A FORMER racehorse who found a new career in the art world is now signing copies of his biography.
Metro Meteor, who had won more than $300,000 on the track in America, retired as a nine-year-old owing to severe knee injuries.
His new owner, artist Ron Krajewski of Pennsylvania, US, taught him to create “abstract paintings”.
Ron said: “He’s got a habit of putting stuff in his mouth and bobbing his head.
“I thought if I could teach [him] to hold a brush, maybe we could do something with him.”
The bay gelding took to his new career with alacrity, developing a style of building up his pieces over several days. Word has spread about Metro’s talent and his paintings are being snapped up, with one selling for more than $2,000.
His work has also been displayed at Gallery 30 in Gettysburg, where there is a waiting list of 80 people interested in Metro’s art, according to a gallery representative.
The money has been used to pay for Metro’s own vet bills, and his talent is also helping other thoroughbreds. Half the proceeds from the sale of the paintings is donated to the New Vocations Adoption programme, which helps retired racehorses find “second careers and loving homes”.
So far, Metro has raised more than $80,000 for the cause.
Ron said: “Sometimes Metro can be a jackass. He is temperamental, stubborn, dominant, and just plain cranky.
“But I have to remember that he is just a horse. I have grown to love him and gave up trying to change him a long time ago. He is Metro. And he paints.”
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Metro is now the subject of Ron’s book Painting With Metro: How a Crippled Racehorse Rescued Himself (and Me) With a Paintbrush, which is out on 5 April.
And, showing himself to be as handy with a pen as with a brush, the former racehorse even signs his own book.
Painting With Metro: How a Crippled Racehorse Rescued Himself (and Me) With a Paintbrush by Ron Krajewski with Susy Flory
