https://www.eurodressage.com/2022/05/15/charlotte-jorst-clones-nintendo-two-clones-born-9-may-2022
Can anyone shed some light on what traits she’s attempting to reproduce?
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The nerd in me gets a kick out of the names “Switch” and “64” for the clones. Love the naming continuity!
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I love the names!!
I don’t think it’s specific traits - I think she is looking for a complete replicate of the original Nintendo. Two clones gives her a better chance of getting a competition horse in the long run (knowing horses are always trying to kill themselves).
Is this the first “big name” dressage horse to be cloned? I know there has been jumpers done before.
Ah, but clones are the test for nature vs nurture theories.
there is no guarantee that the clones (live the clever names as well) will be a replica of their ancestor/big brother.
(and only one foal is pictured. What does the other look like?)
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Wouldn’t clones be identical? There’s only the one set of chromosomes from the donor
that is the catch. You’d think they were.
There was one cloned horse that looked nothing like the DNA donor surprisingly.
Genetics are tricky. There are so many things we do not know.
What triggers which gene to become expressed over another one. Color was one, I am sure there are others as horses are a complex life form - unlike Mendel’s peas.
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Is it true that cloned animals will age faster than the original?
You can see just from the two pictures that “Switch” has different markings on his hind legs. Genetics remain mysterious despite extensive studies.
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that was one conclusion from Dolly the SHeep, but hadly conclusive from a survey group of one.
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Argentinian polo ponies too.
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Didn’t Adolfo Cambioso (sp) have a whole bunch of cloned ponies from his top pony? I know there is nature vs. nurture but I think they were pretty similar in their abilities as top ponies. I suppose when you learn to ride one horse similar horses would be easier to predict their behavior than totally unrelated ones.
I guess she can afford it and this will be an interesting experiment.
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they were probably reared in a very similar environment.
Which is not necessarily possible for a WB that has changed hands a few times.
Time will tell. I wish her the best of luck.
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No. Clones have been around in horses for decades and they age like any other horse.
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He raises polo ponies in Argentina on a large scale. I read an article where he was explaining how he had partnered with a vet that was on the cutting edge of cloning technology. I can’t remember what happened to the pony but he decided to clone it. He said it was uncanny how the 3 clones were so much like their clone parent and he has bred LOTS of ponies.
Of course with Nintendo a lot of him is the training he got along the way as with any GP horse. But if he is her favorite to ride… Most of us can’t afford that experiment. And I don’t think Gem Twist’s clone ever did much.
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yeah genetic bottleneck
I’ve read that a clone’s markings will be the same, in the sense that if the hind legs of the original had white, the hind legs of the clone will have white. But the actual formation and how cells move and divide in the womb will be based on the individual, which means the extent/shape of the white will be different.
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If I had ****-you money I would DEFINITELY clone my horse.
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If you look at the picture of Switch, he has no white on his hinds. Nintendo does.
