“Gene doping represents a threat to the integrity of sport,”\u00a0asserts<\/a>\u00a0the World Anti-Doping Agency, which\u00a0prohibits<\/a>\u00a0athletes from “the non-therapeutic use of genes, genetic elements and\/or cells that have the capacity to enhance athletic performance.” The agency also bans gene editing.<\/p>\n

Even if genetic enhancements remain\u00a0unjustifiably<\/a> prohibited to elite human athletes, should a ban on gene doping also apply to animals that compete in sports? The International Equestrian Federation<\/a>\u00a0says\u00a0yes<\/a>. “The use on, or administration or application to, any Horse of Gene Editing or Genome Editing is prohibited at all times.”<\/p>\n

The Argentine Polo Association (APA) agrees: It has\u00a0imposed<\/a>\u00a0a ban on the world’s first genetically enhanced polo ponies. “The use of genetically manipulated or edited horses will not be permitted by the APA for polo, in any official or unofficial tournament,” declared the organization.<\/p>\n

The banned horses were bred by Buenos Aires\u2013based\u00a0Kheiron Biotech<\/a>, a leader in horse cloning that produced about\u00a0400 clones<\/a>\u00a0in 2025. Researchers at the company edited five clones of the award-winning mare Polo Pureza (“Polo Purity” in English) to suppress the myostatin gene,\u00a0which normally limits muscle growth. The goal was to breed horses with stronger muscles and more explosive speed.<\/p>\n

“This takes away the charm, this takes away the magic of breeding,” APA President Benjamin Araya told Reuters. Yet biotech has been shaping the breeding “magic” of Argentine polo ponies for years. More than 60 percent of Argentine polo horses are now produced by\u00a0embryo transfer<\/a>,\u00a0in which embryos are flushed from high-value mares and implanted in surrogate broodmares. This process enables mares to keep competing while producing multiple foals each year without carrying the pregnancy themselves.<\/p>\n

As a result of this artificial fecundity, sought-after Argentine polo horses\u00a0are widely exported, with around\u00a02,400 sold<\/a>\u00a0abroad last year.<\/p>\n

In 2012, the International Equestrian Federation\u00a0lifted its ban<\/a>\u00a0on cloned horses and their offspring in sanctioned competitions. Argentine polo legend\u00a0Adolfo Cambiaso\u00a0was among the first to take advantage of this technology; his team famously won a match in which he rode\u00a0six different clones<\/a>\u00a0of his favorite mare, Dolfina Cuartetera.<\/p>\n

Evidently, cloning poses no threat to the integrity of polo.<\/p>\n

Sports rules are ultimately arbitrary and can be adjusted to accommodate scientific advances while maintaining transparency and fair play.\u00a0The Argentine Polo Pony Breeders Association plans to\u00a0monitor<\/a>\u00a0the progress of enhanced clones for the next four or five years before deciding whether they can be officially registered as polo ponies.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0best way<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0sports officials to reduce potential harm\u2014to humans or to horses\u2014from using enhancements is to bring their use out of the shadows, allowing them to occur with medical oversight and sound research.<\/p>\n

The post Polo Officials Ban Genetically Enhanced Ponies To Save 'the Magic of Breeding'<\/a> appeared first on Reason.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Don’t) hold your genetically enhanced horses. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":""},"categories":[19,9,12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127166"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127166\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}