Ok, Here's a tough one to deal with and more detailed information about this will be in my newest book (in progress).
Nobody out there likes to be told that they have a structural abnormality in their herd but...we DO have a structural abnormaility in the spines of some lines that can affect the breed as a whole. Don't think that we are alone in having this in our breed as I have seen it in Dwarfs, Polish, Hollands, Lionheads, Jersey Woolies and even in Flemish Giants. I haven't gotten to check many more breeds yet but suspect it is in many others as well.
Why is this problem so hard to deal with? Because many breeders have no clue what it is. Many breeders don't even know how to check for it. In my opinion, ALL JUDGES should include it in their checks on animals as it is easy to do when checking the topline of an animal.
Let me ask you this...what controls or shapes the topline of an animal? Don't know? Get your derierre out to the barn and feel where the topline of your favorite animal is. What holds it's shape there? We will wait until you return.........oh, and you may want to bring the bunny with you for the rest of this article.
Now that you are back...what controls the topline? YES! The SPINE!!! VERY GOOD!!! <grin> Did you feel the spine on your animal? You say yes...but did you REALLY feel the spine? Where does the spine start? At the base of the skull. Did you know that you can feel the spine of your animal from right down at the table by sticking your finger down between the shoulder and head? You have to be somewhat gentle and spread the shoulder muscles a bit but you CAN feel the spine all the way to the table on that end just like you can on the hindend.
Now, I want you to feel the spine on the front end...notice how the shape of the spine controls the shape of the shoulder for the most part too. If the spine is laid back, the shoulder tends to be a little longer. If the spine is short and rises close to the ears the shoulders tend to be very short and well rounded. If you have a dip in the spine on the shoulder then you will often have a dip or low shoulders on the animal.
Where the abnormality comes into play is when the spine is actually bent, crooked, or folded over on itself. Now it is something that if we look for, we can correct in our herd.
Below are some deviations that range from mild to severe. The two most severe MUST be culled out or your shoulders will never improve. This is a genetic recessive from what I understand so whenever you see it, you must consider the animals that were bred together that produced it as well.
For the bunny above, the orange or red is about where the spine should be. The magenta is a slight deviation that will result in a dip in the shoulder or a shoulder that starts it's rise late, and the blue is an actual area of the spine that feels broken and bends back over on itself. Often, when this trait in blue is present the animal is not as deep as it could be. They often appear to be very flat over the back but this isn't always the case. Hollands don't show this flatness as strongly as other breeds may.
Although it isn't easy, the magenta spine can be corrected with alot of culling but the animal with the blue spine should be culled from the herd. NEVER purchase an animal with this deviation or you will be putting the genes into your herd for this trait. They can remain hidden for many many generations and all of a sudden hit when you least expect and want them.
My Personal Philosophy: The shoulders are the hardest part of the rabbit to fix so make sure you start out with good shoulders to begin with.
