Last week, Austrian show jumper Hugo Simon confirmed that the French genetic laboratory Cryozootech has cloned his famous show jumper, E.T. FRH, according to a report in Horse & Hound.
“I wanted to save his genes,” Simon told the press at the Vienna CSI (Austria). “The experiment was only carried out for breeding reasons. When young E.T. sees the light of day in the summer of 2006, it will be a dream come true for me.”
E.T., a Hanoverian gelding by Espri and now 18, won back-to-back FEI World Cup Finals in 1996 and ’97 with Simon. They finished fourth individually at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics as members of the Austrian team. They also earned individual silver at the 1997 European Championships and won the Grand Prix of Aachen (Germany) in 1998. Simon officially retired E.T. in November 2004.
Cryozootech representatives approached Simon a year ago, and he was initially reluctant. “Hugo was first surprised and said that ‘There is only one E.T.,’ ” said Cryozootech CEO Eric Palmer. “But when I explained that I agreed on the fact that the clone was not a second E.T., but that as a stallion, he would have exactly the same genes, he said, ‘Of course, I would love to have offspring from E.T.’ “
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Cryozootech is the same laboratory that successfully cloned the World Champion endurance horse Pieraz and a then-unnamed show jumper last year (see the May 6 In The Country). Those two clones are now 8 months old, living in Texas, and in reported good health. The show-jumper’s identity had been kept a secret, but it too has been revealed—he’s the clone of the noted show jumping sire Quidam de Revel, now 23 and still breeding.
The Cryozootech staff tried to clone E.T. at the same time, but that first attempt failed. “I wanted a horse the quality of which was unquestionable and that was gelded,” explained Palmer of his determination to succeed with an E.T. clone. “I came too late for Milton, but E.T. has the absolute record of earnings in show jumping, and he also has excellent bloodlines. So, I think that nobody can discuss the fact that castrating such a quality horse was a mistake and that restoring his capacity to transmit his genes is a good thing.”
Palmer insists that the clones will not compete; instead they’ll stand at stud as genetic replicas of the geldings they represent.
