Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Ears
I want to say from the very beginning that I do not have perfect ears - and neither do my rabbits. But I have made huge improvements in my ears since the very beginning of my program.
I started out with lots of very long ears. I mean donkey ears. And I hated them. It didn't matter to me whether it was the smartest move or not, I had to work on ears. I just couldn't be happy with long-eared Hollands, no matter what else might be right with them.
So where should we start in our discussion of ears? The Standard of Perfection, of course. That's the place to start any study of conformation.
Ears are ten points. It doesn't sound like a lot, but consider that bone, feet, and legs are also ten points and you realize that, if a judge is applying the points correctly, those ears are as important as heavy bone! And the ears are more important than color, markings, and condition put together (a total of 9). Ears are even more important than crown (though they are heavily influenced by the crown, as we shall discuss later on).
Compared to other breeds, ten points for ears is huge: many breeds don't allot ten points for both head and ears together! Some breeds do not think ears are worth mentioning in the points; most fall in the 2 to 5 point range. I noticed four breeds that also have ten points on ears: Beveren, Britannia Petite, American Fuzzy Lop, and Jersey Wooly. Interestingly, there are four breeds that allocate even more points to ears than we do: Polish (15), French Lop (15), Netherland Dwarf (15), and English Lop (33) - obviously!
Okay, on to our standard. We're to have wide, thick, well-furred ears that balance with the rabbit's head. The positioning of the ear is just behind the eye. That position gives good width to the crown and comes from a crown that is not slipped too far back.
The crown is such an integral part of the success of the ear that it's even mentioned in the ear standard. We probably should just have 18 points for the ear and crown together!
The ear length should not be more than an inch below the jaw line. That's a tricky one. Ears that are too long but attached to a tight crown may meet that criteria and still be too long. Ears that attach just behind the eye must be pretty short to stop at the appropriate level.
I mentioned at the top of this BLOG that I had had long ears and have successfully shortened them. I found one buck with super short ears who has a very strong influence on his offspring. You can just about go around the barn and point out his ears on many of my rabbits. So it didn't take long, with the right piece of genetic material.
One ear problem that I hate and sometimes struggle with is folded ears. There are two causes for folded ears: first, the ears are thin, so they fold with just the least amount of pressure or excitement on the part of the rabbit; second, the crown is narrow, which makes the opening to the ear narrow, causing the ear to bell or fold.
Because crowns can develop some as the Holland matures, especially bucks, you might see a little bit of improvement on belled ears or those with slightly narrow openings. I've never seen a very skinny crown go totally chunky, though. Thin ears seem to always stay thin.
I've run into one judge who is super picky about the shape of the ear tips. They should be rounded. And I agree that that's the most attractive shape. But we've had big winners to have slightly pointy ear tips. I remember that one of the earlier versions of our current logo actually had less than rounded ear tips in the beginning. I'd probably never, ever cull for pointy ear tips (unless that were the only tie-breaker), and I suppose it will be a long time before I have fixed so much in my herd that ear tips comes to the top of my priority list.
For me, personally, ear length was the first and most important aspect I wanted to change. Now I am working on getting those ears to be more open. There's a youth breeder in California who has some amazing open ears that I'm lusting after. Go check out those ears on senior buck Julius.
My herd varies in ear thickness and fur covering, but I have enough good pieces in my barn that I'm not overly worried about that.
Let me say a word or two about ear carriage. I have a tendency in my barn toward tighter crowns. It's something I'd like to work on at some point in the future. But for now, I know that I'm going to have more trouble in the winter and I'm going to have to wait for those crowns to widen. That's not a problem since I'm such a patient person (not!). Despite having no patience, I do have lots of experience that tells me the majority of those ears will come down as those crowns mature and widen.
I have found that the better the judge is in terms of knowledge of Hollands, the less flighty ears will bother the judge, especially with young Hollands. Good judges know to evaluate ear carriage when the Holland is relaxed and they know that those ears just have to be below horizontal. (The better judges also know that allowing a Holland to run on the table is not a good method for calming a Holland, who might put up their ears because they are curious about their surroundings - many times, a soothing touch will work better or just leaving them in the coop for awhile will do the trick.)
Sakata was second at Nationals. The judge told me that her ear carriage kept her out of first place. She had a great body. Some people would have culled her. I granded her. I no longer have Sakata (sad story), but I do have her sister, whose ears hang quite nicely now.
Ears, crown, and pose are three things that really set Hollands apart from most other breeds. We do need to pay them some attention. My herd is a work in progress. I've seen lots of improvement and I have lots of things to work on. Good thing, too. I'd hate to be bored!
