I’ve heard that due to the large number of rabbits entered at the ARBA Convention, not all get judged. Something to the effect that the judges only have to look at the top 25%. I’ve gotta be confused, but then again how do you work through 17000 entries in such a short time?. Can anyone clear it up for me?
There are multiple judges at every national convention, each assigned to judge certain breeds. Some breeds have relatively few entries (15 Giant Angoras in the 2023 Open show), while others have huge numbers (in 2023 - Netherland Dwarf = 1,503, Mini Rex = 1,258 open entries). Even the big classes are divided into groups (e.g. solids or brokens) or varieties (e.g. black, blue, broken, castor, chinchilla, etc. etc.), and within those groupings, they are further divided into age and sex classes, e.g. senior bucks, senior does, junior bucks, junior does, etc. (larger breeds divide out into intermediate bucks and intermediate does as well). So a judge isn't asked to discriminate among 1,200-1,500 rabbits at once.
Still, even dividing that many rabbits into eight classes (e.g. the 962 Holland Lops entered in 2023, divided into junior and senior bucks and does, in solids and brokens, would mean a rough average of 120 rabbits in a class) leaves a lot of rabbits to poke through. Each rabbit does get looked at and "judged," but through the eyes of an experienced judge, some immediately rise to the top, while others obviously won't make the cut, often because of obvious weight, color or other DQs, or because of obviously inferior type, color and/or markings. Judges have various systems for keeping track of their top picks in the big classes; I've seen some of them use different colored poker chips in front of the coops to mark their initial opinions of which rabbits to return for a second look and which to pass on.
It's nearly impossible to place 120 rabbits in order, and isn't considered necessary, meaningful or time-efficient, so most judges place the top animals, and leave the others more or less unsorted. This does mean that not every rabbit will get judge's comments, but exhibitors can watch the judging, and it's not hard to tell if your rabbit is being considered for one of the top placings. I don't actually remember how many places deep they go, but most of us can agree that it doesn't really matter if our rabbit was placed 79th or 82nd.
