State fair

Timothy had a good run at our State fair this year, picking up a BOB with his solid junior buck, Geo. What he thinks is cool is that this is not the solid junior buck he won BIS with a few weeks ago.

The two bucks are similar in age, color and size, but different in type. So Timothy now goes to shows with something that might appeal to different judges' eye.

Some judges are what we call "head" judges: they look for a nice head/ears/crown combo and pay much less attention to the body. Others seem to prefer smooth, balanced bodies and will forgive weaknesses in the ears and/or crown.

What we think are the best judges, of course, are those who look at the entire Holland and find the one who scores the most points according to the ARBA standards.

But it doesn't hurt to go to shows with more than one style of animal, just in case the one who's done well in the past doesn't excel in what a particular judge is looking forward. When we can, we try that approach to our selection of who to take to the show.