CLINTON HILL — These horses know how to work it.
Brown beauty Spacey Gracie and Welsh pony Lady Lucille traveled some 120 miles Wednesday to act as models for a day for art students at Pratt.
Horses from the Fair Hill Farm Riding Academy in Northeastern Pennsylvania have taken the four-hour trip to Pratt Institute in Clinton Hill annually for more than eight years thanks to a great friendship between owner Brad Goldberg and photography professor Sarah Van Ouwerkerk.
Van Ouwerkerk, an equine enthusiast, says students are thrilled to draw live animals and study their mechanics and movements.
"I first asked Ben to bring the horses for our computer animation students," she said. "It helped them to study how horses breath, step, and run and attempt to recreate those movements."
Now the program is open to all art students at Pratt.
"I bring them for the Pratt students to have an opportunity to draw, photograph and paint the animals," said Goldberg. "They are overjoyed at the chance to observe horses in Brooklyn."
But these two majestic mares are not professional models. In fact their day job is to teach riding lessons to people with disabilities.
Still, according to Pratt students, their modeling skills aren't half bad.
"They are doing a great job standing still," said art student Melissa Garvin. "I can't believe I am in Brooklyn and there are horses."