wendymac
Well-Known Member
What a whirlwind of a weekend! Had a super long day of showing on Saturday, with almost 100 French Lops shown. They started the judging at 9 am and never finished until 12:30. Then it was a long break before the specialty show, and another few hours of showing. Charlie held his own, but no legs. Nora and James (who had JUST turned senior) ended up being about a pound underweight. Got good comments on them, just they need more mass. I figure a lot of that was due to being one of the few without heat in the rabbit barn, so their feed is going to staying warm. Anyway, time for my first "opinion." LOL
It states in the SoP how animals are to be posed. It was re-iterated during the Judge Conference on Friday evening the importance of posing correctly. However, all weekend the common theme (at least for the French Lops) was to mash the hindquarters as close to their heads as was possible and then base the class on whoever was bigger. Some were so smashed up their hind feet were actually up past their front elbows. The top rabbits were owned by a bigger breeder...and, while they had sheer size over the others (I'm talking some that looked well over 20 pounds) the hindquarters looked horrible! Flat, chopped, pinched, etc. Most of that was probably due to being so over posed, but some really nice rabbits didn't even make the top 5. They might not have had the mass that the winners had, but they were more correct in type.
Sunday's shows were a bit smaller, so the classes went faster. There were around 50 Flops shown. The first show the judge didn't over pose them, and the winners from yesterday were pretty much the first off today. The specialty show was a BIG disappointment for everyone...the judge basically judged the entire breed in the time it took everyone else to judge just one of the classes. She didn't look at a single rabbit more than 1 minute, tops...and then placed the class and hurried to the next one. I only showed Charlie, and was there for the experience...but the long time breeders were all grumbling and making faces. And her placings were all over the place, with nobody having any clue what she was actually looking for (if anything). She'd say, "Has nice depth"...and it was one of the ones that were as flat as a board. LOL
Kitty only had one Californian. And apparently her doe isn't having trouble staying warm because she was quite large. LOL Her Polish doe, Sunday, ended up picking up 3 legs this weekend (2 BOV and a BOSV), one was DQ'd because she weighed over 4 lbs. (she's a chunky monkey!), and the other placed towards the top but no legs. I had the chance to watch them show today, and the judge really took her time in posing them and evaluating them...and gave clear reasonings that you could actually see as she was going through the comments.
Furby (my Fuzzy French Lop baby) ended up going home with another French Lop breeder. They loved his bone, body, and massive head. I was like, "Good luck!" and was glad to see the last of the fuzzies. At least I hope that was the last of them!
I had a french lop baby removed from his carrier and never returned, during the French Lop judging. It was one that was pre-sold, so had to refund money. I did let them know, but nobody seemed too overly concerned. We kept our eyes out for it but saw no signs of anyone carrying it around. :-( Next year we'll definitely have locks on all the carriers.
Space is definitely an issue. You could barely even move on Saturday, and it was further congested by those insisting on putting chairs in the building when asked repeatedly to remove them. But some were older folks, and you can't really expect them to stand all day on cement...but they could have set up in the center hall (where there weren't rabbits). A LOT of people had left for the show on Sunday, so it was actually quite nice...you could actually move around without getting claustrophobic. LOL
The judges' conference was great! There was a genetics speaker, meat pen speaker, and a posing speaker. Then it was break time. After break it was Havana fur and a few other breed specific topics, but we didn't go back after the break so can't comment on those.
We helped with setup on Friday, and felt badly that we couldn't stay to help with tear-down on Sunday. But Kitty had homework and school today, so we had to get going. I can't even imagine the "fun" to be had setting up for the ARBA Convention in October. YIKES!!
And for those planning on coming next year...do NOT stay at the Days Inn, on Quentin Street (formerly Quality Inn...they changed over 2 days before the convention). We checked into our freezing cold room on Friday, turned the heat on, and went back to the show grounds to tuck bunnies in. When we got back, the room was even colder! I went down to the front desk and they said they'd send someone up. An hour later (we were still in our coats and shoes, it was that cold in there) a kid came (looked to be about 19) and he reeked of alcohol before even getting near. At first he tried to say it was because we had it on "high heat", so he turned it down. Then he said, "HUH, you're right, it's not working. Would you like another room?" DUH!!! I assured him we most certainly would, and we moved everything to another room. Which had heat. But was dirty! At first glance it looked okay, but when you went in there was dust on the pictures, mirrors, phone, etc. Floor was dirty. Thankfully the bathrooms looked clean...but that's probably because there was NO hot water. So we got to take freezing cold showers this weekend...fun, fun! lol
Anyway, enough ramblings for now. For anyone that hasn't been to their state convention yet, I highly recommend it! If nothing else, attend the judges' conference and check out all the vendors and raffle tables. Definitely fun, and a warm up for things to come in October.
