Every breeder evaluates their herd to the Standard of Perfection (at least I hope they do!). I am one of the people that do. I will get out a rabbit and look at it. I will take pictures and ask opinions. Evaluating your herd is important. It helps you decide which rabbits to keep to better your herd, and which ones it's time to let go of. Knowing how to evaluate a Holland is also good to help make decisions on if you should buy a Holland. So today I am going to upload some pictures of my Holland(s) and evaluate them. It can be hard to evaluate Hollands through pictures, but I've seen all these Hollands in person also :) -- Below is POB's Saphira. Just turned senior black doe. I outline her body and ears. This helps me 'see' her better and make sure she is properly posed. - First I would like to touch on her color. She has beautiful rich black color, with hardly any white hairs for a black! The judges always commented on that ;) Saphira has a slipped crown. See the circle in between her eye and ear? That means she has a slipped crown. If you can fit a finger in between her ear and eye, the crown is slipped. - I like her ear length, probably my shortest ears and best crown at this time. See how her head has the little bump above her ears? She has decent crown definition. - Saphira lacks curvature to her head, cheeks could be a bit more defined and puffer ;) he doesn't have a shoulder dip either, I WILL RARELY keep a rabbit with a shoulder dip, it is a fault. - like her HQ and body is decent too. She doesn't drop off over the HQ but her HQ is nice and full to the table. - Saphira has weak ankles, that is probably her biggest fault. See how her ankles aren't hitting the table like stumps? That's because she has weak ankles. Saphira also has a dewlap, that's the flap of skin below her head. A lot of does have dewlaps. - Overall Saphira is a good brood doe. The judges always say she flat and heavy in the shoulder. She's has good depth too, see how you don't see daylight between her front and back legs? I hope this helped you learn more about judging Hollands! Here are some examples that are helpful when evaluating a Holland (thank you Grace @ Grace's Hoppin Hollands for helping me with examples!): (above)This is an example of perfect ankles. They hit the table flat and straight all the way down! (above) This rabbit has a slipped crown. I outlined his eye and then put a circle between his eye and ear. His ears area also a bit long. The shortest line is how long I'd like his ears to be. (below) here is the same rabbit as above. He is properly posed, just pictured at an angle. You can see his length of ears and slipped crown here. Also note he has short, thick and straight bone all the way to the table, unlike Saphira. This buck is my friend's, and normally places well in shows :) Data has good crown definition too. (above) Nick's Fonzie. He has short, straight and thick front limbs, as well as good crown definition and ear length. He has a nice head, not really snippy. Fonzie won BOB at our last show ;) He has different faults then Saphira, so I bred them together. He has a SLIGHTLY slipped crown. He needs a bit more depth and width. Fonzie also has good crown definition.
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Emma EarlyHello! Archives
January 2019
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