~ The Rabbitry ~
SnowShoeBunnies Rabbitry is officially registered with ARBA -- #Z431
My rabbitry is in a big old barn in upstate New York. I worked on remodeling the grain room in 2006. The room still had about 60 bushels of oats in the upper level. It had been vacant for over 7 years, so you can imagine what a job it was hauling those oats out of there! I had a new cement floor poored and windows installed that actually worked. The old sliding back door was replaced with double wide doors that locked. The walls were insulated, painted and finished with wipeable sheets of laminated board. The grain room now houses a 90 hole rabbitry. I use the milk house for storage and an isolation room. The cats have their beds there too and love to hang out on the window sills. My friend Elaine Lewis (Blue Diamond Rabbitry) also had a great set-up. I used her idea to hang my own cages and bought my propane heater on her advice. Elaine sold out in June of 2009. I bought her entire Blue-Eyed-White herd and am working with them now.

View SnowShoeBunnies Rabbitry

~ Some Background about my Orange & Fawn Dwarfs ~
Thank you for your interest in the Orange and Fawn varieties. These colors are still considered rather rare. I have worked locally with consistent line breeding and culling to achieve animals that I feel exemplify this variety on the show table. I started this variety in 1997. I dedicate a large portion of my 100 hole rabbitry to the orange and fawn, however the BEW's take up about 1/3 now and continue to grow. I am a charter Breeder with the ANDRC and have achieved many local and national wins as well as placing 3rd in National Sweepstakes for our region in 2009. I support the show hobby in many ways and I am currently the NYR&CBA Outreach Chairperson. I'm also secretary, treasurer and director of several clubs in New York State. I work very hard to register most of my rabbits with ARBA and nearly half of my working stock are Grand Champions. Many others have legs.

View list of core stock used in Barbara Downing's breeding program.

I am located in upstate New York in the Syracuse vicinity. My foundation stock came out of California via Michigan. In 2002 a went in with Ted McBride to buy an orange buck by the name of Smith's "GO". This was from Gary and Susan Smith (NC). This buck became key to my orange and fawn breeding program. GO quickly became a Grand Champion and accumulated 21 legs within a couple of show seasons. He has improved both orange and fawn in so many ways. . . . I consider him as part of my "Orange Hall of Fame" now. Thank you again Gary and Susan for parting with this animal!

Beringer was a newer addition to the breeding program. He was purchased from Terri Gegenfurtner of Bellflower Bunnies prior to 2006 Fall Convention by Ted McBride. Ted loaned this buck to me several times and I appreciated another set of genes to work into my breeding program.

The orange and fawn are beautiful colors along with the Blue-Eyed-Whites. I think this was one of the reasons I decided to specialize in these varieties. However; I have to say these are not for beginners. I do not recommend these colors for a novice breeder. They are very limiting in that one cannot combine these colors well outside of the variety. I have obtained the best results by breeding only orange to orange or fawn and the Blue-Eyed-Whites are bred tightly to control the vienna gene. The BEW's produce Vienna-marked animals that are not showable but these miss-marked carriers are required to maintain the vigor of the herd. I have bred rabbits for 20 years now, and the challenge of getting these amazing show quality animals continues to draw me to this hobby! I have to thank so many friends and fellow breeders of the Netherland Dwarf for their support and camaraderie along the way. . . .including Elaine Lewis, Ted McBride, Terry & Janet McBride, Debi Thorpe, Kim Cambell, John & Dawn Plokhooy, Carl Richetelle, Deanna Charron, Wendy Griffith, Joe Watson, Corinne Fayo, Donna & Wayne Grimm, Joe Powers, Jessica & Gina Swift, Eli Kho, Terri Gegenfurtner, and so many others!