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My first "cavy-related" trip took me to Nitra, at the foot of the Tatra mountain range, in Slovakia on 13. & 14. February.
I went there for the Executive meeting of the 'EE' - European Association for Poultry, Pigeons, Cage Birds, Rabbits and Cavies.
In 9 months time, the 26. European Show for Poultry, Pigeons, Cage Birds, Rabbits and Cavies will be held in Nitra from 20. - 22. November.
An excellent opportunity, therefore, for the whole Executive to go and have a look at the exhibition centre, where the show will be held.
Large halls -as far as the eye could see.
on the outside
and...
on the
inside
Some members of the EE-Executive
and the Slovak National Association
before their tour of the halls.
The EE and Slovak authorities are looking forward to an entry of between 20.000 and 25.000 exhibits over the 5 sections.
CECOR'S 3. AND 4. SHOW
IN VALLADOLID ON 21. AND 22. FEBRUARY
CECOR's 3. and 4. shows were part of Fimascota, a big show that incorporated an international Dog and Cat show, as well as a national poultry and pigeon show. The venue was the "Feria de Valladolid" -an impressive exhibition centre just outside the centre of Valladolid.
The Dog show took up two whole halls and the Cat show a third. The Cavies were accommodated in a fourth hall and shared with the poultry and pigeons.
The halls were very spacious and large parts of the roof were glass, allowing a lot of daylight into the halls, which made judging Selfs a particular pleasure.
The show was penned single tier and its appearance was very tidy and organised.
Normally, CECOR employs two judges and one judge will judge the Adult section one day and then the Junior section the next day and vice versa -making the weekend into a two show event for the club.
This time, there were three judges, making the split so much more interesting for all concerned. Each judge had a cross section of breeds and ages to judge on the Saturday and then another cross section on the Sunday.
MY CO-JUDGES:
JENS LINDGREN DARREN FIELDHOUSE
Sweden England
SATURDAY, 21. FEBRUARY
At the 3. CECOR show, I judged Best in Show in the Junior section and my first 4 placed cavies were as follows:
2. Francisco Escobar - Texel
'Querubin de la Villa Verde'
1. Sergio de Diego - Sheltie
'Blue Gold's Garapanda'
3. Miguel Castelo - Teddy
'Regalia Project Runway'
4. Francisco Escobar - Coronet
'Ulietta de la Villa Verde'
Francisco Escobar / Diego Escobar / Luis Filipe / Sergio de Diego
standing in
for Miguel
Best in Show winner in the Senior section -Mireia Cabre- with "her judges"
SUNDAY, 22. FEBRUARY
At the 4. CECOR show, I judged Best in Show in the Senior section and my first 4 placed cavies were as follows:
3. Monica Cabre - Teddy
'Rebac's Jingle Bells'
1. Luis Filipe - Sheltie
'Perula Herdade do Portinho'
2. Mireia Cabre - PE Golden
'Cheshire Goldilocks'
4. Luis Filipe - Merino
'Rosete Herdade do Portinho'
...... AND THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL
Luis with his mother and travel companion
all the way from Portugal
The Trophy table with all specials and prizes
This show combined all my "animal interests" under one roof and I enjoyed my two days at the 'Fimascota' tremendously. Here are some more pictures.
FIRST OF ALL ---- THE SPANISH SECTION ----
All these animals are original Spanish breeds
Spanish Game Fowl with
normal tail
and
Rumpless (right)
EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION - CAVY SECTION
EUROPEAN JUDGES' SEMINAR IN RETIE, BELGIUM
ON 14. AND 15. MARCH
THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME EVER THAT A JUDGES' SEMINAR IN THE CAVY SECTION OF THE EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION was held on 14. and 15 March. The venue was hotel "de Linde" in Retie, which is situated in the northeastern corner of Belgium. The attendance was overwhelming - 25 judges from 10 countries were present to take part in lectures and "hands on" practice of judging all six breeds of longhairs as well as smooth Foxes and Tans.
MEET THE PARTICIPANTS PER COUNTRY:
The longhaired breeds were introduced by Lena Tysk and Jens Lindgren, who had made a fabulous PowerPoint presentation. We were lectured on Peruvians, Shelties, Coronets, Alpacas, Texels and Merinos.
After the presentation, the participants were put into groups of four consisting of at least one longhaired breeder whilst all other members were of different countries.
20 longhairs had been brought together from Belgium and England and each group judged at least 6 of them to the European standard and on points.
All points' totals were then entered on a board -highlighting the difference in points in some cases. A lively discussion about differences of interpretation as well as of opinion rounded the first day of the seminar off nicely.
The judges hard at work in the practical session, but also having fun.
The cavies that had been brought in by various fanciers from Belgium, Holland and England were nicely housed in spacious show pens.
On the Sunday, it was the turn of David Marshall, chairman of the newly formed National Fox and Tan Club in England, to lecture on Tans and Foxes.
The entire presentation was delivered again via PowerPoint and neatly compiled in book form for every judge, who could take a copy home. There were lots of photographs of the good and bad points in the markings of Tans and Foxes.
Following the presentation, there was another practical session, where 5 to 6 Tans and Foxes (present in all recognised 5 colours) were judged by groups of 4 judges.
There was a Lilac Fox that caused a huge debate about its eye colour; where some judges deemed it had ruby eyes, whilst others thought they were pink. Eventually, the Lilac Fox, a Slate Tan and a Beige Tan were taken outside to compare the eye colour in all three.
