Quality

[Oregon Swedes]

It's almost odd how obvious quality is. Maybe you don't know why, but you can sure tell that it is good.

I picked up rabbits in the valley yesterday. 2 nice little New Zealand cross doe bunnies and I'd reserved a Californian buck at a different farm. Not knowing anything about him except I wanted a Californian and he was the only one available over the 3 month period that I'd been looking.

I don't know anything about rabbits. I mean literally nothing, but when I saw the cage of Californians, my eyes almost popped out of my head. Wowza! How gorgeous!

Turns out the breeder has been showing rabbits for decades. I got a huge lesson on the finer points of Californians, why my buck was good, what faults he had. He is so gorgeous that I splurged and bought myself a Californian doe, too.

My New Zealands are nice little backyard bunnies. But knowing nothing about rabbits, I could see the quality in those Californians from 40 feet away.

I feel the same way about chickens. Walking around the show, I may not know anything about chickens, but some of them just pop out at you: clear intense color, clean markings, bodies that look like they were engineered to fit together perfectly.

I may not be sure what makes one quality and the other not, but it sure is obvious when you look at them.

[Patrick]

I agree 100%. Many times I've been at shows and an individual of a breed I know nothing about has jumped out at me, and it has gone on to do very well. Maybe it's just that I've learned it by osmosis, that I've seen many birds like it on Ch Row before, and whatever it is that makes the birds good just sticks in my head, subconsciously. Most times I sure as heck couldn't tell you what attracted me to a bird, or made it stick out to me. And then there have been times when I've thought that I had experience with good quality whatever, until I actually see one of good quality and immediately recognize the difference. I seem to have that eye for most birds, dogs and rabbits. Now if I could only figure out the same in cattle and dairy goats.

[katschicks]

I think it is all about balance. The animal just has a balanced look to it. All the parts put togeather compliment each other. Everything looks like it belongs where it is. I always start with the animals profile. I don`t care what type of animal it is if the profile is not pleasing to the eye there is no need to look farther. But thats just me. Rog

[Bob308]

But at the same time if you don't know a lot about a breed it can be deceiving if an animal is in excellent condition but has major faults.
I know that I have looked at what I thought were good Rocks or RIR's and was educated otherwise.

[Angela]

But at the same time if you don't know a lot about a breed it can be deceiving if an animal is in excellent condition but has major faults.

Funny you should mention that.....

Rog and I have been working on a line of white Orpington bantams. Got great type and color...really thought that we were on to something....until their legs turned blue