2009 4H Fair

Many of you probably already saw this on facebook, but I wanted to post it here mainly for my pleasure. :-) Yesterday was judging day for Masons rabbits. We were told it would start at 10am and so we figured we would get there about 9 so that Mason could get Dixie and Joe ready. What we weren't told, and failed to realize, was that he wouldn't be showing he breeds until later that day. We stood around waiting and waiting and waiting only to hear the judges are going to take a lunch break and then we'll resume back. We ended up not showing until way after lunch time! Don't get me wrong it was good for him to see what had to be done, ask tons of question (okay I was the one asking questions but still) and get prepared, or nervous. Haha. I never knew how much went into the judging. There are so many classes in each different breed that depending on how many are being shown in that breed it can take over an hour! Crazy I know! Then we had entered Dixie in the fur contest which meant she had to go back on the table after ALL the regular judging was done...boy was that chaotic! Then we were told because Joe took Best of Breed he had to back up for Best of 4 Class, what we failed to realize becasue the comment sheet was all messed up was that Dixie needed to be up there too. So you had tons of kids standing around holding several rabbits for about 20 minutes. It was quite entertaining! :-) I stood behind all of them holding Dixie for the judge so I was in the middle of all of it. It came down to Dixie and 2 others, but because we didn't realize that Dixie won Best of Breed and needed to be up there we didn't groom her. The judge told us, and everyone else for that matter, that it was such a hard one to judge and it came down to the nitty gritty, she was talking about Dixie. :-) It was so close that she had to find some flaw between them and because we didn't know Dixie was supposed to be up there we didn't groom her, so she got elimanted for her bottom being matted and wet. We were told though that there was nothing technicaly wrong with her and Mason had a great Holland Lop! So that made it all better. :-) Mason handled it extremely well when he didn't place for the fur class and the Best of 4 Class...I was completely shocked and underestimated him.
Not bad for his first year of 4H!!

I am so proud of you Mason!! You did a great job all day and all your hard work paid off!! WAY TO GO!!!