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PULA, Croatia -where the annual convention of the EE:
European Association for Pigeons, Poultry, Cage Bird, Rabbits and Cavies was held.
Two new countries affiliated to the cavy section: Russia and France.
For more information about the EE - European Association for Pigeons, Poultry, Cage Birds, Rabbits and Cavies -see 'EE page'
BREED SPECIFIC EUROPEAN SHOW FOR SMOOTH COATED CAVIES
held in TWELLO, NETHERLANDS ON 7. / 8. JUNE 2008
Some of the European Champions
NORWAY
Undrumsdal Church
Mr. & Mrs. Cinderhill
The brand new home of Opera & Ballet in Oslo
The Royal Palace in Oslo
My most recent trip abroad was to go and judge a cavy show in Norway on 23. August. I was joined by David and Joyce Marshall of "Cinderhill" fame.
The show was held at Undrumsdal, which is about 130km south west of Oslo on the Oslofjord. Around 70 cavies had been entered in a great variety of breeds and colours. The show was a double show, in other words: both David and I judged all exhibits, thus making it two shows on one day. This is a really good idea in those countries where distances are vast and numbers of shows few. Having two shows in one day helps the making up of champions as well as the coffers of the club.
In each show two Best in Shows were awarded: 1 to the Best Junior (under 5 months old) and 1 to the Best Senior (5/8 months or older).
My next trip was to Madrid to judge the first ever show for CECOR on Saturday, 13. September 2008.
Cecor held its very first show on 13. September 2008 on the outskirts of Madrid. 120 exhibits had been entered from Spain as well as a few from Portugal. The organisation and administration of the show was first class and it was very noticeable that the committee has an eye for detail as there were so many extra special touches.
All longhairs were judged by me and David Marshall judged all others. At the end of the day I judged the BIS line-up of the Junior section and David judged BIS of the Senior section.
The results of the BIS-Juniors were as follows:
1. Luis Filipe (Portugal) - Coronet
2. Mireia Cabre (Spain) - Self Black
3. Rita Ribeiro (Portugal) - DE Golden Roan
4. Miguel Castelo (Portugal) - US-Teddy
From left to right: Luis Filipe, Mireia Cabre, Rita Ribeiro and Monica standing in for Miguel Castelo
2. - 'Trelawney Black Rose'
3. - 'Golden Nugget do Cla dos Ursos'
1. - 'Regalia Tea Rose'
4. - 'Rebac's Rumba'
The following day, Sunday -14. September - there was another show and the roles of the judges were reversed: David judging all the longhairs and I did the rest. On this occasion David judged BIS in the Junior section at the end of the day and I did BIS in the Senior section.
The results of the BIS Seniors on 14/09/08 were as follows:
1. Monica Cabre (Spain) - US Teddy
2. Mireia Cabre (Spain) - Solid Silver Crested
3. Mireia Cabre (Spain) - Black Fox
4. Sergio de Diego (Spain) - Texel
1. - 'Amazing Simply Special'
2. - 'Diabolbric's Victoria's Secret'
3. - 'Duetten's Rambo'
4. - 'Blue Gold's Omy Omariom'
My thanks to CECOR and everybody else that made our visit unforgetable. The show was great and the quality of the exhibits was of a very high standard.
I am sure the cavy fancy in Spain will reach great heights in a very short time, as most people involved have already shown their skills in breeding and showing animals , notably dogs.
The spanish cavy fanciers will be a great asset to the ever growing European cavy scene.
CAPI 10th. Cavy Show, held in Ericeira, Portugal on 4. + 5. October 2008.
Ericeira is slowly becoming "home from home" for us. This was our third visit in 18 months and we are really beginning to know and love the place.
CAPI's shows are held just around the corner from the centre of the village in a clubhouse for racing pigeon enthusiasts. This venue is excellent for light and, more importantly in a hot country like Portugal, temperature.
Who's that second from left??
Obviously a Tan/Fox exhibitor!!
The show was held over two days: on the Saturday all Senior cavies (over 5 months old) were judged and on the Sunday, it was the turn of the Juniors (under 5 months old).
A huge proportion of the exhibits in CAPI's shows are longhaired -all 6 breeds of longhair were present at this show. The Junior Sheltie class was immense with about 13 exhibits.
It is no surprise therefore that my BIS line-up on both days reflected the longhaired breeds quite strongly.
The results of the BIS Seniors on 4. October 2008 were as follows:
1. Rui & Susanna Abreu (Portugal) - Coronet
2. Verena Fuchs (Portugal) - Black Fox
3. Miguel Castelo (Portugal) - Texel
4. Miguel Castelo (Portugal) - PE White
From left to right: Susana Abreu, Verena Fuchs and Miguel Castelo
'Shuh-Tzi Ermelinda'
'Whitney da Cavilandia'
'Regalia Ringing Bells'
'Ice Queen da Gaiola Encantada'
The results of the BIS Juniors on 5. October 2008 were
as follows:
1. Luis Filipe (Portugal) - Coronet
2. Miguel Castelo (Portugal) - US Teddy
3. Mireia Cabre (Spain) - DE Golden
4. Miguel Castelo (Portugal) - Texel
From left to right: Miguel Castelo, Monica Cabre, Luis Filipe
and Rita Ribeiro impersonating a street artist in the background!
