01/09/2026
SHOWABLE VERSUS SHOW QUALITY
I so often see people saying they want to stick to showable colors so they can have a larger market, but they don’t actually show. These breeders typically have poor quality stock (by show standards; the stock may be good quality for other things, such as wooler angoras) that would be close to last, last, or even disqualified in a show. People (usually novice exhibitors, often kids) get their rabbits from these breeders and have to face the brutal disappointment of being told their rabbits are not show quality and that if they want to continue in rabbits, they need to start over.
I want to preface this by saying that everyone starts somewhere. It’s okay to not have top quality show rabbits to start with and be working toward better quality. It’s not okay to pass off your low quality to others as show quality, especially when others are unsuspecting newbies.
There are two categories of people who do this.
The first is the extremely predatory type who know they are sending their low quality rabbits to unsuspecting people and just don’t care. These people are the ones who I suspect most people would agree are outright just terrible people. They prey on people, counting on novices to not know what to look for. This is the easier category of people to deal with, as it’s very black and white. They’re bad.
The second category is also bad, but they don’t mean to be. They think that a rabbit that can be entered in a show and not be disqualified makes it a show quality rabbit. They don’t show their stock, nor do they have mentors who do. They don’t know what makes a good show quality example of their breed. These people can potentially be taught to do better, because there’s not intentional malice behind their actions. Doing better can either mean not passing their rabbits off as show quality or improving their herd until they’re actually producing show quality rabbits to be able to offer.
So, what makes a rabbit show quality versus just showable?
Showable rabbits are rabbits that TECHNICALLY fit the very loosest constraints of the breed standard. They’re within the weight limits. They’re a showable color. They don’t have and breed or general disqualifications. They CAN be shown.
Show quality rabbits are rabbits that CLOSELY fit the breed standard and can be reasonably expected to place well at shows.
* Often breeders will label rabbits as “show prospect” or “show potential”. Ideally this is used to mean a rabbit that a knowledgeable breeder expect to grow up to be competitive with a good chance at showing well. But they understand that the rabbit may possibly go overweight, or the shoulders may possibly lengthen, or any number of things that we can’t always control MIGHT happen. We don’t EXPECT it to happen, because we know our herds well, but we can’t completely control genetics! Do note, though, that sometimes rabbits that are unlikely to develop well and be competitive may be labeled “show potential” too. Just something to be aware of.
All show quality rabbits are showable, because they must be in order to have a chance to place well. However, not all showable rabbits are show quality. That is where the second type of breeder often makes the misunderstanding.
I always love to use examples, from my own herd when possible, to emphasize my meanings. These are two littermate sisters. Both are blue Japanese harlequins. Both would show in the exact same class at a show. Both are showable. Only the second one would I consider show quality. Take a moment, if you like, and see if you can figure out why. Feel free to open your standard of perfection and look. Judges often look at the standard during judging, and that’s a GOOD thing. There’s no reason you can’t also take a look!
Okay, now that you’ve had a chance to figure it out for yourself, if you wanted to, I’ll break it down.
The first doe has enough of a face split marking that most judges won’t disqualify her. She is a recognized color. She has no white spots. Her nails are the correct color. Her teeth are not misaligned. Assumedly she will grow up to be within the appropriate weight limit, as both of her parents made weight without a problem. She could absolutely be shown. She could even be registered. However, there are several marking faults that will probably prevent her from placing well unless her competition is equally poorly marked.
Her face split marking is only just there. It’s enough, but a lot of judges won’t love it. I’ve shown and grand championed rabbits with equally bleah face splits, but they all had other great attributes that made up for it. She doesn’t. She does alternate her ears, and ears alternate with her face. That’s where the good ends. Her chest and front legs are solid fawn with no blue on them. Ideally, one side would be blue from chest to leg to toes. Truly ideally, that side would fall under the fawn side of her face. Ok, that’s one marking fault. If that was all she lacked, I’d still consider her show quality.
