Almost 1400 exhibits entered in the ANDRC Spring Nationals show at Kansas – Trevor Hoole reports.

Four Brits – Nigel Atkinson, Kevin Farnsworth, Haydonn Wines and myself -crossed the pond to attend the 2010 ANDRC Spring National’s show held on the Kansas State Fairgrounds at Hutchinson KS .

936 exhibits were entered in the “Open” show (for adult exhibitors) and 365 exhibits in the “Youth” show (for juvenile exhibitors up to 18years) plus many more dwarfs in the auction.

The rabbits started to arrive in the Fairground Rabbit Hall on Thursday afternoon by either road or air to local airports in Witchita and Kansas followed by a short road trip. Some exhibitors bringing 40 to 50 rabbits ! The rabbit hall housed permanent wire framed coops (pens), with solid partitions, wire mesh floors under which is a solid tray with wood shavings. Each coop had two containers for food and water.

Booking in started at noon on Friday with each exhibit identified with a tattoo in one ear and coop number in the other ear.

Judging commenced at 8:00am on the Saturday with 7 judges doing the honours in the Open show and 2 judges doing the Youth show. For the Open show a draw was made immediately before judging started to determine which judge was judging which colour group.

Judging was to the USA dwarf standard which is based on the UK standard except that only 5 points are awarded for condition (UK std 10pts) and 35 points awarded for body (UK std 30pts). The USA standard also allows “juniors” (u/5 rabbits in the UK) to be shown up to 6 months.

The two strongest classes regarding numbers were167 Otters made up of 55 senior bucks, 45 senior does, 37 junior bucks, 35 senior does), and 116 Chestnuts (Agoutis) made up of 49 senior bucks, 19 senior does, 23 junior bucks and 26 junior does. Other strong classes – 52 Blacks, 72 REW’s, 67 Sia Sables, 77 Himalayans, 71 Broken and 42 Silver Martens (Blk Foxes).

On completion of all the group judging all the group winners were then judged by all the seven judges who each awarded 3 points for their best and one point for best opposite sex. The points are then added together to determine the winner – in this case the Black senior buck shown by Joan/Maci Zier.

The day was completed by a banquet held at the official show headquarters – Grand Praire Hotel & Convention Centre Hutchinson – attended by over 300 exhibitors. All class winners in the open and youth shows were presented with their awards most of which were pencil sketches of dwarfs in colours applicable to the winners.

All in all a very good trip !!

Trevor Hoole