Northern California Angora Guild: 1/13/13

Candy's Trip to the United Kingdom, Part 2

Judy and Candy drove to Yorkshire, in
the NE part of England, and met with
Judy's friends Karen and Roy. Karen is
Secretary of the Rare Breeds Club, a
club that handles less popular breeds
that wouldn't have enough breeders to
have their own specialty club. Karen's
husband, Roy, drove us to the port of
Hull, where we took a ferry across the
North Sea, to Rotterdam, Holland, then
drove on to Leipzig, Germany.

In Leipzig, we attended the Europa Show,
the largest small animal show in the
world. Check out their website:
http://www.europaschau-leipzig.de/en
Click on "Impressionen" in the green bar
across the top to see photos. What a
facility for a rabbit show! Entries
included 25,810 rabbits, but there were
35,030 pigeons! Also thousands of cage
birds, large chickens, bantams and
ducks, and hundreds of cavies, turkeys,
guinefowl, and geese.

Like at an ARBA Convention, there were
lots of vendor booths. Here's a rabbit
hutch made from formed concrete slabs.
You can see a slot on the back side for
urine to drain. I've seen pictures of
these being used for Angoras in other
countries, but seeing them in person,
I'll keep my wire cages.

I did find one spinner, and she even had
some Angora products on display. Her
name is Ilona and she is from Latvia.
She spoke enough English that we could
communicate in our common language of
Angora and spinning. She made her
beautiful shawl from dog hair. All of
the European countries had a booth, very
similar to our breed booths at
Conventions.

Candy's Trip to the United Kindom, Part 1

Candy is a long time English Angora breeder, she is the author of the Angora color genetics book and the creator of blue eye white English Angora.

Each year, Judy from UK would come to the ARBA convention to meet up with Candy; Judy is one of the top breeders in UK and she is very active in the British Rabbit Council.

Candy is sharing her experience of the trip and her visit to the rabbit shows there.

Instead of our British friend, Judy,
visiting Convention last fall, Candy
went to see her. This is Judy's little
village of Combe, in Devon (county), in
SW England. Beautiful!

We went to a local rabbit show in Frome
(town) in Somerset (county). Judy is
holding one of her Sussex, a breed which
she developed. She is holding the gold
variety, and the cream variety is in the
background. Gold is similar to
chocolate tort, and cream is similar to
lilac tort, but they have different
modifying genes, giving them a light
frosting of cream ticking and a
different look.

In England, rabbits wear leg bands for
identification instead of tattoos. The
judge is checking the leg band number of
a Sussex. Notice there are no holding
boxes on the table. There's a white
sheet on all the judging tables.
Carriers or owners place rabbits
directly on the sheet and hold them in
place. The black rabbit at the back is
an Alaska, a breed that used to be
recognized in the U.S. many years ago.
Notice how the paperwork is being done.

Little Girl Big Rabbit

Flemish Giant is the largest breed of all the ARBA recognized breeds. Though huge in size, the Flemish Giant is known to be gentle and docile.

At Gridley, there was a 4-H competition; the little girl in the photo has her uniform on and on her lap is her showmanship rabbit, her beloved Flemish Giant. The rabbit is almost as big as the little girl but she is in total control.

Maureen is Crazy about Crazy Yarn

During the holiday time, it was cold out in OH, Maureen decided to dive into making crazy looking yarn. On the left, it's a skein of 100% Angora dyed toffee color and on the right is green plied with bamboo.

Left is a skein of Angora plied with cotton then dyed purple; the right is a skein of 100% Angora, tied dyed with a variety of colors.

These two skeins are Angora plied with bamboo and metallic thread then one dyed green and the other purple.

This skein of black with bamboo is crazy looking enough that Maureen kept it in its natural color.

Best In Show Judging at Gridley

In show A, judge Tracy picks the winners. There are 27 breeds represented on the Best In Show table. Three breeds of Angora are behind the table on the large coops, from left to right are English Angora, Giant Angora and French Angora.

Judge Cathy judges Best In Show in show B.

Judge Melissa is ready to announce the Best In Show and Reserve In Show winners in show C. At the far end are Allen and Randy listening to Melissa's announcement.

Angora Judging at Gridley

In show A, Judge Chris Z. judging the English Angora colored senior doe class.

Judge Chris Z loves the little Red Buck shown by Casey; though it's too young to compete with the seniors, it definitely gets the top cute points.

In show B, judge Cathy is looking at an English Angora colored senior doe.

Judge Cathy is giving comments while Casey records the comments.

In show C, judge Melissa is checking on an English Angora's nails.

Judge Melissa gives comments on the white French Angora.

For a complete list of Angora winner of these three shows, click

http://angorashowresults.blogspot.com/

Top Winners at Gridley

At Gridley,CA, California Rabbit and Cavy Shows (CRCS) holds the first show date of 2013.
In show A, judge Tracy (r) picks Kathi's Polish the Best In Show and Koelyn's Mini Rex the Reserve In Show. Kathi is in the left and Koelyn is in the middle.