Toronto English Angoras

Competitors starting to set up fist thing in the morning Every first two weeks of November, the country comes to the city to celebrate agriculture at the Toronto Royal Agricultural Winter Fair .  The Royal is the largest combined indoor agriculture fair and international equestrian competition in the world! It is a huge event held at the historic Exhibition Place grounds downtown Toronto. The Royal is predominantly known in the city for its many horse and performance dog events but it also includes various large and small livestock competitions, including a rabbit show. The rabbit show at the Royal is organized by the Dominion Rabbit and Cavy Breeders Association . DRCBA was founded in 1909 and is essentially the Canadian version of ARBA.  Angora and wool spinning demo area Judging tables before the start of the show I did not bring any of my rabbits to compete as all have been shaved already but I did come out to volunteer and help with clerking duties. A show clerk is the person who

Our final ARBA show for this season was at Komoka, just outside of London, ON. This was the biggest showing of English Angora people so far this year! We had a total of 7 exhibitors come out handling 11 rabbits. Two people were brand new to showing and one was new to ARBA shows having participated in Dominion shows before. It is very nice to see the local competition field growing in our breed! We were joined by show veterans Julie and Mary. It was a beautiful day for grooming I travelled to the show with 4 contenders:  Electric Wario, 10 mo old Black buck  BerMah Miew Miew, 8mo old Blue Tort doe BerMah Maurice, 7mo old REW buck  Electric Iroc, 6mo old REW buck All together, we had a total of 11 English Angoras and 7 exhibitors competing: 2 Sr colored bucks (including Electric Wario) 4 Sr colored does (including BerhMah MiewMiew) 2 Jr colored does (including BerMah Morel, a Jr Black doe handled by Julie) 2 Sr white bucks (BerMah Maurice and Electric Iroc) 1 Sr white doe (Maurice's

This weekend we travelled to the little town of Spencerville located near Ottawa for a triple ARBA show. This was such a fun show for so many reasons. Amy Jones, a fellow EA breeder who I bought my first ever Angora from came out to show for the first time with a few of her young babies. We had a lot of fun talking about the little ones who were all out of the same dad as my BonBon girl. I also finally got to meet Josee Maher from Quebec who I got the beautiful Maurice from. Julie Martin was also there, although not showing any EAs, and so was Livia Delattre from Quebec who's stunning Tort doe took home the Best In Show award for all 3 shows at Komoka last year. Livia brought a beautiful colored Jr doe to show. There were many wonderful conversations about our rabbits and lots of great advice kindly shared by Julie and Josee.  I travelled to the show with 5 contenders:  Electric Wario, 9mo old black buck Electric General, 6mo old black buck BerMah Maurice (bred by Josee), REW buck

  This was only a small single show but it was a super fun event. Judge Tom Schweikart from Pennsylvania took time to answer many questions and gave wonderful explanations for what he saw in the animals. The atmosphere was very intimate and relaxed with lots of joking around and lots of laughing. This show was held as part of the Brooklyn Spring Agricultural Fair and we were surrounded by lots of other fair events, livestock shows, and numerous food trucks were only a 2min walk away from our tent. Lots of people from the fair came by to check out the rabbits and naturally the Angoras drew in lots of attention.  We had 8 English Angoras shown by 3 exhibitors. Electric Unicorn, a Senior White buck, won Best of Breed and Best of White Variety earning his final leg to qualify him for his Grand Champion title. Best Opposite Sex of Breed went to Electric Cinder, a Black Junior doe who later went on to also win in the youth handlers class.  Best Opposite Sex for White Variety went to Electric

  The first ARBA show of this year held at the Rockton Fairgrounds just outside of Hamilton was a great success for our breed. We had a total of 4 exhibitors come out (including myself) which is possibly the biggest turn out for this breed in years. All 4 of us are new to showing and we all had a great time. I am looking forward to seeing everyone and their rabbits again next month and keeping fingers crossed we might see a couple of extra faces.  Between all of us, we had 11 English Angoras out on the judging tables: 3 Jr Whites, 1 Sr White, 5 Junior Colored, and 2 Senior Colored. I am happy to say that the Best of Breed winners for all 3 shows plus the Breed Specialty were all Electric rabbits!  Show A (11 competing) Judge Don Havlicek (MI) Best of Breed: Electric Wanda (Jr White doe) Best Opposite: Elora's Elway (Sr Colored buck, sire of Electric Xerox) Show B  (11 competing) Judge Mark Stewartson (ON) Best of Breed:  Electric Unicorn (Jr White buck) Best Opposite: Electric Xero

This list will be updated as info becomes available. Rabbit shows in Ontario are held under one of two organizations. The American Rabbit Breeders Association (ARBA) which is an international organization that has shows across the world, and the  Dominion Rabbit and Cavy Breeders Association (DRCBA) which is a Canadian organization that puts on shows in Ontario.  For a listing of upcoming ARBA shows in Ontario you can use this search page (shows will only show up once they have been officially sanctioned):   https://arba.net/show-search/  The parent club for all ARBA shows in Ontario is the  Ontario Council of Rabbit Clubs (OCORC):  https://ocorc.weebly.com The individual shows are organized by smaller local clubs or by independent show organizers. There are currently 4 of these local clubs: KWRB - Kitchener Waterloo Rabbit Breeders Club FCRBC - Forest City Rabbit Breeders Club (London area) SORBA - Southern Ontario Rabbit Breeders Club  EORFC - Eastern Ontario Rabbit Fanciers club  Fo