Northern California Angora Guild: 10/8/23

Chucky Showing Off His Show Coat

While Franky received his first hair cut, brother Chucky keeps his show coat.

Chucky is a good boy, making sure his show coat is in inpeccably clean condition.

Chucky likes to go to shows, hoping that he'll get a chance to show off his coat again.

Going to shows in a near future?

Daisy Gets Her First Haircut

Pretty English Angora girl Daisy is Casey's price and joy.

Daisy won a Best In Show from judge Courtney in late August.

Daisy also won a Reserve In Show from judge Misty on the same show date in August.

No matter how great the coat is, there is a time to let it go.

Daisy is getting her first haircut.

Daisy kisses her beautiful coat goodbye.

Daisy sits on her wool throne.

A bridal train?

Frosty American Fuzzy Lop Passes First Showing

This is the same photo we saw yesterday when the chestnut Giant Angora received exemplary pass. The regular route of presenting a new breed or a new variety takes three showings with allowance for two fails. The COD holder has 5 years to complete the presentation or lose the COD. In the case of chestnut Giant Angora, Tammy and Kevin were due to present the first showing in 2021 but they decided to forfeit the first year due to COVID concerns. They presented and passed the first showing at Reno in 2022 and then in 2023 they passed the second showing with an "exemplary pass" status so the third showing has been exempted. Chestnut Giant Angora will be showable and registerable on January1, 2024.

The chestnut Giant Angora was number 16 in the order of presentation. If we go back up two spots to number 14, we see American Fuzzy Lop Frosty going for the first showing. The COD holders are Nate Burbidge, Carol Green and Stuart Burbidge.

From left to right are Nate Burbidge, Stuart Burbidge and Carol Green holding the frosty American Fuzzy Lop used for presentation. The frosty color is essentially the rabbits with c(chd) or c(chl) combined with non-extension ee genes. In Angora such color are called Pearl, and the overall color is much lighter than the American Fuzzy Lop color due to the length of the wool. The frosty AFL first showing is a total success. The standard committee commented that the presentation animals are consistently high quality, they are good enough to be on the show table as is. The minimum number of showing is two, they will have to present the second showing in 2024; we are expecting to see an "exemplary pass" next year.

Chestnut Giant Angora Accepted into SOP

This is a photo of the result board at the ARBA Standard Committee meeting. Number 16 is Giant Angora. If you look at the very right column, it says: "Pass Exemplary Pass". This designation means that the chestnut Giant Angora had been presented so well that the third showing is being exempted. The chestnut Giant Angora will be showable and registerable starting January 1, 2014 as a recognized variety.

It’s a PASS!!!

This is the best news. Tammy and Kevin have been working on this project since 2016, it has been a long road but so rewarding. Congratulations to Tammy and Kevin for an excellent job done.

The Angora supporters are all so excited.

We thank Debbie McCormick for taking these photos and sharing with us.

Tammy not only pass the chestnut Giant Angora, her hat creation also won a prize at the NARBC banquet, just wish to show off her excitement.

ARBA Convention Best In Show Judging at Louisville

The Louisville ARBA convention Best In Show judging was held in the afternoon of Money, Octobet 9. 2023.

The BOB rabbits are divided into 4 groups and the winner rabbits are:
Group 1, New Zealand, judged by Mike Avesing.
Group 2, Rhinlander, judged by Wade Burkhalter.
Group 3, Lionhead, judged by Brian Shirk.
Group 4, Jersey Wooly, judged by Scott Rodriguez.
The Best In Show in the youth show goes to the white New Zealand, judged by Louis Potter.

Open BOB rabbits are also divided into 4 groups, the winner rabbits are:
Group 1, Sable, judged by Ted Deloyola.
Group 2, Silver Marten, judged by Joel Marshall.
Group 3, American Fuzzy Lop, judged by Cole Rupperecht.
Group 4, Jersey Wooly, judged by Allen Mesick.
The Open Best In Show goes to the American Fuzzy Lop, judged by Glen Carr.

This convention seems to have an interesting practice. Initially clubs and exhibitors were told not to post any winner information before the Best In Show judging. Though the judging process was streamed real time, the names of the owners of the winner rabbits have not been revealed in any of the media even hours after the Best In Show ceremony was over. We are sorry not to include the owners names nor could we find the results of the Angora judging. If you are interested in finding out what's going on, please continue to check on ARBA website, NARBC website, and their facebook pages.

Here and There at the Louisville ARBA Convention

Carol Green is the only one in our wool group who is at the ARBA convention at Louisville, Ky. We are very appreciative that Carol sent photos. Debbie McCormick of VA also sent us some photos. We are posting these photos here. Thank you Carol and Debbie.

Calm before activities, the showroom is still quiet.

People start to arrive.

It’s the 100th ARBA convention.

This sign is self-explanatory.

American FuzzyLops on the judging table, judge is Maddie Pratt. Carol and Nate's Fuzzy Lop won the first place in 5 out of 8 classes, BOSB, and best wool. There were 291 Fuzzy Lops entered in the open show.

White French Angora on the judging table. Carol’s colored junior buck won the first place in his class that has 20 entered.

The coops are way too small for the English Angora with full coats. It is surprising and disappointing that the convention assigned these very old small size wooden coops to the wool breeds while other breeds were assigned the new metal coops as seen in the first two photos. These wooden tables were made over 30 years ago. Here are photos of these tables being used in the 1992 convention:
Northern California Angora Guild: Convention Memories: 1992 ARBA Convention Angora Numbers (ncag.blogspot.com)
The wooden floors and sides rub the wool and made the well-groomed Angoras look ungroomed and unfinished. The poops and pees stay on the wooden floor, eventually the Angora tummies would be covered with wetness and droppings. These are the least suitable equipment for any long hair or wool breeds of animals.

English Angora being weighed. Convention rule requires that the top 5 placed animals be weighed to make sure they are within the weight limits.

Debbie and Gabe. Gabe is working at the KW booth.

Debbie and Tammey.

Debbie and Amy. The name of the rabbit is Goose, owned by Amy but bred by Debbie.

Carol judged youth American Fuzzy Lop. This is her pick of the BOB.

Examining Chestnut Giant Angora at Louisville

Tammy and Kevin Vaughn are the COD holders of the Chestnut Giant Angora. At the ARBA convention, they get together with the NARBC standard committee on Saturday, October 7, 2023 to examine their rabbits. In the front are Kevin and Tammy. In the back from left to right are Matt Bishop, Eric Stewart, Adam Shuller, Nichole Wilson, Sandra Wight and Robin Olsen.

The Chestnut Giant Angora successfully passed the first presentation at Reno ARBA convention last year, see:

Northern California Angora Guild: Chestnut Giant Angora Presentation at the Reno ARBA Convention (ncag.blogspot.com)

Tammy and Kevin are attempting the first showing of the second presentation this year. The schedule shows that the rabbits will be on the table on Turesday, October 10, 2023 in the afternoon. We are very optimistic that the presentation will be well received.