TEXAS MINI REX RABBIT CLUB

TEXAS MINI REX RABBIT CLUB
Officers and Directors
Hope everyone has a very
Merry Christmas and a
Happy New Year and your
nestboxes are full of future Grand Champions. If
you have any pictures or
news you’d like to see in
the next newsletter please
email them to me at
[email protected]
TMRRC OFFICERS ELECTED 11-14-11
President:
Tammy Wheat
1-817-297-7797
[email protected]
Vice-President:
Debbie White
1817-456-3370
[email protected]
Secretary/Treasurer:
Gay Sparks
1-254-445-3559
[email protected]
Directors:
Chanse Boehringer
1-972-743-8598
[email protected]
Janis Fossati
512-578-7457
[email protected]
Bob McBee
1-817-790-8647
Amy Mersiovsky
1-254-939-0345
[email protected]
Sandra Neal
1-817-790-3841
[email protected]
Diane Stovall
1-325-356-5871
[email protected]
Web Master
Tom Stovall
[email protected]
Newsletter Editor
Raquel Underbrink,
575-309-9288
December 2011
MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
TMRRC BOD and members agreed to prepare a bid for
the 2014 Mini Rex Nationals - Bringing it back to Texas
for the 25th annual show. Our club will be planning fundraisers to enable us to have a very nice show. We are
holding four Specialty Shows this year and Debbie White
will be taking donations for the awards so that proceeds
from the shows can provide funding for Nationals. Please
contact her with donations.
Our next TMRRC Specialty will be held at the Blackland
Prairie Waxahachie Show. Our shows will be held on Friday night, January 13th. Our judge is Adam McCabe
Welcome to our new Board of Directors. We all appreciate your votes and confidence in us to accomplish our club’s goals for
2012.
President – Tammy Wheat
Vice President – Debbie White
Secretary / Treasurer – Gay Sparks
Directors – Chanse Boehringer, Janis Fossati, Bob McBee, Amy Mersiovsky, Sandra Neal, and Diane Stovall.
I would like to take this time to thank our outgoing Board of Directors for volunteering their time for our club. This team
planned and managed two specialty shows, and put together a detailed, professional bid for the 2013 Nationals Show. Please
thank them personally when you see them at the next shows.
Meetings
Our General Membership meeting and the new BOD meeting were held at the Hillsboro show. Minutes for both of these are
included in this newsletter. Two major decisions were made for our club for 2012. One, we will apply for 501c3 non-profit
status. And two, we will bid on the 2014 Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Mini Rex Nationals. These are both important and exciting
activities for our club. Gay Sparks has experience at acquiring non-profit status for other clubs, and we are grateful that she is
volunteering many hours in preparing this for us. We estimate this to be a three-month process, and Gay will keep us up to
date on the process.
TMRRC Facebook
Our BOD has also agreed to launch a Facebook page for our club. The page is a place for our BOD to communicate to our
membership on the progress of our activities, to communicate information regarding our specialty shows, and for our members
to post Mini Rex wins and achievements. Please note that the page is not intended to be a discussion forum, as there are
many Facebook Mini Rex forums already established.
1st Quarter Specialty Shows
Friday, January 13th in Waxahachie in conjunction with BPRBA
Friday, January 27th in conjunction with the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo Youth Show
Thursday, February 2nd in conjunction with the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo Open Show
Friday, February 17th in Royse City in conjunction with RCNT
A Visit from the NMRRC President
Dae Williams will be attending our specialty show in Waxahachie to meet more of us Texas Mini Rex folks and to show support
for our club. He will be donating an EZDAE’s mini rex for auction, and will hold a mini-session on what to look for in a Mini Rex
rabbit. We will have a ‘tip’ jar for the session. Proceeds from the auction and the mini-session tips will be earmarked for Bringing it Back to Texas 2014 Mini Rex Nationals.
Contact me
Please contact me with ideas and needs for our club. And remember, all of us are volunteers and are doing the best that we
think possible for our club. There’s no reward other than seeing our club be successful, and getting to show our rabbits. This
can’t happen without lots of people pitching in. Please volunteer to help at the check in table, sort cards, and take comments.
Thanks, and let’s get our best rabbits on the tables.
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December 2011
VICE-PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE:
Dear Club Members:
I am very pleased to see the Mini Rex youth at the shows helping and encouraging each
other while their rabbits are on the table. We have four specialty shows and numerous allbreed shows planned for 2013. Please plan on getting involved; there is no reason for a
handful of people to shoulder the workload at each show. The Fort Worth Stock Show is an
excellent opportunity for all of us to bring in new Mini Rex enthusiast. Please go out of your
way to introduce yourself and answer any questions. The response for trophies for the Specialty shows was great. I am pleased to report we have two and a half shows taken care of.
We are still in need of awards for one and a half shows. Please contact me if you are interested in donating awards. We plan on taking advantage of the cooler weather at our barn by
pulling out the cages and cleaning them. The rabbits can be comfortably housed in their
show carriers for the afternoon while this is done. Enjoy your rabbits and more importantly,
family and friends this holiday season. May we always remember the reason we celebrate.
