"8th November 2008" "This is the day when Upton's Pelham gave up his long and brave fight. Ta-ra li'le lad. We will miss you. Your contribution to the breed will long be remembered. Rest in Peace." |
| This
new breed of Lop is one of the latest to join the family at Upton Lops. We
first heard about maned rabbits in the nineties. Chatting at the London
Championship Show with friends someone mentioned these rabbits that had been
seen in a pet shop in northern France. Although they had good short coats,
they appeared to have almost cashmere hair around the neck and head region.
They were a large, fur type rabbit, but the idea of seeing the best of two
of our favourite breeds in one animal started to take shape there and then.
Just before the start of the new Millennium a chance to obtain a couple of
these delightful rabbits presented itself. A buck that weighed around 4lb
and a doe that weighed around 5.1/2 lbs. Two pretty rabbits in orange and
orange butterfly. Not the best type or manes either. So lots of challenges
there.
We started by spending the first two years just mating the new pair and their young to our own successful line of Mini Lops. After the first few months of working with these, it soon became clear that the new gene, which is a rare enough occurrence, was also a dominant one! Almost unheard of! Fascinating for someone interested in coat genetics. We started to show the first youngsters to the fancy in unstandardised classes to gauge the interest. Then we were approached to contact the British Rabbit Council to work on getting the breed recognised. At the time the British Rabbit Council was undergoing certain political changes, but the required paperwork was completed and delivered by hand to the office in Newark. It appeared that no one was presenting this breed to the BRC and we had been approached as a stud with previous experience of new breeds and colours. A working standard had already been published and with a very few changes, all notified and agreed by the Breeds Standards Sub Committee of the time, the work of presenting the breed proceeded. Unfortunately all did not go to plan, but a presentation was made in January 2003 at the Bradford Championship Show. At this show a number of the younger animals were shown in the non standardised Fancy section (no specialised Lop section in those days!). This was a large class that year but a little black buck ended up on Victory Row at this, the largest and most prestigious show in the U.K. "Upton's Skegness" a rabbit born in July 2002 was the stud's main Stud buck producing superb type animals with his own lovely coat. He was a single maned rabbit and also produced lovely mini lops. Most of the matings done now are Lion Lop to Lion Lop in order to produce the manes required by the standard. We have the foundation of type, size, colour and coat, now we are building the roof by adding the mane. Another presentation was made to the BRC in 2004 and the Breed gained its standard later that year, unfortunately only in a limited range of 7 colours. In 2005, Upton's Skegness was again on Victory Row at the Bradford Championship Show, this time amongst its own Lop cousins. By 2006, Skeggie's son Upton's Pelham, a sooty fawn, had pipped him to the post and he gained the honour of best Mini Lion Lop at Bradford. During 2006 the interest in the breed was becoming greater and some of the newer colours were shared out amongst other enthusiasts. In 2007, I had the honour of judging duplicate classes at the Bradford, so was not allowed to show, but that year we busily made a large presentation of some of the other colours. Later that year we heard that we had been successful in getting some of the colours accepted including Blue Eyed White, Butterfly, Sable and orange. Also in 2007 a new National Club was born. The Lion Lops UK was formed with an enthusiastic committee at the Bradford and became affiliated to by the British Rabbit Council. The first Secretary was elected as Victoria Mundy, her husband Mike the Treasurer. I was honoured to accept the post as Chairperson. The first ever Stock Shows were held at the large prestigious six star BRC Show at Stafford in June 2007. Overall Best Lion Lop of both shows of accepted an unstandardised colours was Upton’s Constable, a Red Eyed White from this stud. This buck went on to win Best LionLop at the next show at Newark, too – even though still unstandardised! 2008 started with a Best of Breed win for a blue buck “Humphrey” bred here at Upton Lops and now owned by Bluezack Stud. The first stock show of the year saw a Fawn Doe called “Upton’s Butter” gaining BIS followed by “Upton’s Alistair” (he gained Best Lop in the host show, Mansfield). Another presentation was held at the Bradford and this saw success for more colours to be standardised including Red Eyed White (at last!) Opal and Smoke Skeggie continues to live in retirement at Upton Lops and Pelham took over his stud duties, although now retired from the show scene. His son Alistair (Skeggie’s grandson) is now carrying the torch for them and the stud, along with other beautiful rabbits bred here at Upton Lops; some even still live here whilst others have been released to caring show homes to help the future of this lovely breed. The future seems bright for the Mini Lion Lop.
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