Meet junior fancier Lucy Wheal at any Dwarf stock show, you may be forgiven for thinking she is handing out prize cards and rosettes,  maybe she is, but most probably they are her winning cards.

Successful junior member Lucy Wheal kindly agreed to contribute an article for the  yearbook, it takes the form of interviews by the late Victor Hales in the Fur & Feather.

How old are you, and how long have you kept rabbits?

I am 12 years old and I have kept rabbits for more or less 5 years.

Where do you live and how much space do you have for your rabbits?

I live in Manchester, Dukinfield, we have a shed at the bottom of the garden and we have over 20 cages.

What do you keep your rabbits on and how do you give the water?

For bedding I use shavings, also we give straw to babies and rabbits who are having babies, I use bottles for water. We don’t have any cooling or heating. we do put old security lights on top of nest boxes, when they have babies in the winter, we only use low watt bulbs.

What do you feed your rabbits?  Hay, pellets, mix, greens etc

I feed hay in the mornings and pellets mixed with other things.

Do you have any secret cures or tricks to get your stock in tip top condition?

If I told you they wouldn’t be a secret!

What colours do you keep? Any plans for other colours?

I keep Agoutis and Marten Smokes, no plans for other colours I want to get a good stud of Smokes.

Which other clubs are you a member of?

I am a member of Lancashire and Cheshire and North Wales Dwarf Circle, and the National Netherland Dwarf Club.

Are you going to start judging?

I am not quite sure whether I am going to start judging.

Do you have any other interests or hobbies?

My other hobbies are swimming, dancing and horse riding. My favourite being horse riding.

If you didn’t keep rabbits what other hobbies would you want to pursue?

I would carry on with horse riding ,but I would also like to breed dogs.

Any advice on what we can do as a fancy to improve recruitment of juniors, and keep juniors going till they are adults?

That's a hard one! I don’t know what we could do.  We should make public most welcome at our shows, and even have an information point similar to discovery at London.

How could shows be improved for juniors, or in general?

I am all in favour of the idea of self penning so shows can start early and this would make the clean up easier when shows have finished.

What do you want to do when you finish school?

When I finish school I would like to be a policewoman and maybe work with police horses.

Any other comments about the fancy, anything?

When my dad and I first started showing I used to steward most of the time, I was put off by older fanciers pushing me away from he table to handle their own rabbits.  Maybe they should just think next time when pushing a young fancier out of the way.