The only beneficiaries of the splintering of the various Spanish mustang registries are those who would like to see these horses relegated to the dust bins of history. We have too few troops to divide ourselves and march on the enemy and we certainly do not have enough troops to divide ourselves and march on each other.
The most important steps that can be taken to work towards unification will have to be made between the two largest registries, The Spanish Mustang Registry and the Horse of the Americas Registry. I suggest the following modest program.
The two registries should appoint a joint marketing committee to develop a three year program for marketing the horses and promoting and creating regional events that showcase the horses.
Both registries should urge members who have horses that are eligible for registration in the other registry to cross register those horses.
Both registries should respect the right of members to refer to their horses by any name the member chooses whether that name be Spanish Mustang, or Colonial Spanish Horse.
Both registries should appoint a joint committee to study unification and to make specific recommendations to advance the goal of unification of the registries in a timely manner.
Both registries should appoint agree on the appointment of one person to serve as the joint publicity committee for both registries.
Valor, pictured above, has a handful of wild relatives at Corolla. She has a handful of relatives in captivity. They need and deserve to have everyone who cares about the preservation of historic Spanish horses working together.
While the horses may deserve to have everyone working together, I don't think it is likely to happen. From what I have seen, there are too many people who are not interested in unifying. I think that your work with the Covington Boys Home will produce a lot more good for the effort involved.
ReplyDeleteFrom a legal standpoint, how would they be unified? Would both organizations be disolved and a new organization formed or would one organization be incorporated into the other. If the latter, which organization would remain?
As individuals, I think that we need to respect how others choose to refer to their horses. I also think that we need to respect others' horses. Even if we would never own or breed a particular horse or line of horses, we need to respect the right of others to do so. It would be nice if the registries would get on board with this, but remember, registries are made up of individual members.
Again, it would be nice if the registries urged their members to cross-register in other registries, but we as individuals can do it - both the cross-registering and the urging others to cross-register. Have you registered your Bankers with the SMR?