Rabbit show draws folks from across Midwest
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BY JOANIE CRADICK / For the Lincoln Journal Star
SEWARD — Salem Boehm, 13, named her blue-eyed Netherland Dwarf rabbit Mariposa after a new Barbie fairy movie of the same name.
“She reminded me of a fairy,” Salem said of the white rabbit she carried around at the Nebraska Tower on the Plains rabbit show, held the day before Easter at the Seward Agricultural Pavilion.
Salem and her family brought 28 rabbits, including French Angoras, Lionheads and Mini Rexes, to the show, she said.
DiAnn Boehm, Salem’s mom, said later that the family sold six rabbits at the show — four Lionheads, one Jersey Wooly, and one French Angora, plus 3½ ounces of angora wool.
The one-day event drew nearly 1,500 entries and included breeders from Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, South Dakota, Iowa, Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri, said Scott Nissen, show superintendent. Contestants were divided into two official shows to facilitate the awards and points, Nissen said.
“This year is our 24th anniversary show,” Nissen said. The 25th anniversary show will be April 11, 2009, also at the Ag Pavilion in Seward.
But first, there is another show this year in May though it will be at the 4-H building in Seward, Nissen said.
Nissen, his wife, Jodi, and their children are from Hampton and have been members of the organization for 15 years. They became involved because their kids were in 4-H and they were “trying to find something simple for them to raise,” Nissen said.
Though the couple’s oldest son, Jacob, is now married and living in Lincoln, the Nissens have three other children who are still involved in raising rabbits.
According to one Internet site, the tradition of showing rabbits in competition dates back at least 100 years, when the “Belgian hare reigned supreme.”
Today, there are 46 recognized breeds in the United States with multiple variations in color, body type, size and fur length.
An English Angora, for instance, has fur that’s a minimum of 3½ inches long with “excessive ear tufts,” while a Jersey Wooly’s fur measures a minimum of 1½ inches in length on the body and cheeks only.
An English Lop has extremely long ears and a Giant Chinchilla weighs at least 16 pounds.
A Netherland Dwarf has a compact body type while an English Lop displays a swaybacked appearance in its normal sitting position.
The cost of rabbits varies greatly, said Nissen. “It will vary from several hundred dollars to $20 to $30.”
DiAnn Boehm, who said she knew of a Lionhead which sold at an auction for $750, said the Lionhead rabbits are “really stuck up.” Their posture just says, “‘Yup, adore me,’” she said.
“These guys have so much attitude. They know they are fabulous and they just pose.”
Boehm said all the rest of the dwarf breeds, including the Netherland and Mini Rex, also are very regal.
Boehm, who was mesmerized by a wool spinning demonstration while attending the University of Nebraska at Omaha, first invested in rabbits in June 2000. From there, she starting showing her rabbits in 2004 and joined the Tower on the Plains organization in 2005.
She said she developed the blue-eyed French Angora and just had her first litter (third generation) of 100 percent purebreds.
Boehm also is a Nebraska dealer for Babe’s Fiber Starter, a contemporary spinning wheel made by Wisconsinite Nels Wiberg. It’s an inexpensive unit weighing about seven pounds and made with furniture-grade PVC and a wheelchair wheel, she said.
Boehm said she loves to teach people to spin and teaches beginning classes in the fiber arts.
At the Seward rabbit show, folks milled about asking prices, inquiring about breeds and sharing information as breeders groomed their stock. Ianthe Shadegg of Amhurst groomed her English Angora outside the pavilion so the tufts of hair wouldn’t fly all over.
Six-year-old Brock Tegtman of Beaver City sat at a table, petting his two-month-old buck, a Holland Lop, as he waited for his mom to bring him lunch.
Blaise Brinson, a seventh-grader at Waverly Middle School whose Jersey Wooly won Best Opposite, sold tickets to raffle ticket buyers.
Briana Gaston, a Norris High School sophomore, picked up a French Lop belonging to the Sterling Wist family. It resembled one she bought from the Wists at last year’s show.
With an armful of fluff, Briana shrugged off the French Lop’s size: “They just eat more and you have to clean the cages more often,” she said.
Melissa Wist, from Hiawatha, Kan., said where they live they are “kind of in rabbit nowhere land.
“We have to drive two or three hours to go to a show.” It’s about the same driving time to go to Seward, Abilene or Wichita, she said.
Reach Joanie Cradick at dc34702@alltel.net.
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