Police horse in St. Pete paints masterpieces during downtime

ST. PETERSBURG (FOX 13) - Did you know the St. Petersburg Police Department has a police horse that paints?  

Officer Jason Hughes and his 12-year-old horse, Jacob and have been a team since 2009. 

“I love my horse; he's great. I’ve known him forever. He's a great horse,” said Officer Hughes.

The equine artist took to picking up a brush pretty quickly during training.

“Sometimes there's downtime so we try to fill that downtime to keep the horse engaged so they don’t get bored standing around,” Hughes explained.

Jacob holds the brush in his mouth and waves his head back and forth.  

“It’s not going to win any art contests, but it’s pretty cool. Very abstract,” Hughes offered.

“I think seeing a painting police horse is awesome and I would definitely buy one of his paintings,” said Bill Ritola

The pieces have been auctioned off for charity.  

“The most recent event we did was a charity event for Creative Clay at 3 Daughters Brewing," Hughes added.  "That same week we chased down a guy who did a stabbing right around the corner from here."