprised Sarah didin't comment... yet

Yeah, it DOES sound like a massive acheivement. Really well done Kel, i know how passionate you are about your rabbits, so im glad its gone well for you.


Well personally i had to put some time aside to read it all lol, so i didn't comment straight away. i saw the size of your post and i thought 'wow, gonna have to look at that when i have more time' lol
So maybe that's what Sarah has done lol.

Wow Well done!! I'm really happy for you!! && Igor!! && your other lovely bunnies!

... Please can you post a picture of her? I would love to see her!! Bet she's gorgeous!

haha sorry about taking a while to comment.. I had to do that biology exam yesterday soo I couldn't get on the computer for long.

What a lovely story It makes me really want to get into breeding and showing pedigree rabbits

&& Good luck to Igor at the Nationals!!

..I'm going to research into rabbit shows in the UK in a minute now lol.. and about the british rabbit council.

and I'd never heard of a havana rabbit.. but they are cute ^ ^ I love black rabbits.

havana are a "meat pen" rabbit... brought up specifically for meat purposes. They're cute rabbits and BIG... about 9 pounds. Maybe a lil bigger than a regular rex rabbit. I tried to get a pic yesterday of Igor but my phones camera wasn't working GRRR... I'm gonna see if I can get one of her today. Thanks for the kudos guys... still flyin high off the win

Sarah is that a Jerd in your avatar picture? Yeah Jordan it is a long story... which is why I gave the warning but at least it's a fun read

Haha i don't mind length when it keeps us entertained ... which it did lol.

haha nope its not a jerd.. its a baby guinea-pig. cute isnt it?

I hope you can get your camera working.. my camera on my phone doesnt work very well. i have to hold the button for ages before it will take a picture.. and by the time it has, my animals have moved lol

Well I was able to get a few of Igor and her sister inga and 1 out of my newest litter that's just 2 weeks old before my cell battery died ...

First a slight pictoral of Igor from Birth to now... just 'cause she's so stinkin cute

baby Igor


From the beginning of February





**She STILL poses like this... See next pic from Today**

Igor from Today 3-22-11


**See that nose and Butt in the air...**

Altho she's gotten a little darker since she's lost most of her baby fur



But she still adorable



and loves to do her "pose"



Now that right ear is sayin "I'm DONE with this photo shoot"



and a couple of her sister Inga. She's a shade or 2 ligher than Igor.
Inga Beginning of February:



and Inga now:


I was able to get 1 pic of Sammy Jr (don't know if it's a he or she yet, but it looks like it's daddy hence the name). Not the best pic and babies this young are a pain to get to hold still for pix so excuse the quality. I just thought the broken color was adorable.



It's nice that s/he looks like her daddy. He's the one that broke his ankle a couple weeks ago so his future is questionable...

So that's the buns for now... I'll have to get some more of my 2 week old babies. they just opened their eyes 2 days ago

OMG!! WOW!! they are adorable!!

I have never seen a netherland dwarf that was as cute as yours ever.
eee! their ears are soo tiny.

I love their coat colour, too i have a mini obsessed with grey colour rabbits lol i think its beautiful.

how do you teach them to sit still and in such a nice neat way?

I'm thinking of teaching my lionhead to do rabbit show jumping.. i've watched a couple of videos of rabbits jumping and i think my rabbit would love it. he loves jumping.. when im carrying him back to his cage as soon as we approach it, he jumps into it ^ ^ scares me sometimes because im scared he will hurt himself...

aw rabbits are so cute!! lol, all these rabbit threads proper make me wanna breed them lol, but i've got enough animals on my hands.

gothicgurrrl wrote:OMG!! WOW!! they are adorable!!

I have never seen a netherland dwarf that was as cute as yours ever.
eee! their ears are soo tiny.

I love their coat colour, too i have a mini obsessed with grey colour rabbits lol i think its beautiful.

how do you teach them to sit still and in such a nice neat way?

I'm thinking of teaching my lionhead to do rabbit show jumping.. i've watched a couple of videos of rabbits jumping and i think my rabbit would love it. he loves jumping.. when im carrying him back to his cage as soon as we approach it, he jumps into it ^ ^ scares me sometimes because im scared he will hurt himself...

Hahaha lol... glad you like her The pose is a natural thing really... they say a properly built netherland should naturally want to sit like that... sometimes you have to assist a little with getting their feet posed right or they could have too much "air" under their bellies like a britiannia petite.



a lot of what Igor does is natural... something just clicked in her and now she loves posing... ask her to pose at 5 weeks tho and it was a battle of wills... @ 3 weeks posed great... they def. go thru developmental stages. You can see her issue was star gazing and not wanting to put her butt flat on the floor, which was actually her back feet. She wanted to be on her toes insted of on the flats of her feet.

The color is called "Squirrel". It's a dilute of chinchilla... the difference is the squirrel lacks the black guard hairs, has a slate blue ring color (if you blow into their fur the undercoat appears dark slate blue), white ear lacing (insted of black like chins have), scattered white hairs in the chest and on the lower sides. Igor's daddy's brother (her uncle) is a chinchilla colored buck. His name is Rebel



This is Igor's daddy He's called black silver marten.




This is what the coops look like when we bring our rabbits to the table to be judged. They're small coops they sit in while they wait the few minutes till their turn. This is Mr. Wonderful awaiting his turn.



and being judged. He is checking the "fullness" of his hind quarter, to see if he is pinched or cut off insted of sitting square on the ground. He sits straight to the ground




Anywho... more later... dinner's ready

OOh more pictures of what actually happened at the show would be good Kel

Those are the only pictures that I have from the show I was kept busy carrying rabbits for some friends to the table (it can be difficult carrying 2 rabbits or even 3 to the tables) or watching mine be judged... or talking to people about the rabbits I had for sale... bnesides pix during judging is kinda frowned upon. I had to ask the judge for permission. I do however have a couple pix of my rabbitry tho...It's in my basement so no being judgemental about it looking like a dungeon ok... if you keep the trash cans which are actually food containers, in focus that will show you the layout of the rabbitry.



The back wall



the side wall



Next week I'll be getting all the supplies in that I need to divide those huge 36 inch cages along the top row cut in half so I'll double my holes Can't wait.

Wow, that's a wicked set up, I wish I had a basement to turn into a big gecko/reptile emporium lol.

Thanks for the interesting pics Kel

I built all that maself well actually my co-breeder hung the first row to the beams since she's like 6 foot Then I did the rest. Hanging the lower rows and the boards for the trays to sit on. We got the big cages because originally it was gonna be breeding french lops and flemish giants with dabbling in netherlands but the big rabbits take a LOT more work with cleaning and grooming etc. So now I only have the one lop and focus on the netherlands.

This is my soul surviving french lop, Marilyn, or Mizz Monroe as she likes to be called

haha aw thats a wicked rabbit lol, classic floppy ears
Mizz Monroe;

Impressive basement though Kel.

I figured "classic Floppy ear'd" for a Brit tho would be more along these lines:



English Lop

Haha aw, thanks for keeping us in mind Kel lol.

You got loads of gorgeous bunnies Kel. So fluffy i love fluff lol.

AWWW!! more lovely photos love your bunnies