These days, importing European horses generally means flying expensive horses with high-performance Warmblood pedigrees over to North America. But importing horses to North America isn’t anything new. Horses were brought over from Europe when Spanish explorers and conquistadors sailed the ocean blue in the 15th century.

On August 6, 2020, a cloned Przewalski’s horse foal was born at the Texas veterinary facility, Timber Creek Veterinary, a long-time collaborator with ViaGen Equine in Cedar Park, Texas, a world leader in cloning services. To bring a cloned Przewalski’s foal into the world, they worked together with San Diego Zoo Global’s Frozen Zoo, and Revive & Restore, a conservation organization promoting biotechnology in conservation techniques.

Like some fantasy creature of legend or a magical steed from a fairy tale come to life, so the Gypsy Vanner Horse seems. Its enormous power and presence, made unintimidating by the gentleness of its nature, adorned with an abundance of flowing mane, tail, and feathers, make it a breed that attracts a crowd of new admirers wherever it goes.

Recently, genetic research published in the journal Science showed that the Przewalski’s horse, also known as the Mongolian wild horse and the Takhi, was actually not wild as defined by its heritage but descendants of the horses first domesticated by Botai people of Kazakhstan over 5,500 years ago.