# 2013 ARBA Convention



## Revverress (Oct 2, 2013)

Couldn't find a previous thread on here, so I figured it's about time to make a 2013 Convention post! For those who don't know, the ARBA Convention is in Harrisburg, PA this year.

Who all is planning on going? What breeds are you showing? Any of our non-show folks planning on just stopping by to see what all the fuss is about? Anyone else doing Rabbitcon?

I'll be driving up that Friday and staying through Monday before I have to drive back down to class. Though this is not my first Convention, it IS the first one I've gone to in many years, and it presents a lot of "firsts" for me. First time showing in Open at convention, first Rabbitcon, and first time showing my Tans on a national level. I'm showing 3 of my baby Tans plus my junior English Lop buck, and while I don't expect any of my bunnies to place well due to how young they all are, I'm just excited for the opportunity to show at such a large show!

I would love to hear anyone else's Convention plans. The closer it gets, the more giddy I get! :hyper:


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## RabbitGirl101 (Oct 2, 2013)

Argg! This makes me sad! I want to go so bad! However it is too far away We are still considering purchasing some rabbits and having one of our friends sent them up with the transporter so we can get them. 
Good luck with your rabbits! I hope you have tons of fun, keep this thread updated! 

Also at the convention, if you hear that the lionheads have passed the final presentation, would you also post that? I had the hardest time telling if they passed last year or not. lol


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## majorv (Oct 2, 2013)

We went to our first Rabbitcon at convention last year. It is very informative and I definitely recommend it. They gave us a flash drive with the sessions' materials on it, which we've referred to several times.

Good luck with showing! Woahlookitsme will be there and taking two Tans, but they're being shown by someone else.


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## MikeScone (Oct 3, 2013)

For those (like me) who didn't know, the dates for the ARBA convention are October 19-23.


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## OakRidgeRabbits (Oct 3, 2013)

Absolutely! I have been looking forward to this show for a long time! My very first open rabbit show was the Pennsylvania Farm Show, many years ago. So attending my first ARBA Convention years later in the same building is going to be a neat experience. I didn't enter any Holland Lops but will be showing three Dwarf Hotots.

I can't wait!


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## MikeScone (Oct 3, 2013)

The catalog didn't say if the public could visit the show or not (or, if it did I couldn't find it), so I e-mailed ARBA, and got this reply:

"There is no entry fee to the 90th ARBA Convention. The entire show is opened to the general public."


This would be my first ARBA convention show, and I hope I can make to for a day. Capital City Airport is just across the river, so weather permitting I'm going to try to fly down.


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## Korr_and_Sophie (Oct 3, 2013)

MikeScone said:


> The catalog didn't say if the public could visit the show or not (or, if it did I couldn't find it), so I e-mailed ARBA, and got this reply:
> 
> "There is no entry fee to the 90th ARBA Convention. The entire show is opened to the general public."
> 
> ...



I believe the rabbit hopping competition is on Tuesday. I'd love to see photos of that. :stikpoke


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## woahlookitsme (Oct 3, 2013)

I am going! I wont be showing any bunnies under my name but I do have a black tan junior doe I am buying that will be in the show. I also have a chocolate buck(sal) and black buck (Toni) that will be shown under elizabeths name 

Revverress I will have to look for you! I didnt know you got into tans!? I would love to see them and meet you  Ill be at the tan booth helping out also. 

I am going to be there thursday till wednesday. Going to have lots of free time to take pics since im not showing or buying much. I will also possibly be in the market for a BEW polish buck


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## Revverress (Oct 4, 2013)

The preliminary count is in, and it looks like there will be 22,111 animals entered in Convention this year! 



> Also at the convention, if you hear that the lionheads have passed the final presentation, would you also post that? I had the hardest time telling if they passed last year or not. lol


I won't be there the day they do the breed presentations, so I'm going to miss seeing whether or not they pass unfortunately. I'm sure someone will post the results on one of the many rabbit Facebook groups, so I'll try to remember to update this thread if someone doesn't beat me to it!



> For those (like me) who didn't know, the dates for the ARBA convention are October 19-23.


Thanks for posting that Mike! It completely slipped my mind when making this thread... If you can, you should definitely try and stop by! It is such an experience to be surrounded by so many bunnies and bunny lovers.

Good look with your DHs Julie! I've never made it to the PA Farm Show, but having family in the area means I've been able to see the venue for horse events, and I've always thought it'd be a great place to have Convention.



> Revverress I will have to look for you! I didnt know you got into tans!? I would love to see them and meet you
> 
> 
> 
> Ill be at the tan booth helping out also.