'Malaxis Nutty Nigella'
'Regalia Tea Rose'
'Diabolbric's Edward Cullen'
'Regalia'
'Violão Herdade do Portinho'
The President of CAPI, Rui and "his first lady", Verena also showed two pets in an effort to attract new members and get them involved with the cavy fancy in Portugal through showing pets, initially.
Both pets were in excellent condition, very well presented and clean and it was obvious that they are handled very regularly.
As mentioned above, the show was organised as "two" separate shows -one for Seniors and one for Juniors. At the end of each day, there was therefore a presentation of awards to the main winners and the Best of Breed winners. Everybody stayed behind to celebrate the achievements of their fellow members.
Another thing that struck me particularly was, especially in the longhaired classes, that all participants in that class shook hands with the winner of the class and congratulated him/her on their first placing.
What a nice touch!
The presentation of awards.
Finally, I would like to thank all CAPI members for inviting me to judge.
It was great to be amongst good friends again!
Congratulations to all winners. Your pigs are superb and they can do battle on the cavy show bench with any other exhibits throughout Europe and come out very favourably.
Keep up the good work!
And to those that did not win much this time round:
SUPER PET SHOW, held in St. Petersburg, Russia 22. - 23. November 2008
Len-Expo
Well, we are back! And.. we had a wonderful weekend in St.Petersburg. As expected, it was quite cold and the snow never really stopped falling, making for true wintry conditions.
The show was held in the Len-Expo exhibition centre, which comprises at least 8 large halls, in conjunction with what appeared to be a pet trade fair. The fair was on for 5 days from the 19. - 24. November 2008
Apart from the trade fair, there were shows for dogs, cats, rabbits, cavies, ferrets, small rodents, chinchillas and displays for poultry, pigeons and waterfowl.
The public streamed in over the two days that I attended the show. It was obvious that all these "townies" enjoyed seeing this huge variety of animals, as I am sure that most of them -whilst living in a huge city (5 million inhabitants) are not able to keep some of these animals themselves.
The rabbits and cavies were on show and judged on the Saturday in our corner of Hall 4. Their place was taken by Chinchillas and small rodents on the Sunday.
The show was organised by the Russian "Federation of Decorative Pet Fanciers" and exhibitors had come from far and wide to attend with their cavies.
There were just over 100 cavies entered and about 65 rabbits.
My colleagues on the day were:
Lena Wilhelmsson (Sweden) - Cavies and Miroslav (Slovakia) - all rabbits.
Lena judged all the Longhairs and Skinnies
"what a contrast"! and her best 2 pigs were:
an Adult Peruvian and a Skinny (of which I
have no photo, unfortunately)
'Milos', as he is affectionatelty known, is a very versatile man:
not only did he judge the rabbit entry, he also showed his 4 Caucasian Shepherds (after having driven them up from Slovakia = 2.500km!) in the dog show and winning all classes he had entered.
Best Rabbit was a beautiful
blue Netherlands Dwarf Lop
My section contained Selfs, Agouties, Abyssinians, Marked Varieties, Rex, Teddies and Swiss Teddies.
My best 2 exhibits were a very good Swiss Teddy with an even coat length all over the body and a superb US Teddy.
There was no BIS at the end. In Russia, they do BOB's only for which the exhibitor gets a diploma.
The quality of the exhibits was very high; from the catalogue I could see that a lot of foundation stock has been imported from Sweden, Finland and Germany.
All exhibits were clean and fit and their owners are a very keen and enthusiastic bunch of people.
And, of course, we also came across some "rarities", such as an American Crested Black Tan and the President of the Federation, Mihail Anoshin, had great pride in being able to show a quartet of Crested Black Dalmations; he had even provided a special "trough" for their transport to the judges' table.
At the end of the show, there was an awards presentation, attended by all exhibitors (why can't we do this properly in the UK?)
There were masses of rosettes and trophies up for grabs, as well as all sorts of sponsored goods, like packs of hay, cavy mixture etc. etc.
On the Sunday morning, Lena and I held a seminar for fanciers and prospective judges.
As the majority of the entries were Longhairs, Lena conveyed her expertise and experience about these breeds. After that I clarified the new European standards and the system of judging on points.
We had a very keen "audience" and lots of notes were taken and questions asked -some of which were hilarious, e.g. "why do cavy judges wear white coats for judging" when dog and cat judges do the job in their ordinary clothes"??
All exhibitors bring their own pens, giving the show a very varied look. The pens are put on long tables that have been placed in a large square. The pens of each exhibitor are placed together, so not in numerical order and the owner can be found sitting behind them.
Last but not least, some impressions of the rest of the show
