I have attended 34 ARBA conventions. From 1987 to 2019, I attended 33 consecutively then another one in 2022. When COVID hit at the end of 2019, many activities were cancelled in the next few years including the 2020 ARBA convention that was supposed to be held at Harrisburg, PA. I had time to think about lots of things, including the attendance of the ARBA conventions. It was time consuming, expensive, and the hardest for me was the travel. Traveling by itself was difficult, traveling with two huge kennels that each weighed around 100 pounds was even more difficult. As time goes by, as I age, as I am more concerned about my health, and as I cumulated many wins and accolades, it seems that getting some more wins at conventions was no longer as important or attractive to myself. Looking back, I have had close to 30 BOB and BOSB at the conventions with 4 major wins.
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Sweet Sixteen was my biggest winner. She broke the glass ceiling to become the first wool breed animal to have won a Best In Show at the 1992 ARBA Convention at Columbus, OH.
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| Here is me holding tort doe Sweet Sixteen after the win. One trophy was for the win of "Best 4-Class" and the other was for the win of "Best In Show". Before 1996, there were only 2 finalists: a Best 6-Class and a Best 4-Class. 6-Class are heavy weight rabbits that are judged by senior, intermediate and junior classes (buck and doe, thus 6 classes) while 4-Class are light weight rabbits that are judged by senior and junior classes (buck and doe thus 4 classes). |
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White doe Vera won the Group II at the 2001 ARBA Convention at San Diego, CA.
In 1996, there was a change in the Best In Show finalist grouping. Instead of breaking into heavy weight and light weight, the BOBs were broken into 4 Groups. In the early years, the rabbits in each Group were determined just before the Best In Show judging. Now the composition of the Groups is announced in the convention show catalogs.
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Vera and I at the NARBC booth taking the "official photo" for the newsletter.
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Tort buck Ashton was the Group winner at the 2003 ARBA Convention at Wichita, KS.
It was unusual for an Angora buck to be a convention BOB winner, and being a Group winner was even less frequent, possibly Ashton was the only one. After having a colored senior doe and a white senior doe winning big, I was elated to have a buck winning big. (I also had a white buck won the convention BOB but he did not advance)
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| There was an official photo of me with Ashton but I could not find it. Here is a photo of two of us at the Heinold booth. Heinold invites the BOB and BOS winners to have pictures taken at their booth at every convention. |
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Lilac tort doe McKenzie won the Group at the 2013 ARBA Convention at Harrisburg, PA.
She is a relatively young senior but she got the body type, wool and finish to make it to the top spot.
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This is the official win photo of Mckenzie with me taken at the photo booth as a part of the prize.
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