AN OPEN VERDICT WAS RECORDED!
SPECIALIST CLUBS' SHOW AT DRAGOR, NEAR COPENHAGEN ON 11. APRIL 2009.
This show was a compilation of three specialist breed clubs: the Teddy Club, the Longhaired Club and the Smooth-Coated club. Between them they held 3 stock shows that were judged by:
Dragor is ideally situated right next door to Copenhagen's International Airport -"Kastrup", so the British judges took all of 10 minutes to get from their plane to the judging table.
And, of course, it was the Easter weekend as well, which was highlighted by many spring-easter flower arrangements.
The show was a "box show" -which means that all exhibits were housed in their travelling boxes for the duration of the show rather than in show pens. And- it struck me again how much easier it is to have the exhibits housed in their own (well known to them) travelling boxes...AND there is hardly any mess at the end of the show.
Another thing that struck me, was that there were so many dedicated young fanciers with their pigs at this show -some of them were well under 10 years of age. All of them handled their pets in the correct way, though, no matter what their age was.
AND they are really fond of their pigs and compete well whether it is in the pet section or the "cucumber eating" competition.
So, I judged all the short coated varieties, including Satins, Cresteds, Marked, Ticked and Self.
My top three line-up were all Selfs and all three were excellent examples of their breeds.
Best Smooth Coated Line-Up
Three really classy pigs, that would win anywhere.
3. DE Golden 5/8 sow "Sunquicks Ocean Apart" exhibited by Anders Ofjord Iversen
1. Cream 5/8 sow "Capranis Metaxa!"
exhibited by Dorte Roper
2. PE Golden Adult sow "Sunquicks Eternal Flame" exhibited by Louise Ofjord Iversen
Some very nice Tans too, this one a Chocolate Tan exhibited by Claus Fussel.
My best pair was Lis Krois' Golden Solid Satins -a very balanced pair of cavies, very hard to fault.
And as for the Teddies-well, they were just fantastic. Well over 70 were entered in the show and the quality was very high. I was told over lunch that the quality of Teddies had been better a few years back - "Gosh, they must have been more than perfect"!!
Even these "mediocre" ones were a fantastic sight.
At the end of the show, there was a proper presentation of awards and all the children received prizes whether their exhibits had won or not. What a way to encourage these kids!! No wonder, they have so many juvenile members.
A special thanks to the organisers of the show for inviting me -I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Dragor!.
And it was great to meet up with old friends Mette and Nete.
EE - EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION - CONVENTION
IN OVIFAT-WAIMES, BELGIUM FROM 21. TO 24. MAY 2009
The annual Convention of the European Association for Small Livestock was held this year from 21. - 24. May. The Executive meeting was held on Thursday morning, followed by all the Standards Committee meetings in the afternoon. An official welcome by the Secretary of State took place on Thursday evening. The section (i.e. poultry, pigeons, cage birds, rabbits and cavies) meetings were held on the Friday and on Saturday, 23. May -the AGM took place, which was attended by more than 150 delegates from about 25 European countries.
On Saturday afternoon, all delegates visited the town of Eupen and were welcomed in the State Department of the German speaking enclave, followed by a visit to a Shepherd's Feast, where amongst others a marquee had been put up which housed all original Belgian breeds in rabbits, poultry, pigeons and sheep.
The reception at the Ministery.
The official opening of the Convention on Thursday evening.
Hotel "Domaine des Hautes Fagnes"
The surrounding area.
the sheep
The delegates from this year's two newly affiliated cavy associations: Daniel from CECOR, Spain and Aldona from CCP, Poland
OREGON CAVY BREEDERS SOCIETY SHOW IN BROWNSVILLE, OREGON ON 8. AUGUST.
Our host's car number plate!
Brownsville - High Street
The show took place in a small town, called Brownsville, in a recreation park. There were lots of campervans and tents in the park when we arrived, only to find out that there was a dog agility show held at the other end of the same park and all their participants had stayed overnight.
The cavies were housed in an open barn type place with no walls as such. Inside were tables and benches. It was a very airy and cool place for the pigs to be in.
It was a one day show (their Summer Show) in the format of a box show. Everybody brought their pigs in "show pen" type travelling equipment, that doubled up as show pens for the duration of the show. I think this is what Brian Emmett has tried to get going in the UK over many years.
EUROPEAN SHOW IN NITRA
SLOVAKIA ON
20. - 22. November 2009
The 26. European Show for Poultry, Pigeons, Cage Birds, Rabbits and Cavies too place on the weekend of the 20. - 22. November 2009.
Close on 23.000 exhibits had been entered with an absolute record of 12.000 pigeons alone.
The cavy section hosted rather less exhibits, but nevertheless managed to "up" the entries to 326 from around 250 three years ago in Leipzig, Germany.
I had entered 6 cavies in total: a pair of Self Chocolates and a trio of chocolate Dutch plus 1 black Dutch boar.
They all did very well, considering the long drive from the UK to Slovakia (nearly 1200 miles and 22 hours).
The Chocolates gained 96.5 and 97 points respectively and the black Dutch boar 95.5 points. The chocolate Dutch sows managed to secure 94.5 and 93.5 points and the boar had 94 points (very good when you take into account that they can be faulted on so many fronts.
