I would like to revisit a few of my past posts here. Due to the daily posts, I believe some of these articles went “off screen” faster than Superman and most people might have missed it.
In the US, rabbit shows are organized almost on a weekly basis at different locations. They have so many ARBA judges to go around and every show is a success. There are definitely no rooms for QUACK judges and no precious time wasted on fancy shows.
Some places in the other parts of the world is about to start having rabbit shows. Most of the organizers of these shows “imported” ARBA judges or at least people who are credible. In my opinion, if you want to organize a show, might as well organize it to the “fullest”. What is the point of spending so much organizing one with nothing significant just to satisfy the little desire of having the credit for organizing a show?
We suppose to be talking about ARBA sanctioned shows with licensed ARBA judges! Not some quack judge that pretends to know a whole loads and get shot up to fame just because he/she is a foreigner. My fellow Earthians (people of middle earth), I urge you not to be intimidated by Martians. We are all the same living being breathing the same oxygen within the same Atmosphere! Don’t be mislead by quacks!
I just want to walk you down great old memory lane through my old post on the Art Of Intimidation. I know most of you shivers in fear even before the big wave hits you, but take heart my dear friends. I hope this post give you a little courage.
Coming back to the title of this post, I would like to share my knowledge on what really matters. What do you think that a breeder is really chasing after in a show? Yes, the trophies are attractive. But behind the trophies, breeders are really chasing for LEGS! Not their own legs but ARBA GC legs. If you have not seen one, here’s the post Have You Seen An ARBA Leg Before?
Yes, this piece of paper is so valuable that when you get 3 of them, you get to GRAND your rabbit. That means, your rabbit is a GRAND CHAMP in ARBA’s record! Here’s another post on Showing Holland Lops.
So now that I have got the rabbits and their owners covered, what about the judge? No one will go to jail for judging under bad credentials but the big word is CONSCIENCE. In this world filled with competition, the feeling of losing gets the best of people or should I say, shows the best of them. Some breeders have been caught cheating too. It is no different from sporting events where sportpersons resort to drugs to push them further. That is how people lose their heads due to competitions. Judges are human too and the only thing to control their actions is their conscience and reputation. I have also written a post regarding as to how impartial a judge should be in Judges In Rabbit Shows.
Tru-Luv Rabbitry remains a small rabbitry dedicated to the breeding of show quality rabbits. For me, being an ARBA and HLRSC member I would not like to stray away from the main reason for showing and I would like to uphold the spirit of showing for ARBA legs for which removed, defeats the purpose of showing. For an ARBA leg to be issued, a show must be sanctioned by ARBA and must be judged by their licensed judge(s) for which removed, defeats the purpose and is equivalent of placing TOM, DICK & HARRY as the judge. In short, YOU and I are judges! There is no need to fly a person miles across the globe to be a FACADE. Any fellow Earthians can be a judge.
FACADES in my opinion are normally used in misleading people. Whatever reasons behind only the card holder knows. But in many cases, facades are used to market JUNKS! I rather be known as the show breeder that does not show than to waste my precious time, putting my rabbits through unnecessary stress and to be used as a tool for others to attain fame and fortune.
Whether we are going unto the show table soon remains a big “?”.
This was exactly my point when I posted a message to the 1st National Rabbit Show 2009 on Facebook, being held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. With all the work that goes on to put a show together, you would think that the organizers would be willing to put forth a little more effort and get a sanction by the American Rabbit Breeders Association (ARBA) and get a licensed judge to judge it!! Having someone judge the show that is NOT a licensed judge, nor a licensed registrar (which you have to be 3 years in order to take the judges test) is ludicrious!! Anybody can look at a rabbit and say “ah, how cute” but it takes a licensed judge to know what the Standard of Perfection (SOP) allows for each of the breeds. Yes I own a SOP, and I can read it, but it takes lots and lots of practice putting your hands on all the different breeds of rabbits to know if it is a show quality rabbit. I see they are spending lots of time and money putting on this show, lots of prizes, etc. You would think they would take that next step, which I believe is the most important one considering they are handing out all these prizes and money, to get a licensed judge, so that the money is not wasted on people whose rabbits don’t really earn the prize. It’s too bad that the organizers of this show deemed it necessary to delete my post. It’s a shame they can’t see the truth of this…
Two thumbs up for this post and Teri’s reply! I completely agree. I recently showed at my fair which goes by rules of the ARBA but did not have an ARBA judge. I was so shocked! The judging, however wasn’t BAD, it wasn’t great either. I was happy to see the Best In Show winner(a mini lop) was actually a gorgeous rabbit! HOWEVER the Reserve BIS rabbit was a fail, and my Woolers were judged basically on how much wool they had. But it was alright!
This is a very good post. I hope whoever the judge may be, official or not is still respected by all. I just do not like the fact that it is announced as the first national rabbit show in Malaysia? WHAT?! lol, unless there is a MRBA I’m not buying it!
It’s too bad the first event isn’t an official. Would have been too nice, right? Would have been a good outlook on the present breeders, not only for the future. But what can you do! I just pray for a better day when Malaysia gets the opporitunity of an Official ARBA show.
Susie