Laurie Stroupe
The Nature Trail Rabbitry “Home Of Grand Champions”
Precious Pet Rabbits
Affordable Web Site Design ¶ 9:53 AM
I started out with lots of very long ears. I mean donkey ears. And I hated them. It didn't matter to me whether it was the smartest move or not, I had to work on ears. I just couldn't be happy with long-eared Hollands, no matter what else might be right with them.
So where should we start in our discussion of ears? The Standard of Perfection, of course. That's the place to start any study of conformation.
Ears are ten points. It doesn't sound like a lot, but consider that bone, feet, and legs are also ten points and you realize that, if a judge is applying the points correctly, those ears are as important as heavy bone! And the ears are more important than color, markings, and condition put together (a total of 9). Ears are even more important than crown (though they are heavily influenced by the crown, as we shall discuss later on).
Compared to other breeds, ten points for ears is huge: many breeds don't allot ten points for both head and ears together! Some breeds do not think ears are worth mentioning in the points; most fall in the 2 to 5 point range. I noticed four breeds that also have ten points on ears: Beveren, Britannia Petite, American Fuzzy Lop, and Jersey Wooly. Interestingly, there are four breeds that allocate even more points to ears than we do: Polish (15), French Lop (15), Netherland Dwarf (15), and English Lop (33) - obviously!
Okay, on to our standard. We're to have wide, thick, well-furred ears that balance with the rabbit's head. The positioning of the ear is just behind the eye. That position gives good width to the crown and comes from a crown that is not slipped too far back.
The crown is such an integral part of the success of the ear that it's even mentioned in the ear standard. We probably should just have 18 points for the ear and crown together!
The ear length should not be more than an inch below the jaw line. That's a tricky one. Ears that are too long but attached to a tight crown may meet that criteria and still be too long. Ears that attach just behind the eye must be pretty short to stop at the appropriate level.
I mentioned at the top of this BLOG that I had had long ears and have successfully shortened them. I found one buck with super short ears who has a very strong influence on his offspring. You can just about go around the barn and point out his ears on many of my rabbits. So it didn't take long, with the right piece of genetic material.
One ear problem that I hate and sometimes struggle with is folded ears. There are two causes for folded ears: first, the ears are thin, so they fold with just the least amount of pressure or excitement on the part of the rabbit; second, the crown is narrow, which makes the opening to the ear narrow, causing the ear to bell or fold.
Because crowns can develop some as the Holland matures, especially bucks, you might see a little bit of improvement on belled ears or those with slightly narrow openings. I've never seen a very skinny crown go totally chunky, though. Thin ears seem to always stay thin.
I've run into one judge who is super picky about the shape of the ear tips. They should be rounded. And I agree that that's the most attractive shape. But we've had big winners to have slightly pointy ear tips. I remember that one of the earlier versions of our current logo actually had less than rounded ear tips in the beginning. I'd probably never, ever cull for pointy ear tips (unless that were the only tie-breaker), and I suppose it will be a long time before I have fixed so much in my herd that ear tips comes to the top of my priority list.
For me, personally, ear length was the first and most important aspect I wanted to change. Now I am working on getting those ears to be more open. There's a youth breeder in California who has some amazing open ears that I'm lusting after. Go check out those ears on senior buck Julius.
My herd varies in ear thickness and fur covering, but I have enough good pieces in my barn that I'm not overly worried about that.
Let me say a word or two about ear carriage. I have a tendency in my barn toward tighter crowns. It's something I'd like to work on at some point in the future. But for now, I know that I'm going to have more trouble in the winter and I'm going to have to wait for those crowns to widen. That's not a problem since I'm such a patient person (not!). Despite having no patience, I do have lots of experience that tells me the majority of those ears will come down as those crowns mature and widen.
I have found that the better the judge is in terms of knowledge of Hollands, the less flighty ears will bother the judge, especially with young Hollands. Good judges know to evaluate ear carriage when the Holland is relaxed and they know that those ears just have to be below horizontal. (The better judges also know that allowing a Holland to run on the table is not a good method for calming a Holland, who might put up their ears because they are curious about their surroundings - many times, a soothing touch will work better or just leaving them in the coop for awhile will do the trick.)
Sakata was second at Nationals. The judge told me that her ear carriage kept her out of first place. She had a great body. Some people would have culled her. I granded her. I no longer have Sakata (sad story), but I do have her sister, whose ears hang quite nicely now.
Ears, crown, and pose are three things that really set Hollands apart from most other breeds. We do need to pay them some attention. My herd is a work in progress. I've seen lots of improvement and I have lots of things to work on. Good thing, too. I'd hate to be bored!
Laurie Stroupe
The Nature Trail Rabbitry “Home Of Grand Champions”
Precious Pet Rabbits
Affordable Web Site Design ¶ 9:53 AM