Debbie white
Congratulations to Parker White on winning BOS and 1st Reserve at
the Duncan,OK show.
And BOSV Tort at the 2011 ARBA Convention
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SECRETARY/TREASURER’S REPORT
Hello to All,
Our show season is coming to a close and a new one waits around the corner. TMRRC members have had a very successful year at the shows and we hope to be able to continue that in the coming year.
The annual show at Hillsboro had good numbers and lots of help at the tables. Thanks to all the members who stepped
up and got things done. Judges, Conall Addison and Randy Dickerson commented that the quality of animals was very
impressive. That is always a reassurance that we as breeders are doing a good job. Congratulations to the winnersHillsboro Open Mini Rex Specialty Show A - Jerry Armstrong BOB, Anna Boehringer BOS, Show B - Becky Howell BOB,
Jerry Armstrong BOS. Hillsboro Youth Mini Rex Specialty Show A - Parker White BOB and BOS, Show B - MacKenzie
and Madison Demmer BOB, Kirsten Wheat BOS.
Elections were held at the annual meeting and we have a new slate of officers for the upcoming year. Thank you for your
vote of confidence in me as your secretary/treasurer. I have now served in every position on the board. I want all of you
to know the TMRRC is very near and dear to my heart and I take a lot of pride in the job that I do and I hope together we
can continue to move the club forward. I am looking forward to working with the new board and exploring new ideas.
Please be patient as the transition takes place and everyone gets things in order. TMRRC will be dealing with some
changes in the future as we apply for our corporate non-profit status. This is a very time consuming matter and I am
working on the necessary paperwork. If you receive an email or letter concerning this matter, please respond quickly.
This is long process and time is of the essence to get things returned to the proper authorities.
As most of you know, we were not awarded the bid for the 2013 Nationals. TMRRC has decided to rebid for the 2014
convention as this will be the 25th anniversary of the NMRRC annual national show. Some of you may not know this but
the NMRRC originated in Texas and this is a great playing card for our show. The show needs to be a class act show
and we have the capability to do it. Every member needs to be involved in some capacity. If you have a desire to help,
let me or Tammy know and we will find a job for you.
If you need any information concerning the club, feel free to contact me anytime. I try answer all emails daily (it may be
2:00 am), but I will get back to you. Keep up the good work and all the support each and everyone of you have given the
club.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to All,
Gay Sparks
TMRRC Sec/Treas
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December 2011
DIRECTOR’S REPORTS:
CHANSE BOEHRINGER
T o
t h e
M e m b e r s h i p ,
I would like to first thank the membership for allowing me the opportunity
to serve on the board. I see a very
promising future for not only our state
club but for the national club as well. I
have been told many times what a
strong club we have here in Texas from
people all over the country. With that in
mind I would like to challenge the membership to help us put together one of
the best National shows we can for
2014. There will be many steps in putting this bid together. I think we have a
great start at this based on the bid that
was put together for 2013. We will need
to find ways to raise money for this
event so that it can be a national show
to remember. I will be putting together
some ideas on how we can do this and
it will be sent out to the membership. I
have already started approaching many
companies and have some promising
leads at this point. Mrs. Sparks is helping our club obtain the much
needed 501c3 which would allow these
companies to write off their donations.
This would help create a winning situation for both parties. If our membership
could assist in this area I think we
would be able to raise the money
needed for the national show. If anyone
has any ideas on this area I would love
to talk with you. If there is anyway that
I can help improve our club please feel
f r e e
t o
c o n t a c t
m e .
Congratulations to all who were able
to attend the ARBA convention. Our
youth did very well there and also
showed the kind of friendship that all
should be able to display while competing. It was also very nice to see many
of our open breeders there as well. I
hope that many of us will be able to
attend our 2012 national and convent i o n
s h o w
a s
w e l l .
T h a n k s
a g a i n ,
C h a n s e
Greetings to All
I’m going to talk about conditioning a rabbit to show and win.
Rabbits that traveled to and from Convention will lose body
condition so I always add old fashion oatmeal and
steam rolled barley to my feed that I take. I do this for
every show that I go to unless it is just a close show
where I can get home the day of show. I also purchase
fruit and seed sticks for birds and they usually eat that
before touching anything else. I add 1 can of Mountain
Dew to a gallon of water as it seems to get them to
drinking, 4 way acid pak is also a good additive. If they
won’t drink they will not eat.
I feed Petrus 50/50 to all of my rabbits. If one gets
chubby I cut their feed in half and feed more hay. I also
put a coke can in their cage to slap around and keep
them moving. If they don’t react to the can I put in another rabbits cage and let the put their scent on it so
when I put in back into the cage with the rabbit that
needs exercise they go nuts slapping it around.
As long as you keep your bunnies clean you can show
them year after year. When they are molting I feed lots
of hay everyday and add meat tenderizer to their water,
Adolph’s preferably. This dissolves the fur in their gut so
that they can pass it. I love showing my old herd bucks
and find it challenging. Who wants to say a 4 yr old buck
beat their best rabbits for breed or a BIS.
