It’s time for our annual membership drive! We’d like for you to join us in 2021! Your renewal is critical because it sustains our organization to govern, register, protect and promote the Mangalarga Marchador breed in North America.
Lynn Kelley, USMMA Treasurer, is the membership coordinator with help from your local Regional Director at times.
The USMMA is the official Mangalarga Marchador organization recognized by the Brazilian MM Association, the ABCCMM. Please join us at the annual meeting on February 28th via ZOOM to meet your officers and directors and hear a recap of 2020 and our plans for 2021! (We will send and post the slide presentation for everyone even if you can’t attend.)
The 2021 USMMA calendar is ready and features our wonderful horses every month for 12 months. A calendar is a great gift for clients and friends, shows and for promoting the Marchadors too. If you are interested in purchasing calendars, please order today for shipment that delivers by January.
1 Calendar = $12.50 plus $9 shipping and handling = $21.50 2 Calendars = $25.00 plus $10 shipping and handling = $35.00 3 Calendars = $37.50 plus $10 shipping and handling - $47.50 4 Calendars - $50 plus $10 shipping and handling = $60.00 5 calendars - $62.50 and we will pay the shipping
Please respond to this email to order by Monday December 21st. You can pay by check or via paypal to Lynn Kelley, our Treasurer. Lynn can invoice you via Paypal if you choose that option.
Check made out to USMMA 10487 E Rising Sun Dr Scottsdale, AZ 85262
Happy Holidays to you all!
Tresa V. Smith, PhD Photo Contest and Calendar Chair
ORDER INFORMATION WE NEED:: I would like to order _________ Calendars
I will pay via ______________.
If you have recently moved and you think we may not have your current address on file, please also send your mailing address.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! It has been a very challenging year but we all have many things and reasons to be thankful for
As COVID 19 presents a challenge to any planned activity, we are hoping to host a “Mangalarga Marchador Open House” at Silver Stables on January 17, 2020 from 10:00am until 12:00 pm! (LUNCH following for USMMA members only) We will practice COVID safe protocols and it is outside. If you can’t come, you can call us and videochat during the meeting.
Come join us for:
Meet the Marchador
Trail ride
Arena ride
Meet new members
Become a member – (special promotion for joining that day)
Have lunch with us
We hope you join us and bring a friend! We’d love to keep growing our Marchador community.
Thank you and hope to see you there! (I will send an RSVP email in January to get a count for the day.)
Recently, we sent an email ballot to vote for one of three candidates for Regional Director for the Pacific Region. Our thanks to Alessandra Deerinck, Theresa Longo and Linda Holst for volunteering to take on these duties. The election is now closed.
We welcome Alessandra Deerinck as the new Regional Director for CA, OR, WA and NV.
Regional Directors are responsible to encourage participation and cooperation among breeders, owners, trainers and other equine professionals in support of the Mangalarga Marchador and the USMMA goals within their region and to affiliate and coordinate with other local organizations and associations in support of the vision and mission of the USMMA. They are expected to know all of the USMMA members in their region and hold one Marchador or member event at least every 4 years. Get to know Alessandra and give your ideas and support for making local events happen for the Mangalarga Marchador and the members!
To connect with Alessandra, you can find her via cell, website or Facebook.
We always ask for your photos, but with this issue, we are pleased to feature the member photos that we received during the 2020 PHOTO CONTEST.
We would also like to see MEET THE MEMBER COLUMN to become a regular feature, so if you want to write your story OR to have Tresa interview you and draft your story, let us know. Please submit your MM photos!Please submit stories about your MMs!Please send us questions for ASK TIA! our resident vet, Dr. Tia Nelson! We hope to publish quarterly, January, April, July and October. One of the things we hope to do with this publication is to feature the diversification of how the Marchador is used with real life examples.
To send in submissions, email the Journal Editor – Tresa, montanamarchador@gmail.com Happy Trails, Tresa V Smith, PhD editor, and Lynn Kelley, publisher.
Hello from your new USMMA Facebook page administrators!
We want to make the Facebook page more vibrant, up to date, informative, and a place that you will be proud to share with others. To do that we need your help. We came up with a few ideas that we want to share, but we hope to hear from members to see what you want.
