Nippon Rabbit Club's Booth At MN Convention

This is the first time a rabbit club from Japan setting up a booth in an ARBA convention. Betty went visit and saw Masako and Matsushima in the booth.

Nakayama and Sasaki were not in the booth when Betty first visited, now they are back with Masako and Matsushima. Sasaki is the president of the club; our CA judges Carol G. and Melissa are both honorary directors.

Youth Royalty Contest Display At MN Convention

An entire room is devoted to the display of the youth royalty contest material.

Another view of the display.

Nice poster showing the importance of responsible rabbit raising.

This is one of Betty's photos being used in the display.

Angora breeds are a popular subject for the display. The English Angora photo is also one of Betty's rabbits.

Another display of Angora breeds and the use of their wool.

A display of the rabbit spine.

A display of the Himalayan breed.

A close up shot of the sock Himalayan rabbit, it sure shows the "snakey" characteristic of the breed.

This is a display of rabbit jumping contest.

Youth Contest At MN Convention

Sunday morning, youth are doing the last minute preparation for judging contest.

Groups of youth are assigned to various tables to judge the rabbits on the table.

More youth and more breeds.

California team members are working on their breeds.

Betty runs into Caitlin who is watching the judging contest.

Where Is Chris?

Chris O attended almost all the ARBA conventions in the last 20 years. She was visibly missing in action at Minneapolis. Betty kept on getting the question of "Where is Chris?"

Here is the answer, she was doing a fiber festival in West Springfield, MA during the same weekend when the ARBA convention started in Minneapolis. This is the first year for this festival, it's only 20 minutes from where Chris lives. Chris just could not pass up the opportunity to try out this festival. Here is a link to the news release about this festival:

http://www.masslive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2010/11/fiber_festival_of_new_england.html

It turned out to be a great success. Lots of business and lots of new contacts. Her hubby Lloyd even got involved for the first time and was very much into it.

Is Chris going to miss the ARBA conventions again in the future? Luckily, no. The next convention in Indianapolis is a week earlier than the festival and the following year in Wichita is also a week or two earlier. We'll see Chris back in action in the future ARBA conventions.

Here are some photos of the booth Chris had created at the festival, photos taken before the crowd started coming in:

Chris carries spinning wheels, spinning supplies and the most important part of her business is the rug hooking supplies. See her business website http://moondancecolor.com/ At the upper left corner inside the rectangular basket are Angora wool socks made by Vicki's Northland Woolens in Minnesota. Vicki was in the convention with her daughter Kelly and two granddaughters. Visit Vicki's business website at http://northlandwoolens.com/ Chris and Vicki both have successful fiber business on the Internet.

These fabrics are pure wool, used in rug hooking projects.


More beautiful wool fabrics on display at the booth. Chris hand dyes all her wool products.

Minneapolis Convention Center

In front of the Minneapolis Convention Center, the electronic billboard flashes a welcome sign to the rabbit breeders.

The main entrance of the Minneapolis Convention Center.


A side entrance of the convention center. The skyway on the right leads to two hotels: Millennium and Hyatt.

The area in front of the convention center is called the Nicollet Mall.

At the other end of the Nicolette Mall is the headquarter hotel Hyatt. One can either walk through the skyway from the convention center to Hyatt or walk straight through the Nicollet Mall. It is a slightly shorter walk from outside but if it's snowing or raining, the skyway provides an excellent alternative.

Breed Banners And Posters At Convention Hall

This is a photo of English Angora posted at the convention hall just outside the showroom. Though there is no year given, we could tell it's a very old photo. The English Angora in the photo does not look anything like what we see today. Literature have shown that Angora rabbits have been in the horizon since the 1700s.

English Lop is one of the very old breeds, listed as a breed in 1910, the year when the ARBA was established, though with a different name. MN convention is considered as the 100th year birthday of the American Rabbit Breeders Association.

Three more breed banners.

It seems that the older breeds tend to be bigger animals while the smaller breeds were created in recent years.



Holland Lop and Mini Lop are very popular small breeds today that were created in 1980. The change of living arrangement and life style of the modern day living make it hard to keep large breeds.



American Fuzzy Lop is an even later addition in 1988; originally developed from Holland Lop.

Betty's Convention Winners

Betty says,

"I did not plan on going to the MN convention; call me a chicken, I was really scared by the winter weather in MN. Imagining a storm of 10-inch snow and getting stranded at the airport, I did not breed based on the timing of the convention. I am glad that I went; the weather was wonderful during the 5 days that I stayed there. With Deb's help of picking me up then sending me back to the airport, I had no worry about traffic or transportation. I even ventured out to the Mall of America by the combination of walking, riding on light rail and bus; I had not used public transit for at least 20 years!

With no plan going to the MN convention, my rabbits were very young, a lot younger than any of the rabbits that I had shown in the previous conventions. Still they did a very decent showing. My entire entry of 7 rabbits all placed in the top five places; they won first places in 5 classes out of 10 classes that include the 2 wool classes. My trip was also reported by the Examiner website, see

http://www.examiner.com/pets-in-oakland/the-fun-never-ends-2010-blogging-the-87th-arba-convention-review

All in all, I had a great time and here are my results:

Chu's Barclay at barely 7-1/2 months old won BOSV, Best White Wool and Best Over Wool. Barclay did not disappoint his parents: daddy Chu's Nolan is the BOB of the 2008 convention, and mommy Chu's Susie is the BOB of the 2009 convention.

White junior doe, yet to be named, is only 5 months old. She won the first place of the white junior doe class. Her dad is Chu's Maddex, the BOS of the 2009 convention and mom is Chu's Susie, the BOB of the 2009 convention.



Chocolate junior doe, yet to be named, is a littermate sister of the white junior doe class winner. She does not let her sister take the center stage alone, she won the first place in the colored junior doe class.

Best Colored Wool winner is Chu's Valencia who has appeared on this blog several times.

This very nice blanket is won by Barclay as the Best Opposite White.

Valencia won the colored wool class and Barclay won the white wool class; then Barclay won over Valencia to claim the Best Overall Wool award.