At the Fresno show on March 9, I received an interesting question and a comment. The first question was asked by two nice Lionhead breeders, they inquired about the length of the show life of an English Angora. The comment came from a lady who used to show Angoras (not sure which breed of Angora) and commented that the turn table and blower did not exist when she was showing in youth.
Crystal Cream is a good model for me to answer these question/comment, I am using a post from the past. Here is her story:
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| This is a photo of Chu's Crystal Cream when she was 5 months old. I went to my first ARBA convention at Portland in 1987. I brought 3 colored English Angora with me, a black senior buck, a tort senior doe and a blue tort junior doe. Crystal Cream was that junior doe. Each won first place in their classes, and the black buck advanced to win BOV colored and BOSB. Crystal Cream advanced to win BOSV and that's her with her trophies, as you see, the "87" is a part of the trophy. |
As I did not and still do not breed much, I took Crystal Cream back to the 1988 ARBA convention at Madison, Wisconsin. She took 3rd place in a very competitive colored senior doe class. The winner of the class was my blue doe Chu's Jessica Venus who advanced to win BOB. Crystal Cream did not go to the 1989 convention. Also for your information, the blower was not a part of grooming tool until after the 1989 convention.(Northern California Angora Guild: What A Difference A Blower Can Make)
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In 1990, Crystal Cream was over 3 years old, already a grandma, great grandma or even higher. With the aid of the blower, she looked really good. Though I had younger English Angora bucks and does bred for the convention, I decided to take her along. I had a custom-made carrier that had 12 compartments for flying, it wasn't a hard decision to put her in one of the compartments as an additional entry to fly to Tampa, Florida.
Guess what? Crystal Cream won over all her younger relatives and other breeders' English Angora and was awarded BOB! She was 3-1/2 years old.
In the 1990 "young" crop slated for the convention, there was a buck named Chu's Cowboy. Cowboy was born in November 1989, he took 2nd in the colored senior buck class at Tampa. He returned to shows year after year, won BOSV at the 1993 convention at 4 years old and BOSB at the 1994 Angora National at 4-1/2 year old. He had won 54 legs during his show life, and sired many litters along the way; three of his daughters went on to win ARBA convention BOBs, one was the 1992 ARBA convention Best In Show Chu's Sweet Sixteen.
Who says the English Angora has only one coat? Who says the English Angora has a short show life?
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