Horse turns artist to beat winter boredom

IRON RIDGE, Wis., March 16 (UPI) -- Carol Jensen, a Wisconsin artist, decided all creatures need a winter pastime, including her horse, so she taught it how to paint.

Buggs, a 13-year-old chestnut gelding, is attracting something of a following in Dodge County and even beyond, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. Buggs specializes in abstracts, holding the brush with its teeth.

Jensen said she trained the animal to point a stick offering treats. She said Buggs was a quick learner, selling a painting in November 2008, a month after she started the training regimen.

"At first I used a sketch pad and no paint, then I went from the sketch pad to stretch canvas," Jensen said. "When he started poking holes through the canvas with the brush, I started using canvas board instead."

Jensen is a multimedia artist, jewelry designer and musician. Now, she hopes to hold a one-horse exhibition of Buggs's work.

She said she first got the idea because Buggs would misbehave in the winter, when bad weather often keeps the horse in the barn.