Yep, I got a pair about two years ago to play around, but never got very serious with them because I planned on selling out whenever I was able to go back to school. Long story short, I fell in love with the little brats, and a good friend offered to let me keep a small herd in her barn while I'm back in school. I keep my numbers low and don't show very often, and I'm really still learning more about the breed and what I want to aim for in my breeding program. They are so different from my English Lops, and I just love it.

I will have to stop by the booth and say hi and introduce myself! I've admired your Tans on here for a while now, so I'd love for you to take a look at mine and let me know what you think! You'll have to let me drool over the ones you're taking up with you.


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## Revverress (Oct 4, 2013)

Forgot to mentioned! Volunteers have worked together to be able to film parts of Convention with their phones... I know last year, the breed presentations were able to be viewed live via the website, and it was so intense! Anyone unable to go to Convention should check out the website to be able to watch some of the events live:

http://arbalive.weebly.com/


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## woahlookitsme (Oct 19, 2013)

We made it here!! I will be wearin my navy blue hoodie a majority of the time with big orange SHSU on the front! Come say hi if you find me I will be all over

First stop is the tan booth and the lil stinkerz booth to get some bunny air fresheners!


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## MikeScone (Oct 19, 2013)

Although it's pouring now, the forecast says it should actually be clear tomorrow morning in Harrisburg, and a reasonable scattered ceiling here. With any luck, I'll make it to the ARBA show for a few hours anyway. If you're there, look for a bald guy wearing a grey baseball cap and carrying a Nikon...


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## MikeScone (Oct 20, 2013)

Just a few shots of the show hall - it's impossible to show more than a small part of the two huge halls in a photo. 
















These are just some of the youth entries - I was standing in a side aisle, and there were more rabbits behind me than are in these pictures. 











I took hundreds of pictures, which will take a while to process. I'll post a thread with some of them when I get them done. Here are a few samples:

Believe it or not, this is a rabbit - an English Angora:





A Havana, in blue:





A Rhinelander, also blue:





Standard Chinchilla:





Tan - he looks like he's just lounging around:




"So, do you come here often?"

It was a beautiful day for a flight, and I'm glad I went!


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## Rosies Rabbitry (Oct 23, 2013)

I spent the last 6 days in Harrisburg at the ARBA convention. I showed 2 of my Holland Lops and they didn't do very well but it was my first convention and it was a great experience. I was so lucky to be able to go daily and drive the 30 minutes each way to be able to take care of the rest of my herd and sleep in my own bed. Maybe some day I will have rabbits that can make a better showing. I have only been breeding and showing rabbits for 8 months and it has been a lot of fun and a rewarding hobby.


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## Kipcha (Oct 24, 2013)

Don't suppose someone got pics of the rabbit hopping competition?


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## Revverress (Oct 25, 2013)

Great shots Mike! So glad you got to come! I looked around for you but didn't see you. 

Convention was so crazy, fun, and overwhelming... I was pretty sick for most of the weekend and left the showroom early each night, so didn't get to see half of the things I wanted to, but still managed to cram in a lot over the weekend. Rabbitcon was super interesting, and I'm glad they gave us the presentations on a flashdrive because the meds I was on made me sleep through most of the classes... Oops. I was very lucky to have good friends and family nearby who helped take care of me and my animals when I was feeling so bad; I'm not sure how I would have done it alone!

My Tan babies did much better than I was expecting. They were so obviously the youngest and smallest rabbits on the table, so I was very excited that they took a 5th place (lilac jr buck), 9th place (choc jr buck) and 11th (choc jr doe). The judge we had for Tans was great, and really took the time to explain to the exhibitors the placements. I wish I was feeling well enough to have stuck around to listen to him more! I missed the English Lop judging, but the breed winners looked gorgeous!

I met Sarah, which was great, but didn't get to hang out long before I had to run off. I saw some old friends, met new ones, and generally had a nice time talking bunnies all weekend. 



> Don't suppose someone got pics of the rabbit hopping competition?


I left the day before the hopping competition, so no pics unfortunately.  Good Morning America did come out and tape the competition, and according to Facebook should be airing it Sunday morning. I'm not sure if that's a channel you can get or not, but it might be worth it to check into! I would have loved to watch the hoppers!

I didn't get a lot of photos, and the ones I did get didn't turn out too well, but here's a link to my Facebook album of Convention photos... the album should be public, so if you're logged in to FB you should be able to see it.


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## zombiesue (Oct 27, 2013)

Revverress said:


> I didn't get a lot of photos, and the ones I did get didn't turn out too well, but here's a link to my Facebook album of Convention photos... the album should be public, so if you're logged in to FB you should be able to see it.



It's EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to listen to this [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-RxSmmxzws[/ame] while you look through these pictures


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