Andrea Kroftová

My name is Andrea Kroftová. I come from a small village in the heart of the Vysočina Region, and I spent my childhood on my grandfather’s farm surrounded by animals, both large and small. It was my grandfather, himself a lover of nature and a passionate beekeeper, who instilled in me a love of nature and animals, both wild and domestic, big and small. For the last twenty years, I’ve been living in Prague with my husband, Martin, my daughter, Timča, and our beautiful hairless foundling Pinky. So, with life now centred around family, employment, and the capital city, you might think my animal days were over, but nothing could be farther from the truth. 

We got our first pedigree Guinea Pig – a golden agouti Rex named Noricka Metropol – in 2002, and in that same year we started our own breeding station called AndyMar. Over the years, we’ve bred Rex Guinea Pigs in many different colour combinations and patterns and eventually added smooth-coated and hairless Guinea Pigs. In fact, our breeding station was the first in the Czech Republic to breed hairless Guinea Pigs, specifically the breeds Skinny Pig (2003) and Baldwins (2004). The Baldwins, which we imported from the USA in 2004, were the first breeding group in Central Europe.

Also in 2004, we presented our Guinea Pigs at the 24th European Guinea Pig Show in Prague. Since then, we’ve regularly competed in European shows and later also in Breed Specific European Shows (BSES), also known as the small European Guinea Pig show, and the AndyMar breeding station has won several European Championship group and individual titles. 

We’ve successfully exhibited Guinea Pigs from our breeding station in many countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, France, Poland, Russia, Denmark, Slovakia, Switzerland, and England. Our animals currently reside in Austria, Germany, Belgium, France, Latvia, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, and Spain. 

In 2002, I became a member of the Czech Breeders Association – Specialized Guinea Pig Breeder Organization, and since 2003 I’ve been the president of this organization as well as the president of the highest expert body in the Czech Republic, the Central Expert Committee of Guinea Pig Breeders. In 2008, I successfully completed my Guinea Pig judging certification, and during my career as a judge I’ve assessed Guinea Pigs throughout the Czech Republic as well as in Austria, Germany, Belgium, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Spain, and Ukraine. I try to pass my experience and knowledge on through annual workshops for EE judges in the Guinea Pig division. I also coauthored the Czech Guinea Pig standard and am a member of the editorial board of the journal Chovatel [Breeder]. But that’s enough about me.  

I’m very proud of my daughter Timča, who from a very young age has, of course, been involved in working with Guinea Pigs and their exhibition. It all began with a single pet, and now she presents the majority of our Guinea Pig show team both here at home and abroad. For the eight consecutive year now, she’s been enriching her practical activities with theory at the Junior Breeders Olympiad, which in 2013 and 2014 took her all the way to the final round of the television competition called Zlatý oříšek [Golden Stumper].

I’m very grateful to Martin and our entire family for the support that has allowed me to be a part of the Guinea Pig world. And if you’re wondering which of our Guinea Pig successes I’m most proud of, then it would probably have to be the from the Royal Touch exhibition in the Dutch city of Tiel in 2018, where our black sow named Kim Wilde AndyMar won the title of Best in Show – Smooth-Coated Guinea Pig. But, as Forrest Gump would say, I’m most proud of my specialized organization, which, despite a time that doesn’t necessarily favour hobbies, continues to attract new breeders, big and small, of Guinea Pig champions and pets.