THE famous White Horse of Kilburn has been looking more like a grey mare in recent times.

So now a special operation has started to restore the hillside landmark near Thirsk to a brilliant white - using paint sprayed on with high powered equipment.

It is a technique which would have startled John Hodgson, a local schoolmaster who created the horse back in 1857 with help from his pupils and other volunteers from the village.

But it is far more effective and longer lasting than the traditional method of dumping tons of chalk chippings down the side of the horse, said John Bielby, chairman of the White Horse Association, the charitable organisation responsible for the horse's upkeep.

He said the horse was first painted in this way in 1999 and had lasted six years before losing its gleam through weathering.

The repainting task is massive. The horse, visible from many miles away across the Vale of York, is 340 feet long and 228 feet high, and covers about an acre.

The project is being carried out free of charge for labour and equipment by Eden Whatnell of Rooftec, at Sutton-on-the-Forest, which specialises in painting agricultural and industrial buildings. The association is only having to pay for the paint - about 2,000 litres are likely to be needed.

The work started yesterday after the horse had first been sprayed with a fungicide to prevent the growth of algae, which can cause discolouring problems.

"We will paint it twice," said Mr Bielby.

"How it will take depends on the weather. Wind is a problem, because the paint could blow across the area where there are walkers."

He revealed that a small area of the horse, at the top of its back, had had 30 tons of chalk chippings deposited on it several weeks ago because of damage from people walking on it.

The torrential rain which caused flash flooding in the area fell only a day later, but his fears that the chippings would all have washed down the hill into the car park proved unfounded.

The White Horse has undergone a few temporary makeovers in recent years - gaining riders on two occasions.

In 2002, pro-hunt campaigners from the Real Countryside Alliance created a huntsman, complete with red jacket and black riding helmet, out of pieces of carpet as they sought stop the Government banning fox hunting.

The stunt was recreated earlier this year when a 150-ft jockey was placed for a day on the horse by the Yorkshire Tourist Board to welcome Royal Ascot to York. In 1992, pranksters turned the horse into a zebra by using rolls of black bin bags to create stripes down the sides, and the association said there had also been attempts to turn it into an elephant.

Updated: 10:08 Wednesday, August 03, 2005