When I first started showing, my goal was to grand all my breeders (or have only breeders that were grand champions) and once a rabbit was granded, I would stop showing it. The idea was to give others a chance to win and build that excitement about showing so more people would get involved with it as there were so few Silver Fox breeders in the region. Then I had hardly any rabbits to show unless I showed the ones that were already granded. If I did not show those rabbits, there would likely not have been enough to earn legs so why would others bother to show and—well, what fun would it have been for me to breed towards show quality rabbits, keeping my best rabbits home in their cages forever after, and then just not go to shows?
There was a combination of circumstances my first year showing that contributed to reaching my goal faster than I thought I would.
Knowing this, you probably have deduced that some of my seniors would likely not have been granded that first year if there was the same level of competition we have in my showing region now. I fully agree with that! However, because I continued to show most of my rabbits after they were granded, I also know that some of them stayed competitive even as the quality and quantity of Silver Fox show rabbits were improving.
That first showing year, I often said, "I bought well. Now I have to breed well."
Unfortunately, my first year of breeding had its stumbling blocks and in truth, I had bought some good rabbits, some not-so-good rabbits, and one really horrible rabbit, which I would be embarrassed even to have a judge look at now. However, that is how we all learn. New show breeders do not usually start with the best rabbits. Just because I had a few granded rabbits in just a few months, does not mean that I did not have to cull out a lot of juniors that were never seen on a judge's table.
One of my stumbling blocks was that I had bought a 4½-year-old Grand Champion buck, GC Miss Maggie's Leon. He had long, thick fur; heavy silvering; and a very short body with an early peak, but he was perfect for shortening up and adding depth that my long does with good peak placement lacked. Because of his back legs being weak from arthritis and being concerned about it being his last breeding season (which it was), I bred him with every doe I had and put off breedings with my other bucks. From that breeding season, I had two fairly decent juniors from him, Inola and Kieran, the latter looking a lot like their sire. Those were my only two show-worthy rabbits from a year's worth of breeding. ONLY TWO! So they would have been the only two I was "supposed" to show if I retired rabbits after granding, but then they had their first three legs as intermediates about a year after I had started showing.
The next breeding season had its own challenges, but it was far more successful than my first one. In my third year, I did better on the tables with my own breedings and finally started to feel like my own rabbits were worthy of being grand champions.
Now for the other side. There are some breeders who never show a rabbit they have purchased and some look down on those who do, which I feel is a shame; I would not have shown the first year if this was a rule because everything I had was purchased. (When I sell a good quality rabbit, I personally want the buyer to show it!) There were times I was asked when I was going to retire certain rabbits. I heard things that suggested I have enough legs on a particular rabbit as if I should not be showing it anymore. Then one of my bucks, who had eleven legs after having been shown for a year and a half, won my first Reserve in Show. He just happen to be in perfect coat that day and took it. If I had stopped showing him, what would the likelihood be that the Best of Breed Silver Fox would have won a Reserve in Show that day? I do not know, but I do know that would have been a lost opportunity for my rabbit, who had proven to be worthy of competing with the best rabbits of the region over time and was still in his prime.
I am now in my fourth showing season, after hearing quite a few very disheartening criticisms that very nearly drove me to completely quit the last showing season. Things were said that led me to believe that some people felt that we are to retire rabbits based on their papers and not their condition. That some feel breeders are supposed to pull their best rabbits from showing so that...hmm, so that their own rabbits had a better chance to win would be my guess here or maybe to make winners feel guilty for winning. I have even seen that people seem to accept someone else winning better if the winner expresses feeling bad or guilty about winning!
Showing rabbits is not about making it fair for everyone. It is about the judge choosing and ranking the rabbits he or she determines as the closest example to the standard of perfection for the breed. Do we tell the best athletes they must retire after they win three times in a row or make the best violinist quit the orchestra because the third-chair violinist never has been first-chair or should you tell everyone how bad you feel for landing your dream job because someone you knew also wanted it but then you still took it anyway? So I ask you, who would turn down a rabbit with ten legs for having too many legs? Why would we want breeders to take their best rabbits out of the competition for the best rabbits? What would be the point of showing rabbits if we are supposed to not want to win or we are supposed to feel bad about winning?
There was a combination of circumstances my first year showing that contributed to reaching my goal faster than I thought I would.
- I had only a few rabbits as I was starting out.
- There were so few Silver Foxes breeders and rabbits being shown in the shows I entered so less competition.
- The quality of the rabbits in my area needed much improvement and the few I had bought from other breeders were overall better quality in comparison, so the judges thought at least.
- I went to every show I could to make numbers for legs, regardless of who won them, just to be sure more legs were available.
