Scientists Clone Horse

The Night Watchman writes "Italian scientists have produced the world's first horse clone, according to Yahoo News. Racing is likely to become slightly more interesting in the coming years..."

Comments

Dolly and Arthritus

[aplank]

I wonder how long this horse will live. Dolly didnt live very long because she had stunted telomeres and I am pretty sure that this horse's telomeres are stunted also.

From a working horse owner's perspective

[RobertB-DC]

I can't claim to have real "working" horses -- we're not on the King Ranch riding a hundred miles of fence on horseback. We've got a couple of horses (with more on the way) that we've selected for their smarts and endurance. They're Appaloosas, but the pretty patterns are strictly a nice feature, not a design requirement.

So this statement really irritates me:

[Texas A&M research veterinarian Katrin] Hinrichs is awaiting the birth of a cloned American quarter horse -- a copy of Hinrichs' 9-year-old daughter's show horse -- in mid-November. She believes cloning's most obvious use in the horse industry would be cloning such show horses.

Unfortunately, this researcher is probably right on the money, literally. There is huge money in show horses, just like there is in purebred show dogs. The problem is how selective breeding -- in both cases -- has resulted in an animal that is useless for any real purpose.

Appaloosas get bred for particular patterns of spots, Quarter Horses get bred for very specific ratios of body parts, Arabians are bred to hold themselves "just so"... you get the picture. Thoroughbreds, bred for speed, may be the only horses that are commercially bred for something that is even remotely "natural" to a horse's instincts -- and even they are broken down and "retired" at an age when a working horse is just getting started.

What you see, way too often, is a horse that looks pretty, but is completely screwed up in the head. And that's with traditional breeding (and I'm including the straw o'semen in the "traditional" category). I can only imagine the neurotic, unpredictable horses that will come from cloning the "best" show horses. They'll be useless for any actual work, probably won't be able to reproduce without assistance (already a problem today), and will be a danger to their rider and anyone nearby.

Give me a field-bred "grade" horse over a "show" horse any day. It's like our dogs -- we have two mixed-breed puppies (half Jack Russell) that are sharp as a tack. The big black dog that got dumped as a puppy is the loyal protector of the household. And the $700 Schnauzer is the stupidest creature on the face of God's green earth. Show dog? No thanks, I'll take the mutt in the corner.