Hesselhøj Donkey Boy to be Cloned

Breeding

Norway

Norwegian stallion owner Kristin Andresen has decided to clone her number one stallion, Hesselhoj Donkey Boy.

Donkey Boy is a 12-year old licensed Danish warmblood stallion by ERA Dancing Hit x Milan. He is bred by Dorthe and Hans Jørgen Hoeck in Denmark.

Young Horse Success

The licensed breeding stallion had an illustrious career as a young sport horse. Under Jan M. Christensen he won the Danish Young Horse Championships four years in a row (2016-2019). In addition, they won bronze at the World Young Horse Championships in Ermelo in 2017 and silver in 2019. He was fifth in 2018.

In March 2020 Andresen relocated Donkey Boy to Helgstrand Dressage. In February 2022, Donkey Boy made his return to the show arena, winning the Intermediaire II with Strandby on 76.974% at a local show in Aalborg. On 30 April and 1 May the horse competed at a show in Skårup Fyn and won the Inter II (76.184%) and the Grand Prix (75.367%). It was Donkey Boy's last competition so far.

Accident

In October 2022 Hesselhøj Donkey Boy sold to Bartels Academy in The Netherlands for 2.5 million euro, but Andresen believed got resold to the Japan Riding Association straight away for a much higher price as future ride for Bartels' student, Japanese Olympian Kazuki Sado.

Unfortunately Donkey Boy got severely injured to the left hind leg in a barn accident on 29 June 2022 before being delivered to Holland. A legal battle ensued, but a settlement was reached and Donkey Boy returned into Andresen's care

Rehabilitation and Cloning

The horse moved back to Katrinelund. Andresen has her own brood farm in Dilling, Norway, but keeps her breeding stallions in Denmark. In November 2023 the vets cleared him to start being ridden again.

"Donkey Boy is so busy on the phantom, that it's not possible to have a riding career," Andresen told Eurodressage. She added, "Donkey Boy was the stallion with most mares in Denmark last year. Also this year he has lots. We will bring him home 15th of August and then Alexandra will ride him.” They will check if he’s strong enough to return to sport or not.

On 27 May she announced that the cloning process has started.

"So I am cloning him to have, hopefully, some in the sport," said Kristin.

Donkey Boy is not the first dressage breeding stallion being cloned. Jazz was the first one that got cloned (and which the owners made public). Charlotte Jorst has cloned Nintendo. Other well known dressage horses that were cloned include Poetin, Bohemian, and Zhaplin Langholt.