Bonding hardly hoppenstance
Kids and rabbits get connected in a sport that gives the youths a jump on life skills.
brighton » Marcus was too preoccupied to perform. He could have been nervous, or he might have been tired, hungry or bored. That’s the thing about rabbits — they get distracted easily.
His trainer, 10-year-old Morgan Barba, was unfazed. She bent down and gently prodded his bottom, clicked her tongue and cooed his name softly to encourage him over the last jump.
“I can’t pull him or force him,” she said, shrugging.
The girl picked up the small, black-and-white dwarf hotot, Marcus, and put him back in his cage along thewall of the exhibit hall in the Adams County Regional Park on March 25.
“It’s just amazing to see what these rabbits can do— when they want to,” said Sarah Barba, Morgan’s mother, and the coach of the new rabbit-hopping class offered for kids in the AdamsCounty 4-H agriculture and livestock program.
“Marcus is a great high jumper, but he gets easily sidetracked,” Barba said. “If he smells something, he stops right in front of the bar and doesn’t move.”
This is the second year that rabbit hopping, or rabbit Olympics, has been offered as a class through Adams County 4-H. It’s also a new competitive event at the Adams County Fair.
Rabbit hopping is like an agility course for dogs. Rabbits are harnessed and led by their trainers through a straight or L-shaped course to hop over three or four thin rods that are elevated several inches off the ground.
The sport is very new to the United States. It started in Sweden and Denmark about 30 years ago.
“I’m just learning as I go along. We’re trying to teach the kids the rules for now,” Barba said. “Kids (learn) how to give their rabbits health checks and how to work with the rabbit when it gets distracted.”
There were six kids who participated in Adams County rabbit hopping last year. This year, there are 11. Barba said interested rabbit owners can still take classes this year to prepare for the fair events in early August.
Joan Knoebel, president of the American Hopping Association for Rabbits and Cavies, said most of the competition guidelines for rabbit hopping in the United States were modeled after rules in Europe.
“We’re so new that we’re really just teaching the standards right now,” Knoebel said. “There’s a lot of misinformation out there about what you do to start training your rabbit. We’re creating a (uniform) code.”
Since the sport of rabbit hopping is so new, the most advanced competitors are only a few years into their own training. A majority of organized rabbit hopping happens through 4-H programs across the country.
The rabbit-hopping students of Adams County can bring their bunnies in totrain with Barba twice a month to prepare for the fair events.
“It’s just a fun way for kids to work with their animals in a disciplined, educational way,” she said. “Rabbit hopping is great for teaching patience and commitment.”