Posted on 08/30/2025 11:01:01 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
BUENOS AIRES - They look like ordinary foals, docile with honey brown coats and white facial patches, content to spend their days munching alfalfa in a cordoned-off pasture in rural Buenos Aires province.
But these five 10-month-olds are the world’s first genetically edited horses: cloned copies of a prize-winning horse named Polo Pureza, or Polo Purity, with a single DNA sequence inserted using CRISPR technology with the aim of producing explosive speed.
Kheiron Biotech, the Argentine company that created the horses, says gene-editing has the potential to revolutionize horse breeding.
While cloning creates a genetically identical copy, CRISPR functions as a sort of genetic scissors to cut and customize DNA.
The company, which specializes in equine cloning, used CRISPR to reduce the expression of the myostatin gene, which limits muscle growth. The idea was to increase the muscle fibers that allow for powerful movements and so transform the horses into sprinters.
But polo isn’t letting them in so fast.
While Argentina, regarded as the global capital of polo, has long welcomed reproductive technologies – including cloning – to breed elite horses, the sport’s national body and breeding association are putting up hurdles to prevent GE horses from joining the game.
The Argentine Polo Association has banned GE horses from competition.
“I wouldn’t like them to play polo,” said Benjamin Araya, the association’s president. “This takes away the charm, this takes away the magic of breeding. I like to choose a mare, choose a stallion, cross them, and hope that it will turn out very well.”
And the Argentine Association of Polo Horse Breeders told Reuters it will monitor the horses for four or five years before making a decision on whether to register them as Argentine polo ponies.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
WRONG.
The equine equivalent of doping…it’s cheating.
Gallup needs to conduct a poll about this controversy.
All Chinamen are going to be 6’4”
Should be the same for "trans" "athletes".
Oh, please. Yes, there's a particle of "magic" in it, but the bottom line is money. With racehorses, one crosses them (after the poor teaser stallion has inspired the mare, and gone away thwarted) under careful supervision and proper witnesses, so there's almost no chance of even the slightest injury or mixup; how very magical. There is nothing on the breeder's mind but the dollar value of the foal.
Sure, the darling "babies" that survive birth and are deemed marketable are "charming" -- but if it does not "turn out well," tears are shed for the waste of money, the failed investment. One horse costs an incredible amount of money to produce and maintain, in order to realize a profit, a selling price of six figures or more.
I have seen a lot of failures, solid pedigrees notwithstanding, malformed, or failed to thrive, or dying of infection. Magic of breeding? It's a glorified sausage factory.
I really hate the idea of this kind of genetic manipulation. If it’s done to correct for a severe disability, that’s one thing. Our scientists really need ethics courses. Or maybe just find something else to do.
This topic does not interest me at all. I cannot play polo because I am left handed. They only allow right handed people to play polo. COMMUNISM!!!!!
http://www.spiritofpolo-press.com/why-are-there-no-left-handed-players/
Norton: (reading his script) I don’t possess a mansion or a villa in France or a yacht or a string of poloponies.
Ralph: (reading from the script) I’m glad to hear…[he stops suddenly then says] A string of poloponies? Where do you see that?
Norton: (pointing) Right there, “a string of poloponies.”
Ralph: That’s “a string of POLO PONIES!”
CIGAR WAS STERILE
Lamont : Pop. What’s that horse doing in the kitchen?
Fred Sanford: uh how should I know. You saw him last.
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