they actually ended being able to produce three. Fortu- nately you do not have to pay full price for each!” Kathleen’s work at Replica Farms has always revolved


around Warmbloods, although other breeds have been active in cloning. “Especially in the Quarter Horses, people cloned a lot of cutting horse mares because they can make a lot of money with breeding incentives,” she explains. “I think in the beginning people cloned mainly for breed-


ing, because the horse will pass on the same exact DNA as the donor,” she says. “Now that cloned offspring are proven, people are more interested in cloning their own horses. They’ll also clone horses they like.” Because ViaGen offers confidentiality, it’s not public as


to how many clones are out there. Many owners don’t want to deal with negative reactions from people who object to or don’t understand cloning. But Kathleen says there are a lot of clones out there, showing both here in the United States and in Europe.


a responsibility as breeders, so there’s not falsehood in the industry.” While some Warmblood studbooks accept the registration


of clones, others have no policy yet or simply won’t register them. If someone plans to clone a horse and wish him or her registered, it’s best to due diligence ahead of time.


Nature versus Nurture William Fox-Pitt’s eventing superstar Tamarillo has a crooked leg that has him cost points in the dressage, so with his clone, the farrier trimmed that foot every week and straight- ened the leg out. “Tamarillo grew up a field and probably nobody ever


Registration Of course for breeders, registration is an important concern. Chris Sallee explains, “It’s now official, but even before it was okay with the FEI, the Belgian registry said it was okay to register Sapphire’s clones. So the clones were inspected at a keuring, registered and branded. It does say on their passports that they’re a clone of Sapphire, and we conducted DNA testing to confirm they’re a match.”


She mentions that the Belgian registry also recently


registered a clone of Famm, named Mystique, who has her own papers. Famm is half Belgian and half Hanoverian (who was the dam of Shutterfly, Sir Shutterfly, HH Let’s Fly and others), but the American Hanoverian Society wouldn’t register Mystique, the clone. Chris feels that identifying horses as clones on their


registration papers is an important part of transparency in the cloning process, and says that the Belgian and Zanger- sheide registries have both been good about identifying clones on registration papers. “The Zangersheide stallion Quidam du Ravel was one of the first horses cloned. His clone was approved but never competed; he is used as a stallion and has his own iden- tity,” she says. “The Zangersheides have been good about identifying clones from the original—they’ll have Alpha or Beta after their names. Breeders and registries need to be responsible. Some of the stallions are still alive; how do you know if you’re getting cloned or original semen?” “Zangersheide is very progressive,” she continues.


“They are very adamant that the stallions are out compet- ing too. Leon Melchiore , who started the Zangersheide Registry, was one of the first to really start cloning. The registry is responsible and upfront with breeders. I’d also hope the people doing the cloning recognize that there’s


“I think as far as breeding goes, cloning will be


accepted; the jury’s out as far as performance goes, but we’ll see.”


noticed; his clone was born square but started to toe out later and we kept on top of it, and when he finished that growth stage he was fine,” says Kath- leen. “It’s important to be observant and to keep the babies with someone who is good with babies. I’ve been breeding for 35 years and you need the right person to get them started.” Tamarillo’s clone, Tomatillo, will


stand at stud at his owners’ Biddes- den Stud in Hampshire, England. Owners MW & Finn Guinness have bred and owned four generations of mares on Tamarillo’s damline, and


the stud has been in operation since 1939. Of course the mares carrying clones will influence the


clone foals when they are very young, just as they do with any baby. “I highly would recommend picking nice, sweet surrogate mares and not draft mares like the ones they used for Wiseguy’s clones,” says Ronald. “They were very heavy draft mares, not even broke; they were wild and we could not even catch them to bring them back to their stalls every night. So we sent them back as soon as the clones turned four-months-old and I started playing Parelli games with them so they would become friendly. By the time they were two years old, they were only friendly with the lady who took care of them and with me. In order to make them friendlier I asked all my employees to play with them and give them warm water baths every day. Now they are friendly with everybody, just like Wiseguy.” Kathleen acknowledges the truth of Ronald’s assess-


ment. “We’ve decided draft mares are too big and difficult to handle; now we have a herd of mares that may be lighter horses or draft crosses,” she says. “Everyone wants a big mare because they think it’ll affect the size of the baby— that they’ll have a bigger foal out of a bigger mare—but in the long run that’s determined by genetics. They might start out smaller if they’re in a small mare, but they’ll catch up later if that’s what genetics dictate.”


Breeding for the Future As for breeding his clones, Ronald says, “We collected semen from them last year when they turned three at New


Warmbloods Today 17


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68