Toronto English Angoras

The rabbit show takes place in the Ring of Excellence Once a year, the country comes to the city. That's the tagline that I remember for the Toronto Royal Agricultural Winter Fair as it was advertised when I was a kid. RAWF is a large indoor fair with tons of crowds attending, international horse competitions, all sorts of agricultural displays, vendors, farm animals, as well as food and animal competitions.  Scope of this event, all held indoors at the gorgeous historical CNE Coliseum building, built in 1921 The Royal rabbit competition runs under the Dominion Rabbit and Cavy club rules, a Canadian rabbit breeders association older than ARBA. While the rabbit show itself might not be the biggest one in Ontario based on the number of entries, it is quite the event to experience given the grand venue and never ending crowds of onlookers.  Helen being a wonderful demo bunny Helen and her wool after the shave This time I only brought 3 angoras. Two entered in the show and one to shave

One of the perks of showing at Komoka, professional photo for all competitors. This year's theme was year of the rabbit.  Komoka is the unofficial season ender show for ARBA competitions in Ontario. It is always a big and well ran show. This year as always, there were 3 open shows plus multiple breed specialties. There were 6 judges booked for this event: Danielle and Justin Lowe from IN, Chuck Pelham and  Penny Jackson from MI,  Tom Schweikart from PA, and Jodi Hartman from NY. I was very excited at the opportunity to be able to show under some new to me judges. When the show entries closed, 600 rabbits were entered and the organizers scrambled to find 2 more judges at the last minute to help the show run in a timely manner. Ontario's John Richter and Mark Stewartson graciously stepped up.  The showroom towards the end of the day after some people had already left This show ended up being utterly insane for me, mostly due to the number of animals and different breeds I brought

Wrapping up the best in show judging in the dark Despite of being only a couple weeks before convention, this turned out to be a big show. Over 400 rabbits competed, four judges judged, and we were there till dark.  The English Angoras had a very nice showing. We had a few people interested in the breed and showing who came out to watch and help out. We had a ton of fun. Despite of it being a busy day, all of the judges were very generous with their explanations for what they were seeing and answered our questions. I'm so happy to see that we are growing a nice little community of friendly and kind hearted exhibitors in this breed.  Show A English all lined up For English Angoras, I brought two colored senior girls, Electric Zero Hour (Black) and her sister Electric Zanzibar (Lilac). Both sisters haven't shown since the Rockton show where they were just little babies. Good ol' Mr. Bermah Maurice joined us (in his 4th coat at this point) to help fill classes. We had a total

The Rockton show put on every year by the Southern Ontario Rabbit Breeders Association club is the Ontario ARBA season opener. Just as it was last year, it is a great show to attend and quite busy with 3 main open shows, multiple specialty shows, and a fun youth show for the kids.  We started the day off with a wonderful surprise! A beautiful personalized award lovingly made and presented by Beth Collins for winning the Ontario points sweepstakes for English Angoras for 2022! Judging the shows were Maddie Pratt from MI for Show A, Tom Schweikart from PA for Show B, John Richter from ON for Show C, and Mark Stewartson from ON for the Angora Specialty.  We had a total of 17 English Angoras shown by 4 exhibitors: myself, Laura Hamilton, Mary Grillo, and Julie Martin.  In the White class, we had quite the exciting battle of the BerMah kids (Josee Maher's rabbitry). I brought my Sr buck from Josee, BerMah Maurice, while Mary brought her Sr buck from Josee, BerMah Misty. I brought two Jr