That 4H Life

  This year, rabbits were my only animal exhibited at fair. So, of course, I participated in the rabbit show. As I was doing showmanship, a Mini Rex, and two market rabbits, my show times were first thing and right at the end. Definitely not the most pleasant timing, especially with an 8 hour rabbit show. That's right – 8 hours long . I started off the day scared to death about showmanship. I'm an intermediate, and was competing against kids with way more experience than I had. My sister, a junior, competed before me, and to our surprise, won third place. Considering she was against mainly experienced kids, that was great! So, I sucked up my worry and headed out to the arena. It felt like forever before I showed my bunny, but after I did I was a mess. I had forgotten a few key aspects, but tried to keep my cool. And then my rabbit peed on me. Yep. He peed on me, all dressed in my whites. Finally, because of the heat, the judges let us bring the bunnies back to their cages. I...

  Hey guys! I know it's late (at least for me lol) but here's a few tips on raising show rabbits that I picked up on this year. Keep in mind this was my first year ever raising a rabbit so I'm no pro. Hope someone finds this helpful :) - Practice showing them as much as possible. I did my best to do this with my sister, and I placed 4th (out of I believe 10) in Intermediate Showmanship and her 3rd in Junior Showmanship (out of 8). It was our first year too! - Try feeding them around the same time everyday as well as around the same time as you will during fair — fair can be super stressful for them, and you should try to keep as much as possible similar between your home and fair routine. - Interact with them as much as possible! This mainly applies to showmanship rabbits, but also to show/breeding rabbits in general. Even if you don't have time to practice showing everyday, daily interaction builds up trust and makes working with your rabbit a lot easier. Trust ...

  Hey guys! Here's a few tips for fair I guess. This year was my first fair showing my own animals (last year I was a part of a co-op that brought goats, but it was very different), and I found most of these to be super helpful! - Prepare everything  in advance. We were scrambling to make sure we had everything we needed, and it definitely made the experience more stressful. - Bring an extra set of your whites  (white outfit that you wear during the shows) — I had an incident (my rabbit peed on me) during an 8 hour rabbit show in the blazing sun, and I didn't have extra whites, which definitely made it less enjoyable - If it's exceptionally hot, like our fair was, be sure to cool down your animals ! For rabbits, you can freeze water bottles and put them in their cage (don't use ice packs because they can contain things inside that are dangerous). There were some issues with other people's animals (especially rabbits). - Wear comfortable clothes in the morning...

  Hey guys! I'm a 4Her in northern California, and I wanted to make a blog where I share my experiences with everything 4H related, like camp, fair, raising animals, projects, and more. This year I raised two market rabbits and a show rabbit (a Mini Rex), and next year I plan on also raising a hog.   Next year in 4H, I'll be newsletter editor and co-photographer for my club, as well as participating in certain projects. I'm super excited to share my experience with you guys. I plan to post updates on my animals, tips and tricks for certain 4H aspects, and some overviews of things I do as a part of 4H.