Frenchmans Guy Cloned

Listed as a leading all-around performance sire for the past decade by Equi-Stat, Frenchmans Guy has progeny earnings in excess of $4 million. Owners, Bill and Deb Myers of Myers Training Stables in St. Onge, South Dakota, announced just yesterday that they have cloned the now 25-year-old super stud. According to a barrehorse.com news release, three Frenchmans Guy clones were born in the Austin, Texas cloning facility of ViaGen – an animal cloning company – in June. As stated in the news release:

\”After long thought and consideration as well as extensive research, we have decided that keeping Frenchmans Guy\’s genetics alive into the future would be the right thing to do both for our breeding program as well as the horse industry as a whole. Knowing the prepotency of Frenchmans Guy and finding through our research and our consultation with Blake Russell of ViaGen that these foals would in fact produce exactly like their sire was the deciding factor in our final decision,\” said Bill and Deb Myers in a joint statement.

\”Seeing these foals in person has validated our decision and we are extremely happy and excited for their future,\” they added.

\”It is a true pleasure to work with such a legendary stallion owned by a great family,\” said Blake Russell, CEO of ViaGen, Inc. \”Frenchmans Guy is a proven, elite stallion and now through advanced reproduction his genetics can continue making a positive impact for many years to come.\”

Cloning produces a later-born identical genetic replica. It\’s a topic of great controversy in the horse industry. Back in May, 2010, longtime Texas breeder, Carol Harris spoke of the practice: “Breeding is an art. Cloning is a replication.”

To others, such as the Myers and Charmayne James, cloning is a means to keeping alive bloodlines which have changed the face of the western performance world, and a service to their respective sports.

Other notable horses which have been cloned in the western riding world include  Jame\’s incredibly talented gelding Scamper, the sire Smart Little Lena and Elaine Hall\’s $300,000+ money-earning cutting mare, Royal Blue Boon, which was incidentally the first mare to be cloned.

We\’re working on a story about cloning for the January/February issue of Western Horse Review. On our radar for that piece is an update on Scamper\’s clone – the stallion Clayton, as well as a look into the Smart Little Lena clones. We hope to speak with Bill and Deb about their hopes and plans for these three babies as well. Look for it in the January/February issue.