Equestrian Life May 2018 Issue

polo
Are The Most Advanced Breeding
Techniques Reserved For Polo Ponies?
With a variety
of breeding
techniques
available,
understanding them could be
key to improving the quality
of the horses produced. While
many people understand the
basics of a technique, knowing
how and when it should be
used could help improve the
progression of British breeding.
The Thoroughbred industry
has always been at the heart
of British Equestrianism but
the persistence of breeding by
natural covering is limiting
the stallions available for each
covering. Or, ensuring the
availability and locality of a
specific breeding match could
incur great expense. While the
costs involved with breeding are
widely recognised, relying on
proximity of a stallion to breed
could mean compromising on
quality or complementary nature
of breeding stock.
Comparatively, the sports horse
industry has inched forward
by making extensive use of
Artificial Insemination (AI).
The option of selecting chilled
or frozen semen removed the
need for locality and opened
the doors to the European
market; broadening the possible
stallions and subsequent
gene pool available. Although
many British Breeders are still
electing to use cheaper, British
stallions, frozen semen allows
for transportation worldwide. AI
has given breeders significantly
more options but this technique
needs to be considered carefully.
Semen quality declines when
chilled or frozen, so, the need
for high fertility and motility
is paramount. Breeders also
need to consider that although
frozen semen gives you
maximum choice of stallion, the
insemination process requires
considerably more work and
requires a Veterinary Practitioner
or qualified Stud. Despite this,
AI remains one of the most
popular breeding techniques in
the United Kingdom, however
the logical next step, Embryo
Transfer (ET), the industry has
yet to fully embraced.
ET is a breeding technique
that involves ‘flushing’ or
removing an embryo from the
biological dam and placing it in
a recipient mare. The recipient
mare will then carry the foetus
through a normal gestation to
birth and would nurse the foal
until weaning. This breeding
technique has been used to
consistently produce quality
sports horses while allowing
exceptional mares to produce
multiple offspring each year
and continue their competitive
careers. First available in
the 1970s, ET has become
increasingly popular across the
globe.
The Eventing superstar,
Headley Britannia, made British
headlines in 2008 with two foals
born via ET. As a high-class
competition horse in the public
eye, this highlighted the benefits
of ET to a much wider audience.
While a recognised breeding
technique in the UK, ET remains
far from common practise with
relatively few studs offering
this service and even fewer
clients. Cost may be preventing
many breeders as for each mare
breeders will need to own or
hire a minimum of two potential
surrogate mares. This is because
the oestrus cycle of both the
biological dam and the surrogate
mare must be synchronised for a
successful pregnancy, sometimes
taking two or three cycles before
being successful. Looking beyond
the UK, it is not uncommon to
find Embryo Transfer Centres
keeping herds of recipient mares,
scanning 70 to 150 before lunch!
One equestrian discipline
taking full advantage of ET is
polo. It has been the choice
breeding technique for the polo
industry in Argentina for over
20 years. This industry was
one of the earliest adopters
of breeding via ET and lead to
heavy investments into the
advancements of breeding
techniques. As a result, the
Argentine polo industry has
remained at the forefront of
breeding technology which
filters worldwide within the polo
industry; putting polo breeders
at the forefront of advanced
breeding techniques in Britain.
Cloning is the most recent and
advanced breeding technique to
become commercially available.
Breeding in this way produces a
foal that is genetically identical
to the original horse. From adult
cells, the nucleus or ‘brain’ of
the cell can be reprogrammed to
an embryonic state and inserted
into an egg. The embryo formed
is then inseminated into a
recipient mare who follow a
normal gestation period to
birth. In 2003 the first cloned
foal, Prometea, was born in
Italy, since then cloned foals
have been born in a number of
countries.
The high goal polo player
Adolfo Cambiaso is known
not only for his playing ability
but for his ‘field of clones’.
Having initially cloned his
stand-out mare, Cuartetera,
Cambiaso is now playing
her six clones. Furthermore,
the work at his own cloning
centre, Crestview Genetics
has enabled him to clone a
stallion, Aiken Cura, that died
over a decade ago. Having
cloned over 25 champions, the
biotechnological process clearly
works but it is likely to be
several years still before cloning
is commercially available in
many more countries.
Farida Rosso Baldacchino
Benham Park Stud
28 May 2018 Equestrian Life