I am going to try to explain the terms as best as I can, so bear with me! First thing the judge will do is juste the class, we will use Hollands as an example because they are my primary breed. Hollands are broken into two varieties, Solid and Broken. Traditionally the judge starts witht he Solid Sr. Buck first then the Solid Sr. Does, Solid Jr. Bucks and finally the Solid Jr. Does. Once they get the four first place solids together they will pick the best animal for Best of Variety (BOV) and then if that animal was a buck they will pick the best doe for Best Opposite Sex of Variety (BOSV) or vise versa. The judge will keep the two best solids whether they are jr. or sr. and send the other two back. The judge will do the same for the Brokensand then when they have the four best animals, the two best solids and the two best brokens, they will pick the Best of Breed (BOB) and the Best Opposite Sex of Breed (BOS or BOSB). That is for animals without 6/8 (six to eight months) or animals that have color groups.
Now we will do the groups. We will use the Netherland Dwarf as an example. When they say group they mean what group the colors are classified in. Example: Group one contains the selfs, Group Two contains the Shadeds and so forth and so on. What they will do is get all the Blue Eyed Whites (BEW) together and follow the same order as the Solid class in Hollands but only BEW will be in the first variety. There is a BOV and BOSV for each color within the group. Once they get all these colors judged and all their BOV aned BOSV animals are together they will choose the best two animals from the entire set and those two animals will become Best of Group (BOG) and Best Opposite Sex of Group (BOSG). Once all the groups are chosen BOB and BOSB are chosen from them all.
Now for 6/8 classes which means all animals Six to Eight months of age. All it is is a class inbetween Junior and Senior. So now instead of four animals in a variety you have six. This form is used in many of your meat breeds such as Satins.
Best in Show (BIS) has every Best of Breed animal. But unlike with BOB and BOSB sex of the animals DOES NOT MATTER. So both Best in show and Best Reserve in show (BRIS or RIS) could be both bucks or both does or a mix. As was discussed above some breeds have a 6/8 class, so in addition to BIS and RIS there is also Best group four and Best Group Six. But you can have two four class animals take BIS and BRIS or two Six Class animals or again a mix of both. If you have any individiual questions please feel free to email me.