We had 4 main “areas” that need your contributions. 1. This one may be the most fun!! Every month we will post a “theme” for people to post pictures.This is not a contest; it is a way to share pictures of our wonderful horses with the public and our members. The only “rule” is that you are limited to 3 photos per member and it must fit the month’s theme. So far, the themes we have come up with are: (1) Sports (ie mounted archery, shooting, jumping, working equitation, etc); (2) your Marchador with children; (3) photos of horses standing against scenery (mountains, desert, etc); (4) being ridden (anywhere); (5) foals;(6) your Marchador in water (riding on the beach, in lakes, playing with your horse in water, etc); (7) holiday celebrations; (8) “foal firsts” (training, farrier, or other “first” with your foal or young horse). If you have more ideas for themes, please let us know!
2. Please share stories of you and your Marchador (with a picture if possible). Why did you choose a Marchador, what are you doing with your horse (Trail rides, mounted sports, introducing children to horses breed, equine assisted therapy – the potential of our horses is endless), and anything else you want to share.
3. If you see posts or information that you think we should share, please let us know. Recently we shared a notice of a free “Healthy Horses” conference from the University of Florida and MM videos from Brazil. Most of us do not speak Portuguese – if you do, we would love it if you could help us out and tell us what the Portuguese videos are saying by putting some information in the Comments of posts that are in Portuguese!
4. We want to open conversations about horse-related things such as “food and treats”, saddles and tack for your Marchador, and anything else you want to talk about. The goal is to have beginners and advanced horse owners/riders feel comfortable asking/answering questions and putting their opinion out for discussion. We will start a post every month or two and we encourage you to comment or ask questions. We will “moderate” to ensure that all comments are polite. If you want to start a discussion about a topic – go for it!
The Facebook page can only be as good as our members make it. Please let us know your ideas, post often and “like” the page so the posts show up on your Facebook page too!
We want to see new faces, horse faces that is, so we decided to start a photography competition at USMMA. We will use the contest photos to create a USMMA photography bank and to publish a USMMA 2021 calendar. Tom Sliter, fine art photographer from Washington, D.C. has agreed to judge the contest.
The winner of the contest will win $50 USMMA credit, be featured in the Fall Edition of the USMMA Journal and will be given the opportunity to be the cover of the 2021 USMMA Calendar. Send your entries to the USMMA for posting on the USMMA website for all to enjoy during the contest. The USMMA website limits the size of the photographs posted there, so we are wanting the large, original files to be sent to us via email to Lynn Kelley, lynnkelley@me.com. We are asking anyone who enters the contest to grant permission to the USMMA for the use of photos and subsequently are asking you to sign a release form. That form is attached to this email. Please include your name, the name for the photo credit (if any), and the registered name of your horse in the photo in the body of the email and make each image a separate attachment. Entries must be submitted no later than September 1,2020.
CONTEST RULES -Must be a current USMMA Member -No more than 5 entries per member -Photos taken between 2015 and 2020 are eligible -Size: Images must have a width of 2000 pixels with a format of 10 x 8 (landscape) -Quality: Images must be jpeg files of maximum quality. The resulting file should be about 2.5 MB (Note : If you want: Photoshop Express is a free photo editing software that can produce images satisfying the above requirements There are many other editing programs too) -File name: Each image file must include the registered name of the Marchador and the last name of the member Example: Lo Borges De Lazy T Smith. JPG
About the Judge: Tom Sliter is a fine art photographer in Washington, D.C. He is a member of Multiple Exposures Gallery in Alexandria, Virginia , has received numerous awards and recognitions and has participated in exhibitions s across the country. In 2013 he photographed the USMMA Clinic and Sela de Ouro held in Helena, Mt. His work can be viewed at tsliterphotography.com.
Tom’s TIPS: The internet has many videos and websites with suggestions for equine photography. Just remember these basic tips –Abhor blur. Keep the camera steady and your subject in focus. Use a tripod or fence post for support, if needed. —Avoid cluttered or distracting background. –Try to photograph in the morning or late afternoon, not at mid-day. The angled light will generally give more pleasing results. –Try to fill the frame with your subject. The more you have to crop image, the less resolution it will have. —Pay attention to the composition of your image. The “Rule of Thirds” (Google it) is a commonly used guide for good composition. –Watch the light and dark areas of your image. The eye is attracted to lighter areas in the photograph. A dark horse against a light background can confuse the eye (although a silhouette can be great.) –If your camera allows it, photograph in RAW format. It allows more flexibility in editing. (All entries need to be submitted as jpeg files.) –DSLR cameras work best, but iPhones (7 or later) can produce good images –And remember . EARS UP
The Journal is also attached below as a pdf file along with the photo contest release form.
