Clearly IVF is not just a boon for childless couples and individuals, but also for the Kingdom Animalia.
After struggling with infertility for 3 years, showjumping enthusiast Katherine James and husband Steve Wright from Cardiff, UK turned to the assisted reproductive technology, IVF, 8 years ago to give birth to twin daughters Daisy and Isabelle, who have grown up to be keen equestrians.
Knowing the girls’ passion for horse-riding, Mother Katherine came up with the unique idea of breeding a pair of foals from her former champion mount Veni Vidi Vici’s frozen sperm to artificially inseminate a pony belonging to the girls. The resulting pair of embryos were then transferred to two separate surrogate mares.
According to Katherine, purchasing two top notch competition ready horses would have easily cost around $120,000 each, a price too hefty when you can raise two adorable foals knowing they’re born with competitive showjumping potential.
Both Daisy and Isabelle are trained horse-riders selected for the Welsh team at the Home Pony International shows in Ireland and Scotland to represent Wales, and hold immense potential in the showjumping arena. Katherine knew she needed the right foresight to hone her girls’ horse-riding passion as she turned to IVF for help, once again.
Vinvictory and Vinabelle were born earlier this year with the help of an incredible team of veterinary fertility specialists, and following in the footsteps of their young owners, are an extremely competitive set of foals training to make their small family of showjumping buffs proud already.
Daisy and Isabelle have big plans for their foals and are overjoyed at the thought of training and raising them together.