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.

Ups and downs

Last week,Timothy got a taste of the highs and lows of rabbit showing. It's an amazing hobby, isn't it?

I already reported about the Best in Show win but he went on to win a reserve Grand Champion at our county fair with a junior buck (and not the same buck as the BIS buck). He held back his four best animals from the county fair because we were going to an ARBA-sanctioned show the next day.

We didn't figure the show animals would like a long, full day at the county fair and then get toted home for another road trip and another long, full day at the next show.

But his ARBA show in Henderson turned out to be a bit of a dud. There were two youth exhibitors and, although he got several firsts, didn't get a leg. In fact, the Best of Breed bunny didn't earn a leg.

Showing rabbits means subjective judging and you-never-know disappointments like lack of youth exhibitors. That keeps us guessing when we go to shows - but probably keeps the zing in the hobby, too.

You just never know what's going to happen when you load the rabbits in the car and head out. It could be the rush of a BIS or the dull thud of last place. But it's always a surprise.

We're excited

We were at the Elbert County Show on Sunday where Timothy showed a junior buck, Pyro, for the first time. Pyro picked up two legs including a Best of Breed and a Best in Show.

The funny thing is that we have two junior bucks about the same age and similar in conformation. We've debated for two months which one is better but the judges were unanimous Sunday.