Polo is a physically demanding sport for the horses involved, and for that reason, players typically have a string of several ponies to rotate through a match. Every rider wants to have the best horses for the game, and at the top levels of the sport, that means finding six or more exceptional equines. But for a rider with one great horse and some pretty deep pockets, cloning is an option.
Argentine rider Adolfo Cambiaso, one of the top-ranked polo players in the world, led his team, La Dolfina, to victory at the Palermo Open last weekend in Buenos Aires, and he did it riding just one horse, genetically speaking. Cambiaso’s string consisted of six clones of his mare, Dolfina Cuartetera, not-so-creatively named Cuartetera 01 through 06.
Cambiaso isn’t new to the world of cloning. A 2013 news item from The Economist reported that he had partnered with Crestview Genetics to create clones of eight of his horses. Cloning isn’t cheap, but with the right horse in a moneyed sport it might pay off; The Economist reported that one of Cuartetera’s clones sold for $800,000 at auction at just three months old, becoming the most expensive sale in the sport’s history.
Cloning is a controversial topic within the horse industry and in the world at large. Some breeds and disciplines have explicitly banned clones from competition. Thoroughbred racing, a sport where there are certainly wealthy owners who would be quick to adopt the practice, does not allow clones. In 2015, the American Quarter Horse Association won a legal battle to keep cloned horses out of the breed’s registry, although there’s nothing stopping owners from cloning Quarter Horses for use in activities that don’t require registration. For example, a clone of the legendary barrel racing gelding, Scamper, currently stands at stud.
The Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI), which governs equestrian sports at the international level—including the three Olympic disciplines—announced in 2012 that cloned horses and their offspring would not be barred from competition. So far, there have been no clones competing in the Olympics, but there have been clones made from some prominent Olympic stars, including show jumping’s Gem Twist and Sapphire and eventing’s Tamarillo.
Controversy around cloning goes beyond what it says in the rule books. In the early days of cloning, when Dolly the sheep became the first successfully cloned animal in 1996, there were concerns about the health of cloned animals. Those concerns have mostly dissipated as the technology has improved and healthy clones have been born and aged normally over the years. Still, many horse owners have ethical concerns about cloning, ranging from qualms around “playing God” to questions about investing resources in cloning horses when there are so many “unwanted” horses being neglected or shipped to slaughter. It’s unlikely that these concerns will disappear any time soon.
But for riders like Cambiaso, cloning is just one innovative way to keep a favorite horse on the field.
Leslie Potter is a writer and photographer based in Lexington, Kentucky. www.lesliepotterphoto.com
Leslie Potter is a graduate of William Woods University where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Equestrian Science with a concentration in saddle seat riding and a minor in Journalism/Mass Communications. She is currently a writer and photographer in Lexington, Ky. Potter worked as a barn manager and riding instructor and was a freelance reporter and photographer for the Horsemen's Yankee Pedlar and Saddle Horse Report before moving to Lexington to join Horse Illustrated as Web Editor from 2008 to 2019. Her current equestrian pursuits include being a grown-up lesson kid at an eventing barn and trail riding with her senior Morgan gelding, Snoopy.
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