A Disabled Horse That Paints

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Penelope Green, Q & A; If Pollock Could Whinny. New York Times, May 1, 2014
www.nytimes.com/2014/05/01/garden/if-pollock-could-whinny.html

Note:
(a) The title alludes to
Jackson Pollocken.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Pollock
(1912-1956. An American painter; well known for his unique style of drip painting [‘a form of abstract art])

(b) In print, the teaser in page D1 of the Home section is a photo of  a horse with a brush in his mouth (the tip of the handle with wrapped with a tape) whose legend reads, "Brush With Genius[;] Metro, a retired racehorse with a talent for painting, goes into housewares."
(i) Unfortunately, the photo was not reproduced online. With that photo, you can immediately comprehend what the following sentence in the report means:

“Mr [owner Ron] Krajewski insinuates a brush dipped in paint into Metro’s mouth, and Metro goes to work, bobbing his head and smearing the brush across a canvas or hardboard. Mr Krajewski tapes the brush handles so they don’t splinter in Metro’s mouth. (Metro has a vigorous stroke, and has broken a lot of brushes and ripped a lot of canvases.)”  
(ii) insinuate (vt): “to introduce (as an idea) gradually or in a subtle, indirect, or covert way <insinuate doubts into a trusting mind>”
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/insinuate

(c) whinny (vi; probably imitative; First Known Use 1530)
"to neigh especially in a low or gentle way"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whinny

The "i" in whinny is pronounced differently from that in "whine."
(d) “He can’t do more than one color on the same day, because he’ll smear it. So we developed this process of one day, one color. It builds up these layers of depth.”

The verb “smear” simply means that if two colors is used in one day, two colors will mix and/or carry along in some places--because there is not enough time to dry.

(e) “[Q:] Do horses see color?  [A:] I think they can see shades.”
(i) Eyes of a Horse has cones which can see colors, as well as rods which see black and white (and shades in between the two).
(ii) Amann B et al, True Blue: S-Opsin Is Widely Expressed in Different Animal Species. J Anim Physiol Anim Nutr (Berl), 98: 32-42 (2014)
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23173557
(The study found, among animals, "least visual discrimination by horses and highest resolution in pheasant and pigeon. Most mammals studied are dichromats with visual perception similar to red-green blind people"
(iii) Most humans have trichromatic vision, made up of three primary colors: red, green, and blue. Most other animals are dichromatic, "missing either the red or the green opsin."  Horse does not possess red (cones or opsin).
(iv) Therefore horse is similar to a human with a form of
color blindness
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_blindness
(section 3.6 Red–green color blindness(the genes for the red and green color receptors are located on the X chromosome)
, lacking red perception (in the case of horse), and sees red as green.
(v) This is what a horse sees, in simulations by removing the red color.

Vision in Horses: More Than Meets the Eyes. Horsetalk, Nov 21, 2012horsetalk.co.nz/2012/11/21/vision-horses-more-than-meets-the-eye/

(f) “I don’t know if Metro can see the canvas in front of him. Horses have eyes on the sides of their head, so there is a blind spot. I think he paints by feel. He knows where to stand and where the canvas is.”
(i) Patricia Evans, Equine Vision and Its Effect on Behavior. Cooperative Extension, University of Utah, December 2010 (graphic).
extension.usu.edu/files/publications/publication/AG_Equine_2005-03.pdf
("This area [blind spot] is triangular in shape, wide at the eyes and comes to a point about 3-4 feet in front of the
horse")
(ii) Then again, the horse can always tilt his head sidewise if he wants to see the stroke he is implementing.