Toronto English Angoras

The Tip of the Iceberg  Written by Al Roland, 1996 Part I: Ready Made Through out my years of showing rabbits, I have found three main types of competitors.  The first type is the buyer, they are the individuals who go to shows with stock they have purchased and take credit just like anyone else if they win.  If they lose they will often try to buy the rabbit that won, this is, after they have ridiculed and run the judge down for doing a poor job.  They will boast that this rabbit owned by them was “Best of Breed” three weeks ago and that the judge does not know a good rabbit when he/she sees one. Many people will buy a grand champion and a month later it will not resemble the same rabbit. I don’t mean to ridicule the person who goes out and buys a good rabbit and later shows it and perhaps makes it a grand champion, you note I said makes, for the person does have a great deal to do with making it a grand champion. Let's discuss how they made it a grand champion.  In the first plac

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

This is a list of rabbitry prefixes or rabbitry names you may have come across in your pedigree or have heard mentioned including the names of the breeders behind them. Some of these breeders are still actively breeding, some have retired from breeding or have passed away. Here is who they are. While some specialize in only one breed of angoras, some breed or have bred multiple angora breeds. A Angora Gardens Christine Auclair , QC B Bermah Josee Maher , QC C Chu Betty Chu, CA Constellation Julie Gordie, FL Cuddle Bunnies Melissa Hunter Cracovia Beatrice Putowski, NY D xx E Electric  (that's us!) Marta Wajngarten , ON F Flowers Kimberly Flowers, FL Fuzzybutts Robin Olson, NC Fuzzibutts Melissa Deitrich, DE Farfelu Shannon Carter, ON G Golden Coast Cora Gabriel, BC Greenleaves Ana Ederich, OH Glamz Gaby Gilbeau,  H Happy Hops Holly Faubert, AB Hunneshagen Brenda Hunneshagen, NY Heart Felt Hare Debbie Mccormick, VA Hunnibunnies Natalia Vera, OH I xx J xx K xx L Lonesome Pines Penny S

(This article is under construction. Published in it's early state to provide a quick reference guide.) While there are a number of different angora rabbit breeds around the world, here in North America we have 5 distinct breeds of angora rabbits: German Angora, English Angora, French Angora, Giant Angora, and Satin Angora. Note that while there are other breeds which do produce a fuzzy or wool coat, those breeds are not classified as part of the angora family of breeds. Only breeds created and maintained specifically for fiber production are. While traditionally every ARBA recognized breed has it's own parent breed club, all of the ARBA recognized angora breeds are governed by a single parent club, the National Angora Rabbit Breeders Association or NARBA for short.   GERMAN ANGORA Photo credit:  Bangor Daily News photo by Ardena Hamlin, previously published in the Weekly, shared from the IAGARB blog Mature size: 5.5 - 12lbs Distinguishing features:  elongated body type, face

I have been grooming and pampering Uncle Buck all summer long with the hopes that he would be able to compete one more time at the Spencerville show before I would take off his glorious show coat. This boy has been such a joy to maintain. He has one of the easiest coats I have ever taken care, it's just magical. He barely ever gets any tangles and when he does they are very easy to blow open with just the blower. A quick blow out about once a week is all he needs to remain in good condition despite of having such a wonderfully dense coat.  Well as luck would have it, despite the efforts, as soon as the weather started to cool, Uncle buck started to blow his coat. It started with a trickle of wool coming off still giving me hope that with very delicate grooming there would be something left to show. But less than 2wks before the show it became clear that he has lost too much, probably a 3rd of his coat was already gone. It would have been pointless to enter him, and the heavily moul

  Big fair shows are so much fun! Lots of people to talk to, lots of action on the rabbit show tables to watch, and if you want to step away, there's tons of fair action happening only steps away. Horse shows, sheep show, chickens, ducks, cattle, alpacas, and let's not forget fair food.  Our English Angoras stayed at home this time and our Satin Angoras came out to shine (haaa haa). Yes, those are broken English you see being judged in the picture above. Unlike ARBA, the Dominion club recognizes them as a showable variety.  We had a total of 9 Satin Angoras shown by 3 exhibitors. Under judge John Richter, our Chinchilla girl Electric Bonanza took Best of Breed while our Chocolate Agouti girl Electric Arakis took Reserve of Breed. Bonanza's brother, Electric Biscuit took the best buck category in both shows but the girls had him beat for the top honours. In Dominion shows, the 1st and 2nd breed placements are awarded based on merit only regardless of gender. In our 2nd show

This is something I made a couple years ago and still get people asking me for details on how it was made. If you would like to make one of these for yourself, here is how I did this. I made this duvet as a gift for my parents and they have been using it all year round and loving it. This is a wonderful way to use up any short clippings from your angora or to make something from your angora wool if you do not know how to spin it into yarn.  I started out by making a few tiny test sized pillows stuffed with various amounts of fiber of different lengths. I put those through a few washer and dryer cycles to see how they would fair. The ones with longer fiber did end up felting and creating various clumps which would have made the end product unusable. However the ones that were filled with finely shredded wool did just fine. So the key to making this project last long term is to use wool which ideally is around half an inch in length, up to an inch. At this length the wool turns into a so

  Lots of fair food right next to us What a day! Another fun fair show with beautiful sunny weather. We brought back our main team of whites: BerMah Maurice, Electric Iroc, Electric Uncle Buck, and his sister Electric Unity. We also brought a couple of up and coming babies. Mary was back with her team of whites: BerMah MyMy, Fancy Pricilla, BerMah Misty, and Fancy Elvis.  In our first show under judge John Richter, Electric Unity finally beat her aunt BerMah MyMy and won Best of Variety as well as Best of Breed. Her brother  Electric Uncle Buck beat all the other boys and took Opposite Sex of Variety and Breed. When you're vertically challenged and need to get your hands in the clouds In our second show under judge Mark Stewartson, Electric Unity once again beat her aunt but this time took 2nd place to her brother who was awarded Best of Variety and Breed! However the best news came at the end of the day. Electric Uncle Buck took home the Best In Show award! Our first ever Best In