The Weight Question Was Settled

 

Candy’s article explains the controversy surrounding ARBA’s proposed increase in the Giant Angora’s minimum senior weights. Although most breeders responding to a 1999 survey opposed the increase, today’s Giant Angora standard reflects the higher minimums.

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A senior buck must weigh at least 9½ pounds, and a senior doe must weigh at least 10 pounds. There is no maximum senior weight.

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Those minimums help distinguish the Giant from the other Angora breeds and preserve its identity as a large, commercial-bodied wool producer. Size alone is not enough, however. A quality Giant Angora must also possess correct body type, sound health, proper furnishings, and that wonderful three-fiber coat of underwool, awn fluff, and awn hair. It still must be a Giant Angora, not simply a large wooly rabbit.​

 

The Dream of Color Never Disappeared

 

The early colored Giant Angora efforts documented by Candy did not immediately lead to an accepted variety, but the dream did not disappear.

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Throughout the years, breeders continued producing colored Giants for their beautiful natural fiber. Some carefully worked toward ARBA recognition. Others preserved valuable color genetics, improved body type and wool, shared breeding stock, and quietly kept colored Giants alive in their barns.

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Not every contribution was made beneath the lights of an ARBA Convention. Much of the work happened one litter, one breeding decision, and one shared rabbit at a time. All of it mattered.

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Many breeders carried pieces of the dream forward, even when official recognition still appeared far away.

 

Black Giants Carried the Dream Through Decades

 

Before Chestnut opened the first official door, Black was the color most persistently carried toward it. The record is not simply a list of failed presentations. It is a relay of breeders who invested years, cage space, money, travel, careful breeding decisions, and a great deal of heart,  then handed the work forward when rules, livestock, health, or life changed their plans.

 

The early development network

In her 1999 history, Candy Haenszel preserved Pat Duggan’s 1994 account of breeders working with colored Giants. Pat specifically named Jeri Fisher of Montana, Louise Walsh, and California Angora Rabbit Society members Sherie Jorgenson and Jane Turner. Their projects were not all Black COD efforts, but they formed a wider network that developed, preserved, and exchanged the colored genetics from which later Black programs could grow.

 

1995 — Louisville, Kentucky: Pat Duggan’s first Black presentation.

Pat Duggan presented Black Giant Angoras at the ARBA Convention in Louisville. The presentation did not pass the ARBA Standards Committee’s review. 

 

1996 — Peoria, Illinois: Pat Duggan’s second Black presentation.

Pat returned the following year at Peoria, but the Black Giants did not pass. The presentation came painfully close, with one rabbit only two ounces below the required weight. It was a striking example of how an entire presentation could turn on a single rabbit and a single measurement. 

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1997–1999 — Jeri Fisher received the next opportunity.

After Pat’s second rejection, presentation rights passed to Jeri Fisher of Montana, the next Certificate of Development holder. Changes in ARBA rules meant Jeri could not present until the 1998 Convention in Portland, Oregon. Before that Convention, she sold her stock and returned the sponsorship to Pat Duggan. Candy recorded that Pat intended to begin again at the 1999 Convention in Louisville. Candy’s history ends at that planned restart; the sources reviewed for this continuation do not document a successful Black presentation there.

 

2013 — Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Janet Gruber carried the project forward.

By 2013, Janet Gruber, later known as Janet Deifel, held the Black Giant COD and brought the project to the ARBA Convention in Harrisburg for another presentation effort.  Betty Chu’s Northern California Angora Guild blog documented the Black Giant presentation at the Harrisburg ARBA Convention. The variety did not achieve recognition, and the COD work continued afterward.

 

The Janet Deifel COD was not a one-person effort. Colleen Boyd in 2014 as a current member of the Black Giant COD. Colleen Wagner was also actively breeding Black Giants and preserving important colored Giant genetics during this period. These breeders, along with the people who supplied, raised, transported, and evaluated rabbits, kept the project alive between Conventions.

 

2016–2017 — Planned presentations and another difficult handoff.

