Cholla The Painting Horse
by Annamaria Tadlock
Images copyright and courtesy of ArtistIsAHorse.com ; used with permission.

You've heard of a Paint horse-- but what about a painting horse?

When Cholla's owner, Renee Chambers, emailed me I just had to check it out. Yes, the horse paints--I was amazed to see him eagerly swinging his brush about on his canvas in the short video clip on their website.

Cholla is a 15.2 hand 20 years old Mustang/Quarter Horse cross, and Renee's first horse. He was born in Nevada, out of a Quarter Horse mare and by a mustang stallion. She bought him after reading a classified ad that described him as a "well broke" buckskin. He was gentle to Renee from the start, but in his past he hadn't always gotten along so well with people. The rancher that owned him had described his rough "sacking out" experience-- being exhausted, having his legs roped, then tied down on the ground and having sacks of flour set on his body until he refused to struggle-- not your average, calm 'sacking out' training session! He had a bad reptutation and was named for one of the nastiest plants in the desert, the Cholla (pronounced "Choya") cactus.

Mustangs are known to be intelligent, and Cholla is no exception. Right away Renee noticed that he liked to hold things in his mouth. One day she was painting the fence, with Cholla following her around as usual. Her husband saw them and yelled out, " 'Why don't you get the horse to paint the fence?"

Cholla didn't paint the fence, but instead began to paint artwork when given an easel and paintbrush. "He loves to do it," says Renee,"He can be in the back pasture and he sees me bring his easel and he's just right there. He doesn't even have to be called."

Cholla's paintings have made him famous; his art has been displayed in several galleries, newspaper and magazine articles and featured on the Martha Stewart show. In June 2006, one of his paintings was awarded Honorable Mention in the Art At Large gallery on Ninth Avenue in New York as part of a juried gallery exhibit titled "Going Underground." Cholla was also ranked as the fourth top-selling animal artist in the world (behind a Chimpanzee named Congo, a the terrier dog "Tilamook Cheddar", and a group of elephants).

"Cholla's art is completely his own," Renee says, "I do not apply any paint to the paper, nor do I move the easel or rotate the paper at any time during his sessions. I do dip the artist bush in the paint for him as he tends to knock things over when he tries this on his own. He takes the brush from my hand and goes straight to the easel."

As Monty Roberts said, "This is absolutely wild. However you taught your horse to paint, you are to be commended. Very smart horse, indeed."

You can view Cholla's artwork, and a video clip of him in action at his website, artistisahorse.com.

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Sources:

Cholla - The Mustang Mix by Renee Chambers

Reno Horse to show artwork in New York by Guy Clifton

Orignal Horse Art from Cholla