It states in the SoP how animals are to be posed. It was re-iterated during the Judge Conference on Friday evening the importance of posing correctly. However, all weekend the common theme (at least for the French Lops) was to mash the hindquarters as close to their heads as was possible and then base the class on whoever was bigger. Some were so smashed up their hind feet were actually up past their front elbows. The top rabbits were owned by a bigger breeder...and, while they had sheer size over the others (I'm talking some that looked well over 20 pounds) the hindquarters looked horrible! Flat, chopped, pinched, etc. Most of that was probably due to being so over posed, but some really nice rabbits didn't even make the top 5. They might not have had the mass that the winners had, but they were more correct in type.
Sunday's shows were a bit smaller, so the classes went faster. There were around 50 Flops shown. The first show the judge didn't over pose them, and the winners from yesterday were pretty much the first off today. The specialty show was a BIG disappointment for everyone...the judge basically judged the entire breed in the time it took everyone else to judge just one of the classes. She didn't look at a single rabbit more than 1 minute, tops...and then placed the class and hurried to the next one. I only showed Charlie, and was there for the experience...but the long time breeders were all grumbling and making faces. And her placings were all over the place, with nobody having any clue what she was actually looking for (if anything). She'd say, "Has nice depth"...and it was one of the ones that were as flat as a board. LOL
Kitty only had one Californian. And apparently her doe isn't having trouble staying warm because she was quite large. LOL Her Polish doe, Sunday, ended up picking up 3 legs this weekend (2 BOV and a BOSV), one was DQ'd because she weighed over 4 lbs. (she's a chunky monkey!), and the other placed towards the top but no legs. I had the chance to watch them show today, and the judge really took her time in posing them and evaluating them...and gave clear reasonings that you could actually see as she was going through the comments.
Furby (my Fuzzy French Lop baby) ended up going home with another French Lop breeder. They loved his bone, body, and massive head. I was like, "Good luck!" and was glad to see the last of the fuzzies. At least I hope that was the last of them!
I had a french lop baby removed from his carrier and never returned, during the French Lop judging. It was one that was pre-sold, so had to refund money. I did let them know, but nobody seemed too overly concerned. We kept our eyes out for it but saw no signs of anyone carrying it around. :-( Next year we'll definitely have locks on all the carriers.
Space is definitely an issue. You could barely even move on Saturday, and it was further congested by those insisting on putting chairs in the building when asked repeatedly to remove them. But some were older folks, and you can't really expect them to stand all day on cement...but they could have set up in the center hall (where there weren't rabbits). A LOT of people had left for the show on Sunday, so it was actually quite nice...you could actually move around without getting claustrophobic. LOL
The judges' conference was great! There was a genetics speaker, meat pen speaker, and a posing speaker. Then it was break time. After break it was Havana fur and a few other breed specific topics, but we didn't go back after the break so can't comment on those.
We helped with setup on Friday, and felt badly that we couldn't stay to help with tear-down on Sunday. But Kitty had homework and school today, so we had to get going. I can't even imagine the "fun" to be had setting up for the ARBA Convention in October. YIKES!!
And for those planning on coming next year...do NOT stay at the Days Inn, on Quentin Street (formerly Quality Inn...they changed over 2 days before the convention). We checked into our freezing cold room on Friday, turned the heat on, and went back to the show grounds to tuck bunnies in. When we got back, the room was even colder! I went down to the front desk and they said they'd send someone up. An hour later (we were still in our coats and shoes, it was that cold in there) a kid came (looked to be about 19) and he reeked of alcohol before even getting near. At first he tried to say it was because we had it on "high heat", so he turned it down. Then he said, "HUH, you're right, it's not working. Would you like another room?" DUH!!! I assured him we most certainly would, and we moved everything to another room. Which had heat. But was dirty! At first glance it looked okay, but when you went in there was dust on the pictures, mirrors, phone, etc. Floor was dirty. Thankfully the bathrooms looked clean...but that's probably because there was NO hot water. So we got to take freezing cold showers this weekend...fun, fun! lol
Anyway, enough ramblings for now. For anyone that hasn't been to their state convention yet, I highly recommend it! If nothing else, attend the judges' conference and check out all the vendors and raffle tables. Definitely fun, and a warm up for things to come in October.
