GOLDIESTUD

Goldiestud

Welcome to Goldiestud and thank you for visiting us.

Goldiestud was established in 1998 and many rabbits have been shown and bred successfully ever since then.

How did it all start?

Well, it all started with a (pet) British Giant called George, who was acquired from a pet shop. Little did I know back then, what the purchase of that rabbit would lead to in the end!

Back in 1998, I saw George and just fell in love with him. He was sitting in the pet shop and I was attracted to him by his sheer size, as I had never come across a rabbit that large before. George weighed in at about 11 pounds, at the age of six months but that did not deter me from buying him there and then. It was love at first sight, you could say. George's coat was of a lovely, dark steel colour.

After I took George home I noticed that he was carrying a ring around one of his hindlegs, so I went back to the pet shop, to enquire about the significance behind that bespoke ring. There, I was told that the ring had been put on by the person who bred George and that I could trace that breeder, by contacting the British Rabbit Council http://www.thebrc.org/, who sell and keep a register of all the ring numbers they issue.

The very helpful staff at the British Rabbit Council helped me to get in touch with the breeder, who advised that George was of a showable pedigree and that he could therefore be shown.

Shown? Shown where, I asked? Little did I know then that one could show rabbits at rabbit shows, which are held at most weekends, up and down the country. The show diary for all the rabbit shows can be found in a national magazine, called Fur & Feather http://www.furandfeather.co.uk/, which I subscribed to straight away. This also meant that I had to get the ownership of George transferred, before entering him into any shows, which was done against a small payable fee and which took place during the same week

Needless to say that I could barely wait for my first copy of Fur & Feather to arrive, to find out about a show near to me. At the time, it was a show in Grazeley, near Reading, held by the Reading & County Rabbit Club http://www.readingrabbitclub.co.uk/.

So, I took George there, after I had groomed his lovely coat. It was quite a big show, with approx. 200+ rabbits on show which, at first, I found a little intimidating, as I did not think that George would be 'good enough' for such a big show. However, George did very well on that day, winning some prize cards, which I proudly took home.

I showed George at many other shows and his best result was winning Best Fur and BoB (Best of Breed) in one of them. At one of the biggest shows though, The London Championship Show http://www.thelondon.co.uk/, he finally reached the peak of his showing career, where he came 3rd in the British Giant AA Grand Challenge.

So, as you can see, it all started with a "pet" rabbit called George, that turned out to be a rabbit of great distinction.

Rest in peace, George. 20.06.1998 - 14.10.2001.