A Black Giant presentation was planned for the 2016 ARBA Convention in Del Mar, California, but it was withdrawn before taking place. Breeders continued preparing Black Giants for Janet Deifel’s COD project and worked toward another presentation in Indianapolis in 2017. No completed presentation at Indianapolis has been documented, but the breeding work continued as exhibitors produced animals and assembled a qualifying group for the next opportunity. 

 

2018 — West Springfield, Massachusetts: Colleen Wagner, Emily Ashton, and Adam Schuller.
A new Black Giant team formed under Colleen Wagner, working alongside Emily Ashton and Adam Schuller, and prepared for its first presentation at the West Springfield ARBA Convention. To meet the rules then in effect, the team gathered five signed affidavits from five separate households actively breeding Black Giant Angoras to the proposed standard. Their proposed Black color description followed the Angora Color Guide in the 2016–2020 ARBA Standard of Perfection.

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They made it all the way to Convention, but one devastating loss stopped the presentation. Betty Chu photographed and documented the team while the Black Giants were examined by the NARBC Standards Committee. Their senior buck had died only one week before Convention. The substitute buck was not mature enough to meet the senior weight requirement. The Black group therefore did not pass the national specialty club’s preliminary review and was never presented to the ARBA Standards Committee.

 

That was not a small disappointment. Years of planning came to an abrupt stop when one of the required rabbits died shortly before the presentation. Even so, the team traveled to the Convention, gathered and groomed their remaining rabbits, shared them with knowledgeable breeders, and strengthened the network of people committed to continuing the Black Giant project.

 

What the Black Giant efforts taught us

The Black projects exposed the extraordinary vulnerability of the old development process. A COD team could spend years preparing, yet lose its opportunity because one rabbit died, one animal missed weight, one coat was not ready, one breeder sold out, or too much of the project was concentrated in too few barns.

 

But these attempts were not wasted

Pat Duggan, Jeri Fisher, Janet Gruber Deifel, Colleen Boyd, Colleen Wagner, Emily Ashton, Adam Schuller, Louise Walsh, Sherie Jorgenson, Jane Turner, and the many unnamed breeders who raised and shared colored Giants carried the dream through decades when there was no recognized colored variety at all. They preserved rabbits, knowledge, pedigrees, and belief. Their work showed later breeders both what was possible and where a color project could break.

 

That history is one reason the Colored Giant Angora Village matters. We are intentionally distributing genetics, sharing records, developing multiple households, supporting transportation, comparing young stock, and helping promising rabbits reach the programs where they are most useful. The goal is not to erase the heartbreak of earlier attempts. It is to learn from it, and to make the next project strong enough to survive the unexpected.

 

Black did not become the first recognized colored Giant Angora. Even so, those breeders helped keep the path open long enough for Chestnut to walk through it.

 

Historical source note

Betty Chu’s Northern California Angora Guild blog is an especially valuable historical resource. Since 2005, Betty has consistently photographed and reported Angora shows, breeders, presentation teams, and results—often preserving details that never appeared in formal minutes or catalogs. The specific Black Giant posts used for this history are Black Giant Angora Presentation at Harrisburg (2013), Preparing for Broken Angora Presentations at the ARBA Convention in Massachusetts (2018), and the Northern California Angora Guild blog archive. This timeline also draws from Candy Haenszel’s From German to Giant.

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Chestnut Finally Opened the Door

 

I had raised and shown Ruby-Eyed White Giant Angoras for years, but I could not let go of the dream of seeing a beautiful, properly developed colored Giant Angora receive full ARBA recognition.  I chose Chestnut.  I liked black, although I truly loved the Chestnut Angora color.

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Chestnut was not necessarily the easiest color to pursue. The long Giant Angora coat can make correct ring color difficult to develop and evaluate. We needed more than a brown wool coat. We needed rich surface color, black-tipped guard hairs, properly defined intermediate bands, correct under color, and a lighter belly.  All carried on a rabbit that still met the Giant Angora standard for size, type, furnishings, and wool.

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The Chestnut Giant Angora passed its first ARBA presentation in Reno in 2022.

In 2023, at the 100th ARBA Convention in Louisville, Kentucky, our Chestnuts passed their second presentation unanimously. The ARBA Standards Committee awarded the variety an exemplary pass, waiving the normally required third presentation.

