Windy Plains Spring Fling

Saturday we loaded up and headed to Garden for the 14th Annual Spring Fling held by Windy Plains Rabbit Breeders Association. 

It was a long and very strange day.

It was a double show, so this meant all the buns were shown in show A and again in show B.  Jacob got to show his Havanas 3 times because there was a Havana Specialty show also.

He didn't take much with him: One Californian, and 2 Havanas. Everyone else that stayed at home is either weaning babies and out of condition, just HAD babies, or ABOUT to have babies.

Jacob's Havana AVA won Best Black in the Havana specialty show. This was a very awkward and exciting showing for him, as he went up against THE ADULTS. This means the 2 breeders, Yvonne and Dan, that have help him the most, he was now competing against. It was so weird for him. Anyway, he was THRILLED to get best black in a specialty show.

Jacob with his certificate and chocolate bunny from the specialty show.

And at the end, those 2 breeders who have helped Jacob so very much, walked away with a Best of Breed and a Best Opposite in ALL 3 shows!

Yvonne, Dan, and Judge Conall Addison

In the regular showing, Jacob's black was beaten by a broken chocolate, but the judges kept gooing about how nice Ava was. BUT---in her 3nd showing--AVA was **DQ'ED** off the  table!! We were SHOCKED and the judge quickly apologized and brought us over to show us what he found.  She has a white line on the back of her leg.  Yvonne was close by and quickly told Jacob she has seen it before and AVA  probably scratched her leg at some point and the hair grew back white there. IT MIGHT molt out, we will just have to see.  Jacob took her right off the table and asked Yvonne if she had a chocolate buck he could breed her with. She's been BEGGING to be a mama, and he thought since she's going to be sitting at home for while, she might as well be happy and get to have babies.  That little lady has been amazing on the show table and I can't believe no one has caught it before this.

Jacob's Californian that he pretty much just threw in the carrier at the last minute just so he's have a bit more to show, won 2nd RESERVE in Show A! This rabbit is annoying.  No, really, he is. If there is such a thing as Rabbit ADHD, he would be diagnosed and treated. EVERY TIME this rabbit is shown, he escapes from the coops and joy runs down the judging table with everyone chasing after him. "Look at me, I'm FREE I'm FREE!" and "Hey Sweetie--your rex fur is looking MIGHTY fine today."  Jacob had to go get him several times while we were waiting for the Best in Show judging to start. He seemed pretty smitten with a very nice castor mini rex doe a few coops down.  This same rabbit does laps in his cage at feeding time, and chews on his feeder, and loves to flick water on unsuspecting people who are standing close to him. He's a brat.

Jacob and THE BRAT, 2nd Runner Up

In Tristen news, his mini rex did OK--nothing got last, but nothing won anything either. He's got a litter in a nest box and just bred some more this morning so he should be getting some nice JR's soon.

BUT- he did the youth contests for the 1st time EVER and got 2nd place in the JR judging contest!!  This pretty much concretes my suspensions I've had all along about Tristen.  He will NOT participate in ANYTHING until he is confident he knows what he's doing and that he'll do it well.
It really makes me sad that he's missed out on so much just because he worries about not doing something right.

I snapped this picture really fast while T was busy doing the rabbit judging contest. 4 different breeds of rabbits, with four in each group. They have so long to go over each group, and rank them 1-4, checking for DQ's and the standard for that breed of rabbit.

Here he is..and our cat Paris, posing (SILLY!!) with the bag of candy he got from the contest. You just never know what you will bring home from a bunny show!

 It was a fun and long day, but filled with some of our most favorite people on earth! Rabbits...and rabbit PEOPLE...ROCK!