By Marda Johnson
Managing Editor
Lebanon — A group of about 40 people filled the stands in the rabbit/poultry barn Sunday for the Boone County 4-H Fair’s first-ever rabbit agility event.
Because it was the first year, there was no actual competition; instead the 4-H’ers took turns putting their bunnies through the paces for exhibition.
Rabbit Club leader David Olson said he hopes to get rabbit agility added to the official fair events in the future. Groups in Wisconsin and Iowa already have the event, but if it becomes a fair event here, Boone could be the first county in the state to feature such an event.
The 12-foot-long agility course was built by Beth Hale. It is built on a table chest-high to most of the 4-H’ers, featuring a series of obstacles that require the rabbit to jump, climb and even hunker down to squirm under.
Hale, the agility leader, said the idea was inspired by a rabbit last year.
“Dave and I discussed this last year because we had a rabbit that was an excellent jumper. It just snowballed from there,” she said.
Rabbit agility is like dog agility, just on a smaller scale.
