October-November, 2005
Embryo Transfer: A Brave New World
by Pam Gleason
Tucked away behind New Bridge Polo and Country Club’s fields, an unassuming barn and set of paddocks are serving as Aiken’s newest state of the art facility for horse breeding. Two stallions live here. One of them is Fully Booked, a three-year-old Thoroughbred that New Bridge obtained from Dolly Bostwick. The second is Siggy, a polo playing stud, bred, trained and formerly played by 4-goaler Carlos Gonzales. These two stallions are participating in an ambitious new breeding program intended to improve the quality of polo ponies in the U.S.
New Bridge owner Russ McCall with "Fully Booked"
Today the paddocks around the barn are empty, but from April to August of this year, they were filled with two types of mare. The first type was young, healthy and easy to work with, but not necessarily especially distinguished in her conformation or abilities. These mares were the receptors. The second type of mare came in for visits and then left. These mares, the donors, were creatures that could run and stop and turn like demons. They were the Queens of the High Goal; top polo ponies from professional strings with speed, agility and courage.
The donor mares, on break from their demanding playing schedules, were here to provide eggs, which were fertilized by semen from the stallions, and then implanted in the receptors. Like busy career women, these mares don’t have time for children. With embryo transfer technology, however, they can still pass along their genetic material, and may become mothers many times over without sacrificing their high goal lives, or ever even seeing their babies.
“A broodmare may be able to have five to eight foals,” explains Dr. Luis Lossino, an embryo transfer specialist from the University of Rio Cuartos in Argentina. “A playing pony might have two to four, if you wait until after she is done playing to start breeding her. With embryo transfer, a broodmare can have 50 foals. A playing mare can have 30.”
Dr. Luis Losinno & Cristian Storleder explain embryo transfer
The New Bridge Embryo Transfer Center officially opens next April and will allow people to obtain eggs from valuable mares, have them implanted in a receptor, then bring both mares home; one to return to competition, the other to enter the nursery. Using methods imported from Argentina, New Bridge successfully impregnated 38 receptor mares this summer, each of whom will bear a foal in the spring, while the “real” mother keeps on playing.
Although all of this sounds a bit like a Brave New World, embryo transfer is used so much in Argentina, about 50% of the horses that played in the Argentine Open last year were embryo transfer foals. The Embryo Transfer Center at New Bridge is the first in America specifically intended for polo ponies.
New Bridge Embryo Transfer Center
The Aiken Horse, P.O. Box 332, Montmorenci,
SC 29839
803-643-9960
Owned by The Aiken Horse, LLC
Copyright The Aiken Horse 2005