With its cartoon-like skeleton and blood-red muscles on display, the horse parading around the race track has all the appearances of a very late Halloween prank.

Resembling an equine beast turned inside-out, the otherworldly creature daubed in brightly-colored paint completes a mini obstacle course, drawing excited murmurings from the gathered crowd.

It's not a ghoulish apparition, but a living piece of art, used to vividly show the inner workings of our four-legged friends.

Equine massage therapist Gillian Higgins spent two years painting all 11 anatomical systems on horses -- from the skeletal, to the digestive, muscular, respiratory and reproductive -- as part of an innovative teaching aid.