Breed Opportunity for the Marchador

Dear USMMA members,

I  have something I would like to share with all of you.

Because of my horse training business, I have spoken about the Mangalarga Marchador breed to a Professor from the University of Kentucky. This contact has developed into another  one from a different institution. I have been contacted by Professor Guest and Mattfeld,  from the University of British Columbia about a very interesting, and innovative project about humanity and horses.

The Mangalarga Marchador breed is being considered to be part of the opening launch of the database, and they asked me to be the primary contact for the USMMA.

The Project
Breed: The Making of Modern Identity
—structured in three sections :

  1. The development of a partnerships with breed organizations that will help identify and acquire content for a free, online database of digitized documents related to breed history that will serve scholars, breed organizations, breeders/breed enthusiasts, and the general public.
  2. Scholarly publications that stimulate scholarship of equine breed, and help consolidate an international network of scholars. The first part is a collection of essays about equine breed, that is currently being developed

  3. A traveling museum exhibit that will serve the interests of both scholars and breed organizations, promoting public interest both in specific breeds, and in the historical interconnection, and development of horse and human identity.
    They have partnered with a museum for this aspect of the project, to allow teachers to visit with classes, and then “teach” issues raised by the exhibit in the classroom.The database will be one of the resources for the historical material.

At the moment the project is in the very initial stage, which is building content for the database.
The initial phase is a collection of data, and the assembly of a database about the equine breeds.

The first type of documents they are seeking for are:
– History of the breed or of key moments (decisions about standards or designation of foundation lines; movement of the breed globally; debate about the direction the breed should take)
– Primary documents related to any of the above (correspondence, charters.etc)
– Articles from breed newsletters
– Oral history from breeders, registrars etc.
– Deliberations about new influences ( artificial insemination, bridging distance while maintaining standards, new areas of performance and competition)
– Any material addressing the cultural significance and participation of the breed in Brazilian society now or in the past.

If any of you is able to contribute to this project, you can respond to this email and I will put you in touch with the Professors so you can directly send them your contribution.

I really appreciate all you can do and look forward to hearing from who is interested in contributing to this project

Sincerely,

Alessandra Deerinck
USMMA Vice President
(760) 715 1554