Chestnut became the first colored Giant Angora variety accepted into the ARBA Standard of Perfection.

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Effective November 1, 2023, Chestnut Giant Angoras became eligible to be entered in ARBA-sanctioned shows. The current ARBA Breed Identification Guide now lists Giant Angoras under both Colored and White, with Chestnut and Ruby-Eyed White as the recognized registration varieties.

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Thirty-five years after the Giant Angora became an officially recognized breed, color had finally arrived on the ARBA show table. That was an extraordinary finish to one chapter.  But it was never meant to be the end of the story.

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The New ARBA COD Rules Change Everything

 

The 2026–2030 ARBA Standard of Perfection introduced major changes to the Certificate of Development process.

 

When Kevin and I pursued the Chestnut COD, the project was necessarily concentrated within the small group of people named on the certificate. The presentation animals had to be bred and owned within that COD team. Friends could encourage us and cheer us on, but only a limited number of people could participate directly in producing the presentation animals.

The new rules embrace a much broader community effort.

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The new proof-of-interest requirement calls for developing varieties to be supported by multiple breeders and households. At Convention presentations, there must be a minimum of 25 of the developing variety entered by breeders, from five different households.  This is beyond the COD holders.

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Working-standard animals may also be exhibited at ARBA-sanctioned shows before final recognition. Although they cannot yet compete for Best of Breed or Best in Show.  Breeders can gain valuable opportunities to place these rabbits before licensed judges, receive feedback, educate exhibitors, and demonstrate genuine interest in the variety.

This changes everything.

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A successful color project can no longer live almost entirely inside one rabbitry. We need multiple breeders producing, raising, evaluating, entering, and showing quality animals. We need the genetics distributed widely enough that the project can survive the loss of one litter, one bloodline, or even one breeding program.

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Community participation is no longer simply helpful. It is woven into the road ahead.

I think that is something worth celebrating.

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The Foster Parent Program Helped Make History

 

One of the most important pieces of the Chestnut Giant Angora COD effort was our foster parent program.

Under the COD rules at the time, the rabbits used in the presentation had to be owned or bred by the COD holders: Karen McTeague, Kevin Vaughn, and me, Tammy Vaughn.

 

By the spring of 2023, our barn was overflowing. We had so many promising Chestnut Giants that rabbits were being housed in travel cages, stacked wherever we could safely make room. Nearly every rabbit left in the barn looked worthy of further consideration, which made narrowing the group even more difficult. We needed help.

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I announced to the entire NARBC membership that Chestnut Giant Angoras were available at no cost, but there were strings attached. Each foster parent agreed to groom and care for the rabbit, follow the presentation preparation schedule, and do everything possible to help that animal reach the ARBA Convention in show condition. I would retain ownership through the presentation, and afterward, full ownership would be transferred to the foster parent. Twelve rabbits were placed with foster homes across the country.

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We created a private Facebook group so everyone could work together. We compared progress, answered grooming questions, coordinated transportation, and carefully planned our shearing schedule. Everyone sheared within the same designated week so the coats would be at a similar stage of growth by Convention.

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That consistency mattered. A successful presentation is not simply a collection of good rabbits. The animals must appear uniform, as though they truly belong to the same developing variety. Yet our foster rabbits were living in different climates, eating different feed, and being housed under different conditions, both indoors and outdoors. Many factors were beyond our control, so we worked hard to control the things we could.

 

Parasite prevention was one of my firm requirements. Mites are preventable and treatable, and we were not going to risk losing an otherwise excellent rabbit to a manageable problem. Every foster parent followed a strict ivermectin schedule, along with the coordinated grooming and shearing plan. The results were remarkable.

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Of the twelve rabbits sent to foster homes, six were selected for the final presentation group on the last day. Half of the final show string had been cared for and prepared by foster families spread across the country.​​

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Altogether, I brought fifty Chestnut Giant Angoras and seven White Giant Angoras to the Convention. We filled the rows with rabbits that represented years of planning, breeding, grooming, and cooperation.  An army of my fellow Angora people joined me to help me groom and fluff everyone.