for National Geographic News Meet Royal Blue Boon Too, the first
commercially cloned horse in the United States. The cost of the
frisky foal: U.S. $150,000. That may be a bargain, considering
that the original Royal Blue Boon, a 26-year-old American
Quarter Horse now past breeding age, has earned more than
$380,000 as a competition and show horse. "Cloning is a very
powerful tool," said Mark Walton of Texas-based ViaGen, one of
the companies that produced the clone, at a press conference
last Thursday. "It literally takes the guesswork out of
breeding." ViaGen hopes the foal, born on an Oklahoma farm
February 19, marks the successful start to a partnership it has
struck with Encore Genetics, a horse-breeding and marketing
firm. Until now, horse cloning has been a purely scientific
experiment. The first cloned horse was produced by Italian
scientists in 2003. Since then, several more have been created.
Now, ViaGen and Encore hope to take cloning to the next level by
duplicating as many horses per year as possi