The Origins, Objectives and Founders of this Website

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This site is dedicated to the dissemination of information about creating, showing and judging Model Horses.

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In March of 2000, a group of people spontaneously emerged during a discussion that appeared on the NAMHSA Discussion list (at EGroups.com).

That discussion involved contemplating one aspect of showing that is not as satisfactory as some wish it could be. There were two specific problem areas noted:

1. Not enough judges
2. A general desire for judges to be more knowledgeable in the areas they are asked to judge.

It was pointed out that many people have a desire to judge, often because they feel they have some knowledge they could fairly apply, and also wish to "do their part" within the hobby. But how do you become a judge?

Essentially, you become a judge by volunteering to do so. You are on your own as far as "preparing yourself" for this. You may read up on live horse judges, breeds and classes; consult with others who are or have been judges; and you can use your own beliefs and sense of integrity as a compass. That does little to help a new prospective judge know that *others* feel they know what they should in order to be a competent judge... and this type of validation seems to be sought by those seeking to become judges. To somehow know... that they know *enough* to do the job right.

The concepts of educating and possibly "certifying" judges voluntarily were also bandied about. However, historically the "hobby group" as a whole, has resisted formal measures, while at the same time lamenting the lack of basic standards.

A few hobbyists began discussing these concepts privately via email. The volume of discussion (due to enthusiasm for an esoteric topic) increased, and then a list was formed at egroups to make the conversation easier to manage.

This was an exciting, and important topic... and there was a desire to perhaps *do something* about these issues... and after more discussions...and inviting a few other parties interested in the same topics in, a loose plan was developed.

What could be done?

Ultimately, the answer became apparent... one thing that could be done, would be to try to gather information together in a place where people could access it. Be they exhibitors, or judges, or just interested parties. A website would be the obvious medium of choice, with many benefits.

The participants in the discussion felt they had a lot of knowledge to share in their particular areas of interest. Knowing also, that there are many others out there who have in-depth knowledge about various areas.

If any type of "judge certification" procedures should ever come to pass... the information that judges should know needs to be available to those who aspire to become certified. And even without any such thing, all judges often have a need to "study up" on a particular area and find out more, so they are better prepared to judge and recognize quality in entries presented to them. Of course, such information is also of immense benefit to exhibitors, who are always seeking information on how to create more realistic pieces, or create more realistic setups.

The answer... a website.
A community effort, to allow those who have a desire to share their knowledge in their areas of interest. A place where hobbyists could go, and find information they might be interested in, or might need. Whether that was hobby-related or just horse related.

However, there was a problem. Nobody had the time to just sit down for the next year and do this all at once. And nobody felt they could be held to a particular or timetable to finish such an endeavor. Not to mention, there was little interest to approach such a project in a rigid, orderly fashion.

But modern technology provides many benefits that weren't available before. A website is a living, growing thing. Unlike a book, it does not have to be "finalized", nor necessarily organized in a particular way. Like learning and education, Websites are always "in-progress". Each person was excited about the prospects of what they could do with information they wanted to share on a website... and the concept that they could work things in on their "spare time". Without space/bandwidth constraints either from personal home page locations, or "free" sites.

And thus it was determined that these people would like to start up a community website.

• A domain was secured, and a few pages established showing a basic outline. The name is
  www.mhref.com
  short for "Model Horse Reference".
  
  
• It can and will potentially contain any information that may be applicable to the creation, exhibition and collecting of realistic horse sculptures and models, and related topics of interest that can be utilized by artisans, exhibitors, collectors or others.

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The Objectives:

• To allow individuals to voluntarily share some of the knowledge they've acquired
  
  
• To assist in furthering the self-education of equine artisans, and model horse judges and exhibitors in order to help them to both recognize and re-create more realistic equine art and miniatures.
  
  
• To help promote miniature equine arts, exhibitions and activities
  
  
  • It will contain factual information on many topics, such as horse breeds, anatomy, conformation, and biomechanics, performance events as well as opinions and outlooks in various areas and aspects, such as judging, showing and so forth.
    
    
  • Information will be compiled as time and inclination permit on behalf of the creators, participating authors, and webtechs. This information will would take the form of "reports" or "articles" about whatever the author chooses.
    
    
  • Anyone can potentially create content for this site. Each author is responsible for their own contributions.
    
    
  • The founding members of this site will initially be responsible for establishing and maintaining the site.
    
    
  • Individuals with particular areas of knowledge or expertise would be contacted to see if they might be interested in participating in the efforts.
    
    
  • Since this site is being developed on the volunteer time and efforts, donated essentially as "gifts" by the persons providing the information, there are no deadlines, no absolute plans, no schedules, etc.
    
    
  • It was deemed that a companion discussion list should be established, that is open to the public, so that interested parties can further discuss things they may have found on the website, to ask questions, to point out errors or omissions, to find others also interested in topics that have inspired them, etc.
    
    
  • It is anticipated that a companion website or a sub-section of this website may possibly be developed at a future time in regard to enabling judge certification for equine miniaturists.

Participation By Submitting Information

• To participate, anyone may construct a "report" or "article" which may consist of one or more html pages, and graphics as appropriate to the "report". This report will be reviewed for inclusion upon the site.
  
  
• The basic parameters here are factual information, depth of information, and technical factors such as spelling, reasonable grammar and clarity. In short, the intent of any reviewing is primarily cursory, to ensure that the information may be useful or thought-provoking to readers.
  
  
• "Editorial" or "opinion" content should be noted as such.
  
  
• Sources should be cited where applicable (books, videos, websites etc.) Images/content must be that of the author, short quotes (with credit) acceptable within the text, copyright permissions should be sought on images in particular (if they are not your own).

Potential Topics may include the following:

• Breeds and related information
• Performance Classes
• Tack, Obstacles, Dolls, Attire, Props
• Judging methods, theory
• How-To articles
• Conformation, Anatomy, Biomechanics
• Horse colors, markings, genetics
• Grooming, shoeing and other matters related for showing or creating models
• more

Some possible topics currently or soon to be in development:

• Breed info on a few select breeds of interest to current participators-- to include information on conformation, type, subtypes within the breed and comparisons, how they're typically presented and shown in the ring, judging tips and more
  
  
• An explanation/treatise section on coat color genetics... including mendelian inheritance principles, explanations of how genes work, known genes and their actions and more
  
  
• Diagrams and descriptions of tack items, bits and pieces
  
  
• Links pages to live horse (and model) associations, reference and information sites of note, as well as lists of further resources such as books and videos.

This site is intended to be a long-term ongoing project. We don't expect that it ever will be truly "completed".

Any person wishing to compile an article or report (or series/group of pages) on a topic, may do so. Including submitting additional information to topics that already exist. There are no "assignments". A person may work alone, or with a group of others of their own choosing.

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The Initial Founders of this Group:

Kathy Curtis
Lesli Kathman
Elaine Lindelef
Sarah Minkiewicz
Chris Nandell
Carrie Sapp
Carol Williams

The online discussion group that has been established can be found at Egroups.


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Views expressed herein are those of the writers and compilers of the various information. Reference sources are cited where applicable. Copyrights are the property of the respective authors.