Occasionally Butterflies
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Over the years the name RUSKIN has become synonymous with top quality REW Miniature Lops. Right from the first white import - Ch Ruskin's Thor, who was a ground breaking rabbit, being the first Miniature Lop to take a Best In Show win at any show in the UK, to the first BRC Supreme Champion Ruskin’s Gucci, right through to the present day Champions Ruskin’s Middleton (Best of Breed Stafford 2007) and Ruskin’s Wilson (Best Lop Scottish Champ 2007), Wilson being a Gucci grandson.
Gucci went last year to live with Chris Humphrey’s (Lynbrook) to help with the creation of her stud of Miniature Lops, and moving on to Chris’ in the very near future will be Middleton, a buck of tremendous type and character with a wonderful ‘Ruskin’ head and crown. He has sired some lovely babies here, bucks and does and we now have grandchildren of his also, so its time for him to be made use of elsewhere. We don’t just breed winners here, but we sell them too and I hope Chris will be very happy to have this wonderful animal in her stable. Right, is a picture of Middleton I took just yesterday (20/06/08) age 16 months.
Wilson is out of a Gucci son called Wilouby, which I exported to Holland last year before Wilson was born. In fact the day before he left the UK he mated a doe, only once but this was to be the only mating she needed as she produced five babies a month later. Three Does and two Bucks of which I kept only one, allowing the rest to go to other breeders to help in their stud advancement. Wilson has only been shown a handful of times. First time out he won Best of Breed and then the Lop Group, finishing runner up Best In Show on the day at Scotland’s biggest 4* Championship show of 2007. The following month he went out and won his second CC from the adult classes and then I never showed him again until May 2008 when I took him down to the Southern Championship Show near Bognor where he won his third CC with Best of Breed and ended up runner up in the Lop Group. The Following week winning his fourth CC with Best of Breed and the Lop Group and Runner up Best In Show at Coventry and then the last time he was out was at the Northern Lop Club spring stock show at the end of May where he gained his 5th CC and his title of Champion, along with Best of Breed and Runner up Best in Show again. Not a bad start for him at his first five shows!
We have always had the odd coloured Miniature Lop here. Sooty Fawns and Agouti’s usually but recently I have decided to take on a couple of colour projects in the shape of Sallanders (Iron Greys - UK) and Black and Tans, not just in black but in all 4 colours accepted for the Tan colour, Black, Blue, Chocolate and Lilac. In the quest to develop this colour I have also started producing another colour, which as yet is not seen in the UK, and that is the Red! And although the non extension gene is not something I really want to get into the Tan line, the rufus is, and therefore with careful selection and gene mapping, I will be able to make use of both these colours and hopefully develop them along side each other.
