On May 4, 2003, University of Idaho-Utah State University researchers became the first in the world to clone a member of the horse family when Idaho Gem, the first clone of a hybrid animal, and Utah Pioneer and Idaho Star his genetically identical brother clones.

A mule is a cross between a female horse, a mare, and a male donkey, a jack. As hybrids, mules are sterile, except in very rare cases. The foal’s DNA was from a fetal cell culture first established in 1998 at the University of Idaho.