- My own breedings were not producing show-worthy rabbits so my granded seniors were doing better than my few juniors.
Knowing this, you probably have deduced that some of my seniors would likely not have been granded that first year if there was the same level of competition we have in my showing region now. I fully agree with that! However, because I continued to show most of my rabbits after they were granded, I also know that some of them stayed competitive even as the quality and quantity of Silver Fox show rabbits were improving.
That first showing year, I often said, "I bought well. Now I have to breed well."
Unfortunately, my first year of breeding had its stumbling blocks and in truth, I had bought some good rabbits, some not-so-good rabbits, and one really horrible rabbit, which I would be embarrassed even to have a judge look at now. However, that is how we all learn. New show breeders do not usually start with the best rabbits. Just because I had a few granded rabbits in just a few months, does not mean that I did not have to cull out a lot of juniors that were never seen on a judge's table.
One of my stumbling blocks was that I had bought a 4½-year-old Grand Champion buck, GC Miss Maggie's Leon. He had long, thick fur; heavy silvering; and a very short body with an early peak, but he was perfect for shortening up and adding depth that my long does with good peak placement lacked. Because of his back legs being weak from arthritis and being concerned about it being his last breeding season (which it was), I bred him with every doe I had and put off breedings with my other bucks. From that breeding season, I had two fairly decent juniors from him, Inola and Kieran, the latter looking a lot like their sire. Those were my only two show-worthy rabbits from a year's worth of breeding. ONLY TWO! So they would have been the only two I was "supposed" to show if I retired rabbits after granding, but then they had their first three legs as intermediates about a year after I had started showing.
The next breeding season had its own challenges, but it was far more successful than my first one. In my third year, I did better on the tables with my own breedings and finally started to feel like my own rabbits were worthy of being grand champions.
Now for the other side. There are some breeders who never show a rabbit they have purchased and some look down on those who do, which I feel is a shame; I would not have shown the first year if this was a rule because everything I had was purchased. (When I sell a good quality rabbit, I personally want the buyer to show it!) There were times I was asked when I was going to retire certain rabbits. I heard things that suggested I have enough legs on a particular rabbit as if I should not be showing it anymore. Then one of my bucks, who had eleven legs after having been shown for a year and a half, won my first Reserve in Show. He just happen to be in perfect coat that day and took it. If I had stopped showing him, what would the likelihood be that the Best of Breed Silver Fox would have won a Reserve in Show that day? I do not know, but I do know that would have been a lost opportunity for my rabbit, who had proven to be worthy of competing with the best rabbits of the region over time and was still in his prime.
I am now in my fourth showing season, after hearing quite a few very disheartening criticisms that very nearly drove me to completely quit the last showing season. Things were said that led me to believe that some people felt that we are to retire rabbits based on their papers and not their condition. That some feel breeders are supposed to pull their best rabbits from showing so that...hmm, so that their own rabbits had a better chance to win would be my guess here or maybe to make winners feel guilty for winning. I have even seen that people seem to accept someone else winning better if the winner expresses feeling bad or guilty about winning!
Showing rabbits is not about making it fair for everyone. It is about the judge choosing and ranking the rabbits he or she determines as the closest example to the standard of perfection for the breed. Do we tell the best athletes they must retire after they win three times in a row or make the best violinist quit the orchestra because the third-chair violinist never has been first-chair or should you tell everyone how bad you feel for landing your dream job because someone you knew also wanted it but then you still took it anyway? So I ask you, who would turn down a rabbit with ten legs for having too many legs? Why would we want breeders to take their best rabbits out of the competition for the best rabbits? What would be the point of showing rabbits if we are supposed to not want to win or we are supposed to feel bad about winning?
So, I am going to pass on a bit of advice that one of my favorite judges gave me when I asked if there was some unwritten rule about how a breeder should retire their granded rabbits or if such a breeder is more respected somehow for doing so. She told me about a rabbit that had earned something like 120 legs. I thought about it then, that some might say that rabbit had way more than enough legs, but as she told me this all I could think of was that must have been some rabbit! Would it not have been a shame to have retired that rabbit after its first three qualifying legs? Then she said something in the sweetest manner that has stuck with me ever since, "Enjoy your rabbits."
So, whatever mindset you have about how you plan to show, be sure it allows you to really enjoy showing your rabbits regardless of how other people think you should do it or even how you may have thought you were going to do it. And guard yourself against souring your own heart because someone else is winning while not doing it the way you do it or the way you want them to do it or they are not feeling bad enough about their winning or just because you are not winning—not winning yet, because that can change.
Seriously...just enjoy your rabbits!
Kieran with bad-ear-day rabbitude.