Kentucky is known for horse races, but one horse at Asbury University upholds a different skill. Patriot can paint.
A philosophy class assigned to Freshman Karis Voss gave a very broad project prompt. It could be whatever she wanted as long as it benefited someone else.
“I decided I really wanted to do my project for the equine center because I really wanted to benefit them,” said Voss.
Voss began talking to the equine center about ideas for her project. Yet, none of the ideas stood out to her. “I was researching and looking online, and I saw that you could teach a horse to paint,” said Voss.
After doing more research and more discussion with the equine center, Voss decided she was going to teach Patriot to paint. “I decided I was going to train one of the school horses to paint and then I’m planning to sell the paintings to raise money for the equine center,” Voss said.
The process of teaching Patriot to paint took Voss around three weeks. She started lessons in the round pen to eliminate potential distractions for Patriot. “I started just like normal groundwork warm up which would just be like your on the rope send him around in a circle around you just to try and like get connected with you,” said Voss.
Patriot is already target trained to a mounting block. This means if at a mounting block, he knows to put his leg or mouth on it. Voss refreshed the training skills with him to get him ready to paint.
Since Patriot knew to target the mounting block, Voss used that to her advantage. She trained him to put his mouth on the mounting block instead of his leg because he will be using his mouth to paint.
“I had the brush and I just put it outside of his mouth with the handle and he grasped it,” said Voss. “I was really surprised at how fast he went right over there. He had the brush still in his mouth and he touched the canvas with it.”
After he was used to putting the brush on the canvas, Voss then started to add the paint.
“I get the paint on the brush then I hold the brush out. He’ll open his mouth and grab it. I have a tarp on the ground and the canvas was on the tarp. He’s standing like right here, and he puts his head down on the ground with the brush in his mouth. Then he like moves his head up and down to like make strokes,” said Voss.
Voss has set up an auction site where she will be selling Patriot’s paintings. “Paintings will be up for auction through April 23,” said Voss. “The most up to date information and details can be found on my Instagram page @vossmountain.” The link for the auction site is https://www.32auctions.com/patriotspaintings.