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Show I ., ! u 1 1 I I 1 v r ! 1 I , - j H I, ,. f . "'If p K " v v r I til ' "'A ' V4 i t 1 I.'' ' ' V Nancy May shows off the array of ribbons won by her and her mother, Kathy, in the Utah State Fair. At the same time she is keeping an eye on her prize Champagne buck (the large rabbit) and Kathy' s trophy-winning Netherland Dwarf doe (foreground). Moab rabbit growers ran away with honors at State Fair By Beth Heggeness Kathy and Nancy May, of '. Moab, almost ran away with the Utah State Fair early in ' September. Together, their exhibits brought them a total of 17 ribbons (13 of them blue) h including a best of show and a trophy. Their soft, furry, cud-f. cud-f. dly rabbits must have stolen h away the hearts of the judges! Actually, just having a soft l and cuddly rabbit is only the K very Erst step towards having I- a blue ribbon winner. Kathy t and Nancy explained that (. there are quite particular (- standard criteria that a show rabbit must meet. High qual-l qual-l ity fur is important, but so are size, weight, color, structure, and length of ears of the rabbit, to name a few. t The Mays Erst became in- terested in breeding rabbits J about three years ago. Before X they purchased any breeding if stock, they read as many books as they could and joined J the American Rabbit Breed-4- ers Association. In this way they were able to familiarize J themselves with the names of if well-known breeders, and to Jf learn more about the judging J criteria. J The Mays also attended many- ARBA shows, where they could listen as the judges J examined the rabbits. Kathy explained, "Each judge gives sort of a running commentary, J while he is going over the J animal." The breeders are ik- also given cards after the judging that outline all the points covered and how the animal was scored. "We learned learn-ed a great deal, just by listening," Kathy said. Finally, Final-ly, they decided upon where to purchase their Erst batch of rabbits and the breed that they would buy. Their Palomino Palo-mino rabbits arrived air mail, and the Mays' rabbit hutch was official. Palominos are, as one might suspect, a warm golden-brown golden-brown color (like the horse of the same name). They are raised primarily for their fur and for meat. "Rabbits are amazing," Kathy commented. "In one year a pair of rabbits is capable of producing 250 pounds of meat that is much more economical than cattle. They may be the meat of the future." The Mays themselves reap the benefits of their rabbits that do not come up to show standards they become the family meal, and the skins can be tanned and sold. Another "meat and fur" breed of the Mays is called Champagne D' Argent (silver rabbit from the province of Champagne, France). They are the specialty of Nancy. Dave and Kathy 's daughter, and she is solely responsible for learning about and obtaining obtain-ing this particular breed. She studied them for a year before deciding to buy stock from a breeder in New Mexico. The Champagnes have been an ongoing on-going 4 1! project for her, and they have brought her many blue ribbons in 4 H as well as those from the ARBA shows. The Champagnes are a beautiful silver-grey colored rabbit. When they are born, they are black, and as they grow older, their fur gets lighter. They are a good-sized rabbit, about 10-13 pounds when full grown. Nancy showed show-ed off her top prize winning buck and explained a few of the show criteria. The fur color of the rabbit must be uniform, with no black or white spots, the rabbit's teeth must be even (Bugs Bunny would NOT win a prize at the fair with his buck teeth!), the bone structure must be perfect, per-fect, and the rabbit's ears must be in proportion with its -size. When the rabbit is at rest, the rump should look nice and round from behind, "like half of a basketball." said Nancy. "And, the hip bones shouldn't stick out a whole lot." Kathy then told about her other show breed, the Siamese Sia-mese Netherland Dwarf. One of these small, lovely grey rabbits won the trophy at the State Fair, and she has others that are very close to becoming becom-ing national Grand Champions. Champ-ions. Unlike the Champagnes and the Palominos, the Netherlands Nether-lands are not used for meat, but they do make excellent pets. So, the Mays sell the Dwarfs that are too large to show just for that purpose. Kathy explained that thes rabbits and any others are very gentle and loving if they are handled from the time they are very young. As the variety Siamese implies, they are of a uniform color with black highlights on the face and legs. Their fur is exquisitely exqui-sitely soft, and they are easy to take care of. In order to be shown, the Netherland Dwarf can not weigh more than 2Vi pounds, must have no white spots in its fur, perfect bones and teeth, and its ears must be less than 2Vi inces long. "All in all," Kathy told me, "we've had great fun with our rabbits and we love them all." She said that the project has been both cnjoyablo and educational. edu-cational. They have even be- come good rabbit veterinarians veterinari-ans and deal with most of the animals' illnesses themselves. them-selves. The Mays are hoping to register some of their best rabbits as soon as possible, but they need to see an official ARBA registrar to do so. Unlike dogs, the rabbits must be examined personally by a licensed registrar in order to get papers. After making sure that the particular animal conforms to all standards of the breed, the registrar puts a special tatoo in the ear, and makes the official papers. It's a sure bet that Kathy j and Nancy will be back at the Utah State Fair next year (and to other ARBA shows in the meantime) and probably will haul home another parcel of blue ribbons. |