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BlueCamasRabbitry

BlueCamasRabbitry

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2007
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Location
Thurston County, Washington, USA
Alright, so I know many of you here are "fans" of Magic because he is one of the many rabbit hoppers here on the forum (others include FallingStar's Buttercup & Mikoli'sOllie (R.I.P.)). And many of you are interested in starting rabbit hopping, but the question most of you all have is "Where/how do I start?" So...before I share my idea, to those of you who don't know what rabbit hopping is, it is a sport that requires rabbits to jump over hurdles/obstacles in the quickest time and with the least faults. The rabbits wear a harness and are controlled by their owners, or trainers. Many countries have large competitions, but in the U.S. and other places, such as Australia, and England, small-scale shows through 4-H and friends are held.

Competingin "bunny-show-jumping" is a fun way to get out and show what your "rabbit-hopper" can do.

So now you newbies to the sport, and maybe some of you who had heard of it before, but just didn't quite understand it know what it is!

And my brilliant idea? A kind of, on-line training program to help you get your rabbit hopping!

If you're very interested in rabbit hopping, learning more, etc. please join some of these fantastic clubs! (For the Yahoo clubs, you must have a Yahoo account!)

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RabbitHopping/

A great hopping forum run by our own Mikoli!: http://keephopping.proboards21.com/

So, if you are interested in starting rabbit hopping and learning more, please feel free to ask any questions!

I may be able to keep up like an e-mail system going with other trainers to give advice, answer questions, exchange lesson results, etc!

Emily
 
i would LOVE some info as i have recently found out fiona has some AMAZING jumping capabilities!! she keeps jumping OVER the babygates we have at the base of all of our stairs.
 
Swanlake, sounds like Fiona would make a fantastic jumper! What breed is she?

The first thing you'll want to do is make sure she is harness trained. If you can also train her to respond to aids (stop, right, left, forward) while you're harness training her then you won't have to do it later on in the training.

Afterwards, you can set out a few 1-2 inch jumps about 1 foot apart and ask Fiona to jump over them. Eventually she'll know what to do, and as she jumps ask her to "Jump" and she'll soon learn that when you say Jump, you mean jump! lol. Reward her after a few jumps with a treat, or praise.

Emily
 
Great. Your welcome! If anyone else is interested, just let me know! I can answer questions, offer advice....

And soon I should have some information sheets that I can send to people telling how to get started and the basics. I'm not sure when I'll have them finished - I haven't even started yet! lol.

Emily
 
There is a group of 4-H girlsin Calgary, Alberta who is promoting this sport. They hold rallies and Demos at the different shows (Calgary Stampede, Edmonton Rabbit Show). They have been featured on different TV channels and newspapers.

2z4e39t.jpg


This is Shippou getting over the barriers.

http://members.shaw.ca/crhc/
 
Pet_Bunny I've seen some of their interviews on YouTube before! I wish I could do that, but honestly I dont know how to start/who to contact and Magic has to settle in/get used to the course before he could perform.

I am pretty close with some of the employees at a local petshop in the next town over (I've sold bunnies there, been there tons of times and went to a costume show there with my dad's old bunny) I can contact them and ask about demonstrations, I think that would be cool.

Emily
 
I want to start!
I'm just really scared to put Phinn on the harness again,
when he was younger he got loose once, and it wasn't a very good time :(.
I'm just so scared of him getting loose and running, or getting scared and getting out of it, and since i don't have a fenced in yard or anything :?.
 
I dont have a fenced yard either and have actually had only one problem of a dog coming onto my property whilst I was training and I was about to kill the dog (The owner was on my property too and did NOTHING while his dog chased my rabbit. I would of took the dog to the pound!).

When you train, you don't want the fencing up right against the outside of the jumps, because in competitions/shows that's not how it is, but you could set up like a rectangular/square "ring" and have jumps inside, etc.

Also, if you could train at convention centers, churches, basically any large indoor places you can ask if you can train there but you might need to put some type of protection down on the carpet, etc.

ETA: Also, Silvie, once he's really good on a harness he should obey you more easily and stuff. When I run Magic free-jumping he runs off towards the other bunnies and stuff.

Emily

 
BlueSkyAcresRabbitry wrote:
Also, if you could train at convention centers, churches, basically any large indoor places you can ask if you can train there but you might need to put some type of protection down on the carpet, etc.
Click to expand...
Here are some more pictures of them that I took took in August. It was a demonstration inside a shopping mall.

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vynzuq.jpg



 
Those are some awesome shots! I love them!

I've started Buttercup in Rabbit Hopping before, but since we've moved, I lost some of the jumps. But I think I'll put some of this week and practice with her a little bit.

I'll probably take pics and videos. Maybe..
 
Yes, I will def. take pics and videos!

YES YES YES! That would be sooo fun. Just bring him over one day and we could do a little jumping contest thing. Like a pratice show or whatever, and Mandi could be the judge! haha.
 
yah totally that'd be awesome!

So is anyone else interested? I'm very happy to give help to anyone interested in training!!


ETA: I have added some new training videos today to my Youtube channel:

http://au.youtube.com/user/lilyandjackAnd justa warning, there is a slight cuss word at the end of the video titled "Magic-Star, Rabbit-Show-Jumping, Oxers 3" So I'm warning ya, you don't have to watch it but you can if you want. Just after he finishes the last then stop it if you dont want to here the cuss word. It's nothing bad, just the "s" word.


Emily

 
I think Georgie would love rabbit hopping, he's such an active boy who loves to play and is very smart.

He's recovering from a booboo, but I'd love to try this with him in the future!

Only problem is he panics with the harness on, so it would have to be 'free' hopping, since I tried with an old harness I had, and he went into panic mode and flipped out, so it's not going on him again.
 
Ooh that sucks.

I've tried to train my MR buck, Ray, but he hates being outside unless he's in his ex.pen. He's def. an inside kinda boy! lol.

Has anyone watched the training vids. yet? Please comment too if you have a Youtube account!! :)

Emily
 
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