My first rabbit show!

[firedragon1982]

We went to our first rabbit show today and it was.... interesting.

I tried to get answers from people about various questions (ie: I had to leave a buck at home, brought another, was told if it was the same breed (not mentioning variety only mentioning breed), that an ear change was fine, but told by the table people that nope it was not, and he wouldn't be allowed but one judge allowed it) and the answers I got were either very vague, incorrect, or totally ignored/swept off.

I saw someone there that's part of my "chicken people" group, there on her first show, and she had a "mentor" (someone she was purchasing rabbits from that was walking her thru the show). Kinda wish I had that. I had a bit of fun when a couple of my rabbits got BOV/BOpV over people who had been breeding them longer than I had.

My daughter had a blast with her jr buck, my son was somehow placed into the adult showing when we had signed him up for the youth show, and he was VERY upset about that. But over all, good things were said about the jrs we took even though they hadn't fully molted into their adult coats. Promising at least!

 

[Latestarter]

Well, congrats on an overall "successful" first show! Glad the kids had fun... well, the daughter anyway. Hope your son got over it and was able to have a good time with it.

 

[promiseacres]

Sounds overall a good experience. Sounds as if it was a preregister show? In most cases you can substitute but you have to do it thru the correct channels and sometimes fees. Most of our local shows registration is 1st thing before the show starts. Most judges are more than willing to adapt. Sounds like either too many cooks or weren't asking the right people. (sometimes it's hard to find the "right" person who is in the know)
Unfortunately things happen. Our last show my son's card was found in the open, they fixed it while he was showing. Then my daughters card was lost.... again I refilled it and they allowed her to show. Her buck got his 1st BOV and his 1st LEG so was glad they were willing to admit and fix things swiftly.
Don't give up. I showed as a teen and restarted 2 summers ago. Its the same but different.. Super excited to be able to attend National Convention as its only 2 hours from us!!

 

[firedragon1982]

Yeah when I asked about him being put in the youth the secretary lady shrugged and said "well it's in this file" kept calling for his rabbit, so I had him put it up there. Rather disappointed with how the club ran things. Yeah they moved quickly, but no one was willing to explain or answer questions. Next show is in a month, and at least I know one of the people there as she transported my rabbits for me last year, will be reaching out to her this week.

 

[DutchBunny03]

Glad you decided to go into showing! The first couple shows are usually a bit bumpy. I'm lucky i havent misplaced any rabbits! It is usually a good idea to go to a show or two before you go into showing yourself, so you know how they do things. Shows are a bit of a hit-or-miss. Sometimes, you have a great, well-organized show, and sometimes, you wonder if the show is being run by 5-year-olds.
Your rabbits got a few nice awards! Was the show very big?

 

[firedragon1982]

I've gone to 3 other shows, this being my first bringing my rabbits. And this was by far the largest. First and third shows had 4 judging tables, second one only had 2. This one had 7. Had a HUGE NL, NZ, and another breed as specialty shows. The NL and the NZ had easily 100 rabbits in each, one had 129!! I really didn't expect this many people, I recognized several people from the small show we went to in MT (who also had a rabbit show this weekend that apparently no one went to...) I wonder what next month will bring.

 

[DutchBunny03]

Nice! The number of rabbits in each show determines how well your rabbit actually did. In a show as big as the one you went to, getting an award is a big deal. In a smaller show, depending on the quality of rabbits, not so much, because there is less competition. Rabbit shows can get really big. The national ARBA conventions have miles of coops. The show i bought my rabbits from was pretty big, but not nearly as big as that. I hope you do great next month!

 

[micah wotring]

I went to a poultry show once (Ohio National)but I've never been to a rabbit show. Sounds cool! Maybe someday I'll be able to show a rabbit. Glad you got a few good prizes and yeah, those regulations are a big stink. Not just with shows but it seams like everything now-a-days.

 

[samssimonsays]

Glad y'all did well but VERY sorry about the lack of people willing to help out. I fell in with the head of our rabbit club early on in my showing career and eventually they helped me grow into the VP of our club. If you have a local, or county club, I recommend joining or talking to those folks. Usually if you let them know that you DID fill out the card they will let you fix it. There is a LOT that goes into running a show and it gets messy. We usually have on average, 10 of those big mistakes a show for our small one. I recommend getting a standard of perfection and maybe contacting a local breeder. I had loads of help through them that way. They were able to show me what to look and feel for when posing a rabbit, check teeth, toe nails and bone as well as how to fill those pesky cards out at shows.

 

[AClark]

It definitely matters how many are in your class as to how well you really did! Good job!

I remember back when I was showing my horse (a Mustang) he had to be shown with the QH's (open halter class). I never even placed, as they look completely different (he was too short, no "chrome", I wouldn't cut his whole mane off or shave inside his ears, etc). It was kind of disappointing, up until we'd go into a reining class with the same horses and I'd clean house.

It'll get better with more practice, and knowing that Murphy's law runs any kind of animal showing Are your kids involved in 4H/FFA (I don't know how old they are?). That's an excellent place to find mentors for showing just about anything.