4-H Rabbits: Young Exhibitors Show Their Skills at the Iowa State Fair

[Lea Charlson] I've been showing rabbits. My mom started when she was in high school, and she just kept going, and it transferred to me and my sister, and we've been showing since I was like 5 years old. It depends on your breed. So each breed has a standard of perfection, and it's broke down into 100 points, and it goes through and it shows, you know, is it more on the body, is it more on the fur?

They'll have points on their ears, on their head, and their body. It depends on the body type that you have. English Spots, so those are bull arch, so they're based on how they run and their carriage of themselves, and a lot on how they're built and they also have a lot of points on their markings.

The butterfly and their ears have to have color, and they have to have the stripe down their back, and the spots have to be— they're very specific about that. And there's a lot more on the markings for those.

[Emcee] Our first place senior doe right here. We'll see her at the end of the day.

Hello, my name is Claire Korver. I'm a senior showman, and I'm a part of the Riverside Rockets 4-H Club. This is my chocolate tan senior buck, Dr Pepper. Tans have a feature called the triangle where it's a nice deep tan color and you want it to be equilateral. And tans also have a coat called flybacks.

And next you're going to check the body for firmness.

[Own Wenthold] It's my first year. I was just looking forward to the experience and seeing how I can change and do better. My favorite thing is probably seeing all the different varieties, all the sizes, like small and big and different colors. That's just cool to see to me.

[Lea] I think the benefit of showing small animals is the community. Everyone's so just welcoming and everyone is just—you go to a show and it's the same people every time and you just build a family through it.

[Owen] I've learned that you gotta work hard to get here and gotta figure out all the timing and keep them under the weights and just make sure you take care of your animal.