We always ask for your photos, but with this issue, we would like to see lots of participation in the new PHOTO CONTEST.
We would also like to see MEET THE MEMBER COLUMN to become a regular feature, so if you want to write your story OR to have Tresa interview you and draft your story, let us know.
Please submit your MM photos! Please submit stories about your MMs! Please send us questions for ASK TIA! our resident vet, Dr. Tia Nelson!
We hope to publish quarterly, January, April, July and October.One of the things we hope to do with this publication is to feature the diversification of how the Marchador is used with real life examples.
SubmissionDeadlines: SPRING: March 30 SUMMER-June 30: FALL: September 30 and WINTER: December 31. To send in submissions, email the Journal Editor – Tresa, montanamarchador@gmail.com
The USMMA Board of Directors unanimously approved the proposed bylaw changes.
Regional Directors
Election Committee
No Term Limits
Discussion was held to answer all of the members’ questions and concerns following the email announcement about the bylaw changes. The result of that work resulted a document further describing the Regional Directors positions and responsibilities. We hope that in creating this regional approach there can be more Marchador events and more opportunities for MM owners to get together locally across the country. That document is included below.
There are pros and cons to the term limits. We would like to have new people on the Board and want to encourage that to happen! We are hopeful that the Election Committee will help find members to fill these positions. The Regional Directors will be a great farm team concept if they want to run for an Officer position since the 2 elections are staggered every two years. However, we also want to reward and respect people who would like to serve. We are a small organization and retired members have time and experience to give. We agreed that if our assumptions are wrong, we can and will change this bylaw back to limit the amount of time one can serve on the Board.
So, we will be holding elections to fill the Regional Director positions as soon as possible. More information about the Regional Director position and what those duties entail are listed in this email. The newly formed Election Committee will get to work identifying members to fill these position. The current Board Members At Large will be given priority if they choose to assume the new role in their region. Please let me know if you are interested!
In 2020, the Northeast and Southeast Regions will be combined, but we are expecting the Northeast region to continue to grow, so that may become a viable region by the 2024 election.
3-7 Regional Directors representing different sections of the U.S. and Canada. The regions are: Pacific, Northwest, Southwest,Midwest, Northeast, Southeast and Canada. The region are selected based on numbers of members and Marchador horses in that area. The states included in each region will be assessed based on number of members and numbers of Marchadors at every election year. Not every regional position needs to be filled if there are no qualified candidates or interest in that region.
To be considered for Regional Director, the individual must be an active FULL member or LIFE member for at least 60 days before the election, and be a USMMA-registered Marchador owner at the time of the election. Each Regional Director must remain an active voting member of the USMMA for the duration of their responsibility.
A term will span 4 years. There are no term limits as long as the individual is willing to volunteer and is deemed capable to fill the position. Each Regional Director must submit their name to the Election Committee to be placed on the ballot and be elected by the members every four years. The first election will be held in 2020.
The USMMA Regional Director elections will be staggered elections with the USMMA Officer elections so that elections are held every 2 years beginning in 2020.
Regional Directors shall be full members of the Board and required to cast their vote on USMMA budgets, bylaw changes and other motions requiring a vote of the board. They are required to attend at least two Board meetings a year. The USMMA President will request resignation of the Regional Board Member should they not make the required meetings.
Regional Directors are responsible to encourage participation and cooperation among breeders, owners, trainers and other equine professionals in support of the Mangalarga Marchador and the USMMA goals within their region and to affiliate and coordinate with other local organizations and associations in support of the vision and mission of the USMMA. They are expected to know all of the USMMA members in their region and hold one Marchador or member event at least every 4 years. When a regional event is planned, the Regional Director needs to submit a plan and budget for the event to the USMMA if they are requesting funding for the event.
For 2020, here is one suggested table for the Regions, and based on the #s, also suggest that the Northeast be combined with the Southeast region. *MM horses include those owned by non-USMMA members. *Member numbers are based on all family members, not households.
States
MMs
Members
Pacific
California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada
51
24
Northwest
Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska
The USMMA Board of Directors have created a COVID-19 grant fund to provide membership dues relief to those people who are having financial difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
If you would like to apply for this relief, please contact Lynn Kelley, USMMA Treasurer at lynnkelley@me.com.
