On the Line

This week, my intention was to write a perfectly normal article about a polo horse. Califa has been 10-goaler Mariano Aguerre’s favorite team horse for years. He’s played the US and Argentine Opens, been Best Playing Pony too many times to count, and was named the American Polo Horse Association’s 2009 Horse of the Year. He’s also a gorgeous (h/j snob that I am, I rarely use that word in the same sentence as ‘polo horse’) specimen of polo horse, impressively conditioned and muscled. Naturally, we want to write about him.

But get this. Califa has been cloned. Not one but THREE mares are due to deliver his clones in April. I know cloning is becoming more common and all that, but is anyone else having a hard time getting their head around an entire polo team mounted by clones??

Some people say that in a few more years, cloning will be just as accepted as embryo transfers. Show jumpers, western discipline horses, racing mules. . . . they’ve all been cloned. Last year I wrote about the cloning of Mark Watring’s GP gelding Sapphire. Gem Twist’s clone was born in September 2008. And when I interviewed McLain Ward recently, he told me that he’s toyed with the idea of cloning his Sapphire, joking that the Sapphire clone and the Gem Twist clone could have the first famous clone babies.

Part of me can’t wait for those clone babies to grow up and answer the nature vs. nurture question for us. But the other part wonders where this all will lead. What happens when a horse can multiply into five, or ten, or twenty clones? Are we on the path to a world full of superhorse doubles? The clone Olympics? Ahhh, multiplicity makes my head hurt.

Coming soon to a polo field near you. . .

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