The World Famous Ruskin Miniature Lops

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 Points and Oranges. 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 wasnt 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 UKs only stud of this colour).

The first Imports of Miniature Lops from Holland arrived in the UK in 1989, and out of quarantine in1990. These were very disappointing not only from a quality point of view but from a condition point of view. I needed to reassess my options for quarantine for sure and make sure whatever was brought in again would be looked after for the six months of their stay in government approved premises. The following year I brought some more in in mainly Agouti and Sooty with a couple of Butterflies as well. These were of much better type and overall quality than my first ones and at last I felt I had something on which to base my line. After the setbacks encountered with sending someone to Holland to pick stock for me, I decided it was about time I went myself and selected my own rabbits, so that I would not be disappointed again with animals brought in for me. I went to Holland on a couple of occasions after this and found just what I was looking for.

On later trips to Holland in 1993 I introduced Red Eyed Whites to the stud and it was with these that great success arrived at Ruskin. I obtained a buck on one of my trips, from Wijnand van Leeuwen and a couple of does followed shortly after. Pure de Cock lines were also located and the opportunity arose to purchase a number of rabbits from this stable. The introduction of these breeding lines gave me the 'blue blood' I had been searching for, and the foundation to work with to produce what I felt was to become a great line of Miniature Lops. Ch.Thor (3BS 140) as he was to be known was a fantastic specimen with huge skull and a small compact body. His coat was of the best. He had a presence about him that just shouted 'I AM'. He was to become the first Miniature Lop to win BEST IN SHOW at a UK show. This was at the Yorkshire & Humberside Lop Club's Summer Stock Show held at Rotherham Championship Show on 11th September, 1994.
He did this on another nine occasions. Six of his BIS wins were at breed club stock shows and the other four were at all breed shows where he had previously taken Best Fancy and then went on to win the Grand Challenge. He was also a fantastic producer. His son, Ch.Ruskins The Real Macoy was yet another BIS winner for me and his litter brother Trooper went to live with Paul Harper (Velvetvale) in Staffordshire. He was to become the first Miniature Lop to win Best Fancy at a 4 STAR Championship Show. Thor's progeny have gone on to help in the foundation of other prolific studs through the mid 90's, including that of Susan Carlile who I'm sure you will all remember for going BIS at the London Championship Show 1999 with her Agouti buck Ch.Solo's Morris Minor. The only Miniature Lop to have achieved such an accolade.

One of the Sooty Fawn bucks that I had imported at the same time as Thor was a tiny little fellow called Twoten (Ch.Ruskins Twoten), so called as he only weighed 2lb10oz. He wasn't shown when he first came over to this country as he was already 3 years old at this time. He had a wonderful head and ears and a body reminiscent of Netherland Dwarfs from years ago. He was originally supposed to be used as my stud buck, but it became evident one day that he too could go out and win. He moulted out his winter coat and replaced it with a fantastic jacket.

He was shown very sparingly as he didn't like traveling very much but he managed to amass enough CC's to gain his crown and on three occasions attained BIS. Once at Breed club level and then twice at all breed shows. My next challenge was to see if he could produce like my whites had done for me. I mated him to an Agouti (also an import) and the resulting litter was breath-taking. One Sooty Fawn, one black and two Agouti's. I retained the whole litter until it was about six months old. They developed at the same rate and just got better with each passing day. I decided to keep the Sooty and one of the Agouti's, the other Agouti stayed in the UK and the Black was exported to Sweden where he did exceptionally well for his new owners.

The rest, as they say, is history and here we are, nineteen years after my first imports arrived and I am still enjoying the Miniature Lop more than ever before. They are fantastic little characters, great show rabbits and now, with my lines well and truly fixed, great producers too.