SHOWING RABBITS

How many of you know approximately how many rabbit shows the American Rabbit Breeders Association sanctions in one year. They sanction about shows a year. The ARBA is dedicated to bettering rabbits and getting more people involved in rabbits. It was founded in. There are now over 35,000 members in the ARBA. The ARBA has excepted 43 breeds and their standards can be found in the "Standard of Perpection" written by the ARBA. There is a standard for each rabbit as well as a standard for all rabbits.

I have been showing rabbits for about 10 years, In those ten years I have had about 8 different breeds. I have won various awards in 4-H and open shows. These include, BOB, BOS, Rabbit Royalty Princess, Dutchess, and Queen, BIS, and Best Meat Pen. My family now has 70-100 rabbits and attends a rabbit show about every two weeks year round with exception to January and February.

Showing rabbits is fun as well as challenging. It is fun because you are able to learn more about rabbits, and you can meet numerous new friends. It is also a way to spend more "fun" time with the rest of your family. It is challenging because of the high standard set up by the ARBA and because of the great number of competitors you compete with. Showing involves alot of different things. THere are far to many aspects for me to cover now. However, I will give you an overview of the standards set up by the ARBA, as well as how a show flows, adn some awards that can be won.

Most people who show rabbits also raise them. This requires them to have to know the standard well enough to distinguish a good rabbit from a bad rabbit so that they know what ones to keep and show and what ones to get rid of. All rabbits must not have certain disqualifications. These are set up by the ARBA. Some of them are made to include all breeds and others are breed specific. They can be anything listed from any rabbit with an abcess, to a Mini Lop, that is a solid color, which has a white toenail. This shows how strict the guidelines are.

When choosing a rabbit to show from a group you should always judge each one against the standard. After looking at each one you should choose the one which best fits the standard and has the fewest faults, which are unwanted characteristics.

A rabbit show is mostly behind the scenes work done by the sponsering club. There are many details that must be worked out to have a smooth flowing and good show. These are to many to go into detail here so I am going to go through what happens the day of a show. Before the show begins each exhibiter must enter their rabbits and pay their entry fees. These are usually from 2-3 dollars per entry. They then find a comfortable place for their rabbits and usually will groom them to prepare them for show. The exhibiter can then relax and chat with fellow rabbit raisors and friends until it is time for them to show. when their breed is called to the table they take their rabbits and put them onto the table into holding boxes. The judge then looks each rabbit over and judges them against the standard. What he or she looks for depends on the breed. Some breeds have markings as a more important factor whereas others may be body type. After examining each rabbit the judje will place them begining with the last place. He will give comments about the rabbit which are written by writers, so that the exhibitor can use them to know what needs to be improved. The rabbits are removed from the table as they are placed except the 1st place ones. This continues until all the classes in the variety are judged. Then each 1st place rabbit is judged against each other 1st place rabbit in that variety and a Best andBest Opposite Sex Variety is chosen. The BOV and BOSV of each variety are then judged against each other BOV and BOSV to choose Best and Best Opposite Sex of the Breed. After all the breeds have been judged each BOB is judged against the others to decide which one is to be that day's Best In Show.

Best in Show is the highest honor a rabbit can recieve on one particular day. It isn't however the highest honor overall, that would be to recieve the title of Grand Champion. To recieve a Grand Champion Title a rabbit must earn "legs" towards that Grand Champion. Acording to the "ARBA Official Guidbook" A rabbit must recieve three legs in order to recieve a Grand Champion. A rabbit can only be titled a Grand Champion once, but after that it is always a Grand Champion. There is however, no limit on the number of "legs" a rabbit can earn.

In conclusion as you can see there is a lot more than one might think to showing rabbits. I could spend all day on the subject but I am out of time for now.