Heidi Humphries to Clone Bohemian

Dressage

U.S.A

American dressage horse owner Heidi Humphries has announced her decision to clone Bohemian, the 2021 Tokyo fourth placed horse and European reserve champion under Cathrine Dufour (DEN).

Humphries bought Bohemian in December 2023 as a Paris Olympic hopeful for Endel Ots (USA) to ride.

Humphries took to social media: "Bohemian isn’t wasting any time leaving his mark on the USA. Follow along with this journey, and stay tuned for an adorable Bohemian clone. We can’t get enough of this special horse and are excited for the future."

Preserving Elite Equine Genetics

In an interview with Eurodressage, Humphries further disclosed that, "we have started the process of cloning Bohemian, and are using Viagen Pets & Equine based in Texas. I have personally used Viagen to clone my dog, and had a wonderful experience!"

Heidi's first experience with cloning was with a dog, which she described as wonderful.

"We have also seen other top horses cloned in recent years, and after doing extensive research, and speaking to our veterinarians about the process with horses, we decided to invest in cloning to preserve elite equine genetics," she said.

Legacy

Silver with Dufour at the 2021 European Championships

Bohemian is a 14-year old Westfalian gelding by Bordeaux out of Sunshine (by Samarant x Foxiland xx x Maraschino). The liver chestnut had an illustrious career so far, finishing 8th at the 2015 Danish Young Horse Championship under Cathrine Dufour, finishing 8th at the 2016 World Young Horse Championships under Katrine Kraglund, and fourth at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and double silver at the 2021 European Championships with Dufour. He then sold to a Germany company to be ridden by Korean Dong Seon Kim before selling to the U.S.A within the year.

"Bohemian is an incredible horse, and our hope is to continue that legacy for years to come," said Heidi. "To know the beauty and sweet soul of Bo, is to absolutely love him. The moment I met him, I knew the world needed more Bohemians! As a proud supporter of dressage in the United States, it is a goal of mine to breed and train horses with Bo's genes, here on our home turf. "I am enjoying this process and cloning more horses is a possibility that will be considered at a later date."

Cloning in the Dressage World

Dufour training Kim on Bohemian in
Wellington in February 2023

While cloning is a highly popular in polo sport, in the dressage world the process is not that popular yet.

The most famous dressage clones in Europe are those from mare Poetin and KWPN stallion Jazz. In the U.S.A. Charlotte Jorst has three clones of Nintendo and two of Zhaplin Langholt.