Moving along. Ideal body bands/bars would be 5-7 distinct, clean bands/bars per side, with approximately equal amounts of each color. One side has 3, and the fawn color dominates. The other side has 5ish bands if you squint at it a bit, but they’re very messy. Then on the underside, ideal would be all four legs/feet alternating with each other. Her hind feet alternate, but the hind legs don’t. And the front legs and feet are entirely fawn.
The first doe just doesn’t have enough markings nor enough marking quality for me to consider her show quality. She could be shown, but I wouldn’t expect a decent harlequin-knowledgeable judge to place her very highly unless the competition was similarly lacking.
The second doe is much better in many ways. She has faults too, but the overall number and specific type of faults make her still very competitively marked. To start with, her ears alternate with each other, her face split is very well-defined and runs the entire length of her face, and her chest/front legs/feet alternate with each other. All three alternate in a checkered pattern, giving her the ideal “3-part front”. That alone is going to have several judges place her above a lot of her potential competition.
Moving to her body markings. I’d like to see more well-defined bands/bars, but they’re better defined than her sister’s. I would also like to see another good band/bar in the more fawn side. Her body markings are her weakness. However, as we move to the underside, she again shows some good traits. Her chest division is very clean. The fawn side is fully fawn all the way to the toes. The blue side is fully blue all the way to the toes. The hind legs/feet aren’t quite as nice, but they do still alternate both with each other and with the front legs/feet. She has a clean belly pattern. Note: the standard doesn’t specify what pattern, exactly, is needed for the belly. If it’s cleanly marked, it’s good. This doe has a very aesthetic perfect four checker belly that a lot of judges mistakenly think is what the standard calls for. It DOES fit the ideal for the standard, but it’s not the only way a rabbit can fit the ideal for the way the standard describes the belly.
The second doe is show QUALITY. I fully expect her to be able to place well. She’s likely going to be competitive to win legs toward her grand championship without much trouble.
I would never pass the first doe off as show quality. The first doe still has some good parts, and she may stay here to be a brood doe. She may occasionally find herself on a show table to be a class filler, if I know other breeders will be coming and we need an extra rabbit to ensure someone gets a leg toward grand championship. I don’t expect her to ever WIN one of those legs, unless the judge doesn’t know what they’re doing, because hopefully someone will be showing something better. In areas with little competition, she might even do okay, but because I live in a competitive area for the breed, I just don’t expect her to be able to place well.
BREED MATTERS. LOCATION MATTERS.
In a highly competitive breed, the difference between the top two rabbits and the bottom two rabbits can be very small. It might be down to how well conditioned the rabbits are. In such a case, it’s possible that a rabbit will place last and still be show quality, just not currently in the perfect condition needed to do better. In such competitive breeds, it’s even MORE important that a breeder who is offering “show quality” rabbits actually shows and is getting frequent feedback and comparisons of their stock to others.
In a rare breed, a rabbit that is not nearly so close to the standard ideal may still be show quality, simply because it’s among the best there is in the breed and/or in the area. The Midwest is a hotbed for harlequin breeders. Most of the top nationally competitive breeders (myself included) are in the Midwest. I may be much picker about what I label “show quality” versus what someone in an area with very few harlequins might label as “show quality”. That doesn’t make the other person unethical or wrong. It just means we’re competing against a different level of quality in our respective areas. For me to place well, I regularly have to show against breeders who have won multiple best of breed wins at national shows. I hold my own and often walk away with best and/or best opposite of breed. Just based on the overall stronger competition here, I would consider it unethical of myself to consider something like the first doe as “show quality”. The same rabbit in Florida, where there is competitively little competition, may be winning best of breed left and right.
For this reason, if you’re offering or looking, you need to know what the plan is. If you’re offering, what is the person looking wanting? Do they want to be nationally competitive, or are they happy to be locally competitive? If you’re looking, you need to figure this out, preferably before approaching a breeder to get stock.
