The University of Idaho and Peter Kagel are teaming up to offer the first horse cloning service to the public.

Kagel, an attorney from San Francisco, Calif., got interested in horse cloning after reading about the three racing mules cloned in 2003 at the University of Idaho. Kagel contacted the cloning team, headed by Gordon Woods, PhD, about offering this service to the public, and they agreed to try it.

For the sum of $367,350, plus a patent royalty fee of 15 percent based on the number of clones produced and their estimated value, one horse owner can pay to attempt to clone a favorite horse in 2006.

Researchers will take cells from the horse and try to impregnate 100 mares with clone embryos. “It’s a bit of a gamble,” said Kagel. “There are no guarantees, and you could end up with no clones, but due to advances in science and cloning protocols since 2003, you could end up with 16 clones.”

Only one horse can be cloned this year, and the deadline for reserving that spot is Aug. 15, but Kagel is enthusiastic that the service will grow.

“Horse cloning is the wave of the future,” said Kagel. “People are only going to clone quality horses, the top-of-the-bloodline champions. Eventually cloning will allow today’s economically unattainable horse to be purchased by the middle-class horse aficionado.”

Kagel also raved about the benefits to science from cloning technology. He compared it to “the space race where we benefited from the science that was spun off from it.”

For more information about cloning your own beloved horse, visit www.horsecloning.com.