Polo ponies go where food won't

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Cloning farm animals for food is highly controversial; cloning horses for playing polo only slightly less so.

The first cloned polo pony was born in 2010 in Argentina, which The Economist magazine bills as "the global capital of professional polo." A three-month-old clone of Cuaretera, owned by top player Adolfo Cambiasco, brought $800,000 at auction.

Cambiasco has ponies cloned from several others of his mounts at Crestview Genetics in Texas. They remain untested on the field since ponies aren't played until the age of five.

According to the Financial Times, thoroughbred breeders in Britain are opposed to cloning, citing ethical reasons. They may also see the writing on the wall for traditional horse breeding. BF