Food At the Convention Showroom

Betty says,

"Since we did not have a rental car, we were pretty much held hostage at the showroom and the hotel during the convention.

The food situation was a major issue. If you look at this photo, you'd understand the reason. Everything is fried: a hot and fresh breakfast means funnel cake, deep friend cookie dough or deep fried snicker candy bar!

How about another food booth? Pizza, fried fish, fried chicken and more of the fried cookie dough and fried candy bars!

Drinks: bottle water, soda and coffee. Chris and I were dying for a cup of hot tea or even a cup of hot water so that we could use our own tea bag. No, no such thing existed at the food booth in the showroom.

It would be hard to maintain a healthy diet in a situation like this."

Betty's Convention Winners

Prize for Betty's Best Display win.

Chu's Nolan, Best of Breed, white senior buck.

BC15FT, first place white junior buck.

BC3SN, first place colored junior doe.

Chu's Samantha, Best White Wool.

Chu's Marie Casey, Best Colored Wool.

Betty has five winners in the convention and most of the others placed high to receive points.

Betty is the "Best Display" winner of the breed this year; she won the Display 20 times out of the last 22 years of her attendance at the ARBA convention.

Regardless of how many rabbits that an exhibitor enters, only those rabbits that place top five receive points, thus Display is a good indication of the general quality of the exhibitor's rabbits. Wool class points are not included in the Display calculation.

Randy Prepares For Presentation

Randy is presenting new colors in Mini Satin. On Wednesday morning at the ARBA convention in Louisville, Allen and Kevin helped Randy to get the presentation animals ready for the ARBA Standard Committee.

Presentation of new breed, variety or color is a long and difficult process. Randy's two new colors passed the second presentation. Congratulations.

The Year Of Ruby Eye White

For several years, the English Angora Best of Breed in the ARBA convention were colored does. This year in Louisville, both the Best of Breed Open and Youth are ruby eye white (REW) rabbits. Betty won the open BOB with her white senior buck and Collin won the youth BOB with his white senior doe.

Interestingly, the French Open BOB winner is a REW senior buck and the Giant BOB winner is a senior buck. Needless to say it's a white senior buck since the only recognized color for Giant Angora is REW.

Cindy Judging Angora at Conventions

Cindy Wickizer judging English Angora at the 2008 convention in Kentucky. From left to right: Alicia Will, Cindy, Judy Thompson.

Cindy Wickizer judging English Angora at the 1979 convention in Arizona. From left to right: Pat Holbrook, Cindy, Charles Czapski.

Cindy W. has had her judge's license for a long time; she judged Angora in major national level shows many times. Included but not limit to are the following shows: 1979 ARBA convention in AZ; 1986 Angora National in Puyallup, WA; 1990 Angora National in Ventura, CA; 1991 ARBA convention in Pomona, CA; 1998 Angora National in Reno, NV; 2002 Angora National in Eugene, OR; 2003 ARBA convention in Wichita, KS; and the current 2008 convention in Louisville, KY.

Candy H. is the most "durable" Angora breeder in the nation. She brought in some albums from the past conventions. There is one photo in her album that is of most interest: Cindy judging English Angora in 1979 at the ARBA convention in AZ between the writer and the table ramrod. A similar picture was also taken in the current convention. Here are these two photos.

Time flies, it has been 29 years between these two symmetric photos.

Youth Angora Winners at Convention

English Angora BOB youth winner Collin Burns with his white senior doe.

English Angora youth BOS winner Alex Stepnoski with her colored senior buck. Alex is the reigning queen of PA State Convention.

French Angora youth BOB winner Jessica Shumate with her colored junior doe.

There was one Satin Angora in youth, no Giant Angora in Youth.