Like human athletes, racehorses can only work for so long before the physical toll catches up with them.

Metro Meteor one of his sport's best competitors, racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money before his body finally had enough.

With painful bone chips in his knees, Metro's racing career was finished. The horse was put up for adoption and taken in by artist Ron Krajewski and his wife.

They quickly realized Metro was in worse shape than they thought. Vets recommended putting him down before his knees locked up for good. But Ron had another idea.

Ron refused to give up on Metro, and noticed how smart he was. The horse could pick up objects and his mouth and carry them around. With a little training, Metro learned to touch his nose to a canvas, then to rub a paintbrush on it.

Soon, the horse was an artist in his own right - and a popular one to boot.

Metro's first paintings were featured in a local art gallery and sold out almost immediately. Now, this artistic animal has started his second career, and he's helping other horses do the same thing.

Click the next page to see some of Metro's paintings!

In a special "studio" tucked into Metro's barn, Ron helps him make his masterpieces.

He covers the brushes in paint and hands them to Metro, but the horse does the rest. People have compared his bold, animated style to famous artists like Jackson Pollack, but Ron insists no human can paint like Metro.

"He doesn't think about what he will do before he does it," Ron told the BBC.

"His strokes are thick, random and sometimes broken, which lets other colors show through. It all just vibrates on the canvas."

Of course, Ron knows that horses have a blind spot in front of their nose, but that's just proof of Metro's great artistic intuition.

This talented horse has made fans all over the world, with a waiting list over 150 people long, all paying between $50 to $500 for his original works from his website.

But it's all for a good cause. Half the proceeds pay for experimental drugs that have healed Metro's knees, while the other half supports a charity that finds new homes for retired race horses.

But Metro doesn't paint for the money or fame, he does it for the love of art.

"I can put out the easel in the field," Ron says, "and he will stop eating grass and stand right in front of it."

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