srsanlegsweeps

Sanctions, Legs, & Sweepstake Points

These three words can be very confusing to people that are new to the world of showing rabbits. I know they confused me a lot when I first started, and they are words that newcomers are often asking me the meaning of.
       How many legs can you get per show?
       My breed’s national club didn’t sanction the show, can I still get legs?
      On the show statements I get after the shows, what are all these points listed?
      Why can I not get legs at 4-H shows?
I’ve heard all of these plus more.

Sanctions:
To have an ARBA open show, the show must have an ARBA sanction. Now what is a sanction? A sanction is what the club sponsoring the show sends off for to the ARBA. For an open show it cost $20, for a youth show it’s $10. It must be sent in at least 30 days in advance of the show date. The benefits of a sanction? It shows that your show will be going be the ARBA rules, which you can find in the ARBA yearbook. It also allows the shows to give out grand champion legs where earned.
In the show catalog it must show the sanction number and information on joining the ARBA. To receive legs, you only need an ARBA sanction.
In the show catalogs you might have noticed that it also mentions the show is sanctioned with various National Specialty clubs. Whether your breed’s national club is sanctioned or not, this does not effect whether you’ll get your leg or not as you only need the ARBA sanction for legs. The breed specialty club’s sanction only matters if you belong to that particular club. If you belong to it, you can earn sweepstake points which we’ll learn more about later.

Legs:
As was mention before, legs can only be earned at ARBA sanctioned shows. The
majority of 4-H shows can not get legs as they are not sanctioned shows. Some 4-h shows do get sanctions which makes their show a youth show.
“My rabbit just earned first place, Best of Variety, and Best of Breed, my rabbit will be getting three legs in one show.”
The above statement is a common mistake that new breeders make. Only one leg can be earned per ARBA sanction show. To earn a leg there must be at least 5 or more rabbits and 3 or more breeders and win one of the following:
1st place in their class
Best of Variety (BOV)
Best Opposite Sex Variety (BOSV)
Best of Group (BOG)
Best Opposite Sex Group (BOSG)
Best of Breed (BOB)
Best Opposite Sex (BOS)
Best in Show (BIS)
To become a Grand Champion, a rabbit must be registered by an ARBA Register to show that they are free from disqualifications which cost $4. They must have at least 3 legs. On three legs they’ll be needed to be filled out entirely (date of birth, registration number, ect). These three legs along with $4 will need to be sent into ARBA, who’ll send you back a Grand Champion certificate.

Sweepstake Points:
To earn sweepstake points you need to belong to your breed’s national or local club, state club, ect. The ARBA show will then need to also be sanction by these clubs.
Rabbits placing in the top 5 of their class earn sweepstake points. The rabbits will get so many points per rabbit entered in their class which will be:
1st place- 6 points per rabbit entered
2nd place- 4 points per rabbit entered
3rd place- 3 points per rabbit entered
4th place- 2 points per rabbit entered
5th place- 1 point per rabbit entered
Meaning if a rabbit earned first of 6, that rabbit will then earn 6 points for each of those 6 rabbits entered, giving it 36 points.

I hope this gives you a better understanding of sanctions, legs, and sweepstake points and will help the next show make more sense to you.

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