A report from a Las Vegas publication KLASTV states that a number of famous race horses are taking up painting to fill those long hours in the off season.

Painting?

Yep, you read correctly.

A Moneigh is trademarked artwork created by horses. That's right, BY horses. They paint with their lips, noses, tails and hooves using non-toxic paints on archival quality paper. The 'paintings' are matted and framed with a brass name plate and lock of a mane encased in each painting. These are original artworks, no one is like the other.

"ReRun started the idea of "Moneighs" - a whimsical idea that's turned into serious cash.

Mary Simons, who works for ReRun, says the online auction service e-Bay has opened up a whole new market for the paintings. The average cost for a painting is 300 to 400 dollars, but a work by Smarty went for 32-hundred-50 dollars on e-Bay in December.

ReRun estimates it's raised about 20-thousand dollars in three years from works by horses such as Funny Cide, Giacomo and others."

I couldn't resist ... off to eBay I went. Sure enough - here they are.

(I'm all for charity so I'm not saying ONE WORD about people explaining this one to the guests admiring the 'artwork' above the dining room table !)