For the person new to showing, people talking about "numbers" can be very confusing—I know because I felt that way when I began.
First of all, blacks are currently the only accepted variety. This means the other varieties under a Certificate of Development (COD) can be shown, placed (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.), and win Best of Variety (BOV) or Best of Opposite Sex of Variety (BOSV), but they cannot earn a leg or compete for Best of Breed (BOB) and Best of Opposite Sex (BOS). Presently, blues and chocolates are under CODs, but they cannot be counted in the total numbers for earning legs.
There is this whole "3 exhibitors and 5 rabbits for earning a leg" thing that took me some time to wrap my head around, so I am going to break it down here. At this time, it only relates to blacks for Silver Foxes.
If there are only 3 exhibitors and 5 black SFs, the only rabbit that will win a leg is the BOB. If there are there are less than 5 blacks or less than 3 exhibitors, there will be no leg earned—even if there are 10 blues also, because only the blacks count. BOB includes the counts of all the black rabbits regardless of class or sex.
The next category that can earn a leg is BOS, but that depends on the number of rabbits opposite to the sex of the BOB. In other words, if the BOB is a buck then there has to be at least 5 does and 3 exhibitors for the BOS to earn a leg. A judge can award a BOB and BOS titles whether there are enough showing to earn a leg or not.
Because the Silver Fox has only one accepted variety, the black BOV and BOSV rabbits will have earned the leg at that level because they automatically are BOB and BOS. (If the Silver Fox had two varieties, the variety winners would compete for BOB.)
Now, this is where it gets really interesting, because Silver Foxes have six classes: senior buck, senior doe, intermediate buck, intermediate doe, junior buck, and junior doe. If any one of these classes has 5 rabbits and 3 exhibitors, the 1st place winner will earn a leg. A rabbit can only earn one leg per show, so even if the rabbit also won BOB, it already has its leg for 1st place.
It is quite possible for a rabbit to earn the three legs necessary to be a Grand Champion and never win a BOB or BOS! It is also possible, if there are 5 rabbits and 3 exhibitors in each class that a total of six legs can be earned at each show. Some “shows” are doubles or triples, which means they are actually separate shows on the same day at the same venue. Therefore, a rabbit can win one leg for each one of those shows in which it is entered, depending on if the aforementioned criteria is met.
One other thing important about numbers is sanctioning. There is a fee sent to the National Silver Fox Rabbit Club (NSFRC) to sanction a show. Most shows will automatically sanction or pay that fee for the following show if there are enough rabbits in the breed to meet their minimum requirement, otherwise it must be paid by the exhibitors who wish for the show to be sanctioned. In the shows I have entered, this number is usually between 10 and 20. It is not based on variety, but overall counts in the breed of all entered, including all varieties that can be shown. In the case of the Silver Fox, these counts would also include blues and chocolates.
Sanctioning has to do with sweepstakes points that members of the NSFRC would earn, which are recorded and calculated. These are currently are posted on their website:
http://nsfrc.com/current_open_sweeps.php