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It all started back in 1981 when I decided to show my pet rabbit, Supa Ted - a cross bred Chinchilla (pictured) at the local agricultural show. We won 2nd prize and I was hooked. Little did I know that that first show would be the start of something that has expanded over 25 years and for a long time was my only passion in life. I was introduced to Susan Carlile and bought from her a pet English doe, which I called 'Spotty' - what else?
She gave birth to the first litter of rabbits I ever had. There were two Agouti's in the litter. Three Agouti English marked and a Black Otter which I kept and called Diamond. Netherland Dwarfs were soon added to the stud from Susan and a lady called Margaret Jones. She was packing up and I acquired most of her stock when she finished.
It was at this point that my mother became more than just a chauffeur for me so I could get to the shows. She decided that she would like to have a couple of rabbits for her self to show. And so came more Netherland Dwarfs. At the time she really fancied two colours, Seal Point’s and Orange’s. Neither of these colours were very common, but she managed to acquire her first Seal Points from Mr & Mrs Ian Mumford and her first trio of Orange Netherland Dwarfs came from Sandra Mason from Newcastle.
In 1983 I saw a breed at Bacup show which I had never seen before. It was a Dwarf Lop. I was in love! This was absolutely the breed for me. Unfortunately they were a relatively new breed and very thin on the ground. Early in the following year Susan Carlile managed to acquire a pair of Dwarf Lops. The buck came from Margaret Dillon and the doe came from Harry Whittaker and she started to breed them with great success. It was a good few months later that I managed to find some.
These were two does (a white and an iron grey) from a man called John Mills from Ulverston in south Cumbria, and about a month later my first buck arrived from Don Riley & Stephen Smith (SGD Stud). It wasn’t long before both Susan started breeding long coated Dwarf Lops and I just had to have one of these too. The Cashmere Lop, as it went on to be standardised as, played a huge part in my stud for many years, and in fact was the breed of lop rabbit I won Best Lop at Bradford Championship Show 2005, in partnership at that time with Kalian Stud. All of the lop breeds have been resident here at one time or another, except the Meissner, and today there are Miniature Lops, the odd one or two Lion Lops and the very rare Blue Eyed White French Lop (the UK’s only stud of this colour)
Main Banner Picture - Benji - Dutch Imp
The picture on the left is of me judging Cashmere Lops at the Bradford Champ Show in 1999
