More About Showing Your Rabbit: Showing Rabbits

Often there are things that transpire at rabbit shows that tend to cause the show to run a little rough. Many of the issues are problems with exhibitors that could assist in keeping the show running smoothly. Here is a list of things for exhibitors to keep in mind. If you do these things, it will assist those running the show, and help keep the show moving along.

1. Labels on remark cards should show showroom variety not registration variety. This is one of the shortcomings with Evans Software and other pedigree software (except Breeders Assistant). Although, they accommodate show entries, they really aren’t designed for show entries. This is evidenced by the fact that they allow for registration varieties but not showroom varieties. So in jersey woolies we will see things like this for variety: “broken chestnut agouti”. Now those of us raising jersey woolies know that this would be in the broken group. The problem is with those sorting remark cards. They may not know that if it should be in the agouti group or broken group. They may also see “agouti” on the card and immediately place it in the agouti group. This happens often.

2. If you’re in youth put a “Y” in the upper right corner of the remark card. Open could put an “O” in that spot, but usually its asked that the youth place the “y”. If you’re a youth exhibitor and you don’t put the “y” your cards may end up in the open folder. This week as we sat down to write for a show, an open exhibitor threw down a stack of remark cards and said, “here you’ll need these.” I had no idea where they came from. So me and Ashleigh started sorting through them. When the judge called up agouti senior bucks, we had way too many cards. There were two shows. Open started with show A and youth started with show B. Two exhibitors hadn’t marked their youth entries with a “Y” and they went in the open folder for show “A”. Problem was show B was done correctly and when the open exhibitor threw the remark cards on the table there was no thought of which show it was from. So we wound up with remark cards for two exhibitors for both shows. A simple “Y” in the upper right hand corner would have avoided the entire situation.

3. Exhibitors need to realize that changes CANNOT be made at the show table. They can only be made by the show secretary. This is to protect you as an exhibitor. In fact if there is an error, we stop the show and ask the exhibitor to go to the secretary’s table and have it corrected. I have on more than one occasion had a parent rip a remark card out of my hand and storm off upset. What those parents don’t realize is that the show secretary will verify the remark cards with the control sheet. If they do not match with your entry sheet, your entry can be disqualified after the show, when the show secretary is doing their reporting. Allowing the exhibitor to have it corrected on the spot avoids the possibility of that disqualification. Basically the writer is doing the exhibitor a favor by stopping the show and allowing them to correct it on the spot. To avoid this situation all together, double check your entries before you submit them.

4. Make sure your rabbits are ready at the show table. Its not often that a judge will not wait for an exhibitor to get their animal to the table. In fact, often you hear first call, second call and last call. This causes shows to drag on unnecessarily. I realize there is a large difference of opinion on this, but I like the way Tom Green judges in these situations. If your rabbit isn’t there, he goes on with the judging and your rabbit just doesn’t get judged. Although, I will say, I think he’s a little quick on moving on without a rabbit. Our girls show at times up to 4 breeds. Often they are split up and at different tables. We as parents are writing for judges, so we aren’t there to baby step them through getting rabbits to the table. Yet its been very, very rare that one of them has been called because they weren’t there. I think we see this more often in youth and less often in open. The parents are often the ones most interested in what is going on and the kids are off playing with friends or not paying attention. I understand this with new exhibitors and often some of the younger exhibitors who need a little more direction, but often its the experienced exhibitors that are late to the table.

5. Mistakes at the writers table or show secretaries table are correctable. Peoples reactions to these types of problems are all over the board. Some exhibitors will graciously come up and say they feel there may be mistake. In youth its rarely a youth exhibitor that gets improper, usually its a parent. They start blaming the writer, and sometimes make comments that the mistake was on purpose. If they would just step back for a second and allow the writers and judges to confer, most mistakes will be corrected without issue. We’ve written for multiple breeds for years. I often write for breeds we don’t raise to help at the shows. In hundreds of shows we have written for I think we have made 2 errors at the writer’s table. The one I mentioned yesterday, wasn’t even our error, it was a problem with poor ear numbers, but I include that in the 2 errors. Both times the issues were corrected at the writers table. Parents do not need to get upset with a mistake, most writers will work with the judge to correct the mistake.

If everyone put these things into practice, we would see shows move along a little quicker. We wouldn’t have to stop shows, because paperwork is incorrect or because someone is off playing with friends. None of us succeed at all of these things all of the time, but the less we make these mistakes the better off we all are..

Rob Usakowski
Three Little Ladies Rabbitry