There are products for removing urine stains. Make sure
it states that it is non-Toxic to animals. I spray it on and
let it set for 5 minutes. I like to use a clean towel to remove excess liquid and repeat maybe 2 or 3 times until I
am satisfied. I then use water and little white vinegar
and work that into the fur. When I feel it is a clean as it
going to get I use a product called Minute Groom . I
spray it on lightly and work that off with a clean towel.
This puts the moisture back into the fur. This must be
done days before you show the rabbit. Please don’t ever
think you can bath a rabbit and expect the fur to look
great, it won’t.
Take one of your nasty rabbits and give it a try before
working on a rabbit you are showing. If you have a buck
you are showing that has decided to start spraying, put
him in a different cage and put Vicks Vapor rub on it’s
nose and check him everyday to make sure he has
stopped and if not take the time to clean him up again
and again until you finish showing him.
Remember to keep your cages clean and use the urine
remover on them. It will not hurt your wire if it is made to
be used on animals. If you get lazy , you lose.
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DIRECTOR’S REPORTS CONTINUED:
AMY MERSIOVSKY
Hello all,
I know we are all looking forward to the holiday season and a break from the fastpaced show season.
We recently completed the Hillsboro shows.
We need to keep the momentum going
with large entries in all of our planned shows to have adequate funds for a national.
Nationals are expensive! Judges, buildings, insurance, and supplies all add up.
You
should never go into a national to make money, and you should be happy to break even.
Since the board has decided to put together a bid for a national, in the near future, we need all of you to volunteer! We need everyone's talent and enthusiasm.
I know we are coming off one of the worst Texas summers in years, and few does are
having litters as the bucks are sterile. Over the years I have learned that breeding
through the heat helps, and if you can't, get those bucks working hard in the fall.
They need to breed many does to get back into shape. However, we are now coming into
winter. The decreased hours of sun-light does decrease the doe's ovulation and fertility. We keep our barn lights on twenty-four hours a day during the winter months to provide more consistency.
I know one of the suggested items for discussion was the benefits of showing in
Fort Worth. While I love the Fort Worth show, and can't show there because the schedule
interferes with my crazy work schedule, I do want everyone to also consider Houston. We
cannot have a TMRRC specialty there, but the Houston Committee always puts together a
who's who of fabulous judges, provides a lunch, a gift, beautiful awards, and fabulous
pay-backs for the Youth.
Many times check-in is on a Saturday and the climate controlled facilities are amazing. The open show is a double show.
It was great to attend a large portion of the convention. It was good to see my old
friends and compete in that stiff competition.
In case you haven't heard, we have a Texan on the NMRRC standards committee: Cheryl
Blackman was appointed to this committee. We all need to communicate our ideas and concerns with Cheryl regarding our breed standard.
My last words for this article are this: rabbits are a hobby. You should raise
rabbits because you enjoy the animals and the people you show with. If we get to serious
and forget this is a hobby, then we forget the reason we get up at awful times on a Saturday, drive four hours, and are covered in rabbit hair. This is supposed to be fun,
people! So let's make having fun while showing our rabbits a New Year's resolution.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!
Amy Mersiovsky
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December 2011
DIRECTOR’S REPORTS CONTINUED:
DIANE STOVALL
Are we all doing the happy dance now that summer is gone? I'm sure our
rabbits are, poor little guys. A lot of our breeders, large and
small, lost rabbits to the brutal summer, BUT IT'S GONE!!! We can
re-group and make plans for the rest of the winter and spring shows.
Thanksgiving is gone and I think
10 lbs. over the week-end. Nice
kids. Now it's full speed ahead
looking for full nest boxes from
stockings.
at our house we each must have gained
to see family and visit with grand
for the Holidays.
I'm sure we are
Santa, maybe a few new ones in the
Congratulations go out to the Boehringers.
They took 5th SR castor doe and
BOV/BOS with my SR castor buck in
open and 1st jr broken buck, and 2nd
broken buck in youth at the 2011
ARBA Convention.
This time of year can get so crazy but I hope everyone will stop and
take a deep breath. Remember all that we have to be grateful for. We
are all in a hobby we love and have a lot of extended family that is
right there with us. After all, who else could understand our joy when
we see new babies in the box or the heartache when we loose one of our
old ones. Only other rabbit people.
Say a prayer for Our service men and women that can't be home for the
holidays, may they be home safe and sound real soon.
The Mini Rex are making a good showing so far this year. The National
Standings are showing a LOT of the Texas youth right up there towards
the top in standings.
WAY TO GO KIDS! The Texas youth group are some very special kids that
are on their way to being outstanding adults we can all be proud to
know. As open breeders we need to make sure they know what a great
group they are and how much we respect them.
Merry Christmas and have a safe Holiday Season,
Diane Stovall
Congratulations to Keith Greenway on
his BOS win with his Jr. Red Doe "SCFs Sun
Seeker" 2011 Permian Basin Fair, Odessa,
Texas
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