Similarly, different varieties of the same breed may vary greatly in overall quality. Sable silver martens are the least well-developed and generally least competitive color in the breed. They also happen to be my absolute favorite. I don’t breed them because it’s easier to place with them at the variety level, but because I love them. However, because the overall quality of the color is just lower as a whole, I may keep a rabbit and even show a rabbit that isn’t of the same quality that would eliminate a black or a blue from my breeding herd or my show string. The color has to exist and keep existing to improve it. If I chase only top quality as quickly as possible, I’ll likely lose the color from my herd entirely. Since rabbits show by color (in most breeds), is perfectly normal to breed specifically for one or a few colors, even if those colors aren’t as good a quality as a whole as other colors. Ideally, we keep working to improve them until they’re on par with the more competitive colors, but we can only work with what exists.
IS SHOW QUALITY AND BREEDING QUALITY THE SAME THING?
To an extent, in many breeds, it is. For most breeds, you’re going to want to breed to rabbits that are competitive on the show table. There may be some use of parts rabbits (meaning a rabbit that might not be overall amazing quality but is very amazing in one or a few parts where the rest of your herd is weak, so you use them to introduce the stronger quality of those traits to the rest of your herd). You might use an unshowable color or a rabbit that’s not in the weight limits, but otherwise is excellent, as breeding stock. However, your show stock and breeding stock are going to mostly be the same (or at least look pretty darn close).
Marked breeds bring a whole different element to the game. Rabbits that are completely unshowable (disqualified) can produce top show quality offspring. Every single one of my top 5 national placing harlequins has at least one rabbit in their pedigree that wasn’t showable at all. Most of them have multiple such rabbits in their pedigree.
SO HOW DOES A NEW EXHIBITOR FIGURE IT ALL OUT?
The best place to start is to go to a show. Watch the judging for the breed you’re interested in. The judges will give comments on the rabbits, which can be very helpful to learn what they’re looking for. You won’t understand a lot of what they’re saying, most likely, but you’ll start to get an idea how nuanced judging is and what traits are most important for that breed. For harlequins, markings and color are king. A harlequin with perfect type (shape of the body, head, ears, and legs) but terrible markings should do very poorly. For Holland lops, it’s the exact opposite. Color almost doesn’t matter, so long as it’s a showable color with no disqualifications. A holland lop with perfect color and terrible type should do very poorly.
Next find a breeder or breeders who do well at the level you hope to compete at. Again, if your goal is to compete at a national level, go to a breeder who is successful at a national level. If you just want to show locally, it’s perfectly fine to find a breeder who is successful locally but maybe doesn’t compete well nationally. My harlequins do well both locally and nationally. I’m still getting my silver marten herd to the point of being nationally competitive, but I do well locally and have gotten good comments nationally (just not good ENOUGH yet to place where I hope to eventually be). I primarily breed sables. My herd just isn’t going to be as competitive compared to someone who focuses on the more competitive colors. Eventually my goal is to be able to go neck-to-neck with my sables against the other colors at a national level, but I’m not there yet. For that reason, I won’t misrepresent myself as having rabbits that could aim for best of breed at the national level. I do have quality enough to do well within the sable variety at national level, but there’s a lot more work to be done to get sables to breed competitive level. If someone’s aim is for best of breed at national shows, I’m going to direct them to someone who focuses on and does well in the more competitive colors.
So, please, breeders, truly assess your rabbits and label them appropriately. Showable is not the same as show quality. You can’t know what is show quality if you don’t show, and especially if you’ve never shown. I’d argue you can’t know what is show quality if you haven’t shown in several years, just because you won’t know the current quality of potential competition. Everyone around you may have vastly advanced their quality since you last showed. If you’re not breeding specifically FOR show quality or at least working with a mentor who does breed for show quality and currently successfully shows, please don’t misrepresent your rabbits as show quality. It’s heartbreaking watching new exhibitors be crushed because someone sent them home with a rabbit that should never have been labeled as “show quality”.
