Those painted fiberglass horses in downtown Newnan have created quite a buzz and have brought hundreds and hundreds of people downtown to get a view of our town’s “horsey affair,” a Newnan-Coweta Historical Society project to raise money for a children’s museum.

Indeed, people are talking about the horses. People are coming downtown and getting out of their cars and walking around for a close-up look.

“It’s amazing the effect this has had,” said a Newnan Times-Herald reader. “People are talking. They’re excited and delighted, proud of our town. Of course, no doubt they always have been [proud], but something like this is a fun extra, like icing on a cake.”

The horses are scheduled to be on display until July, but already people are calling for the display to be permanent.

“They are beautiful,” said another reader. “Make them permanent fixtures.”

Another reader begs the horses stay: “The horses simply make you want to park your car and get out and start walking around the Court Square. Beautiful and brilliant! Love ‘em! Can we keep them? Can we?”

We like the idea of keeping the horses on public display. The 25 horses were sponsored by individuals and painted by local artists. The sponsors made contributions to the historical society to help fund the children’s museum. We understand that after the public display the horses will go to the sponsors who paid for them.

We would love to see the horses become permanent fixtures in the community, or at least stay on public display through the summer and fall. Indeed, they are creating extra excitement about the downtown area. They are bringing extra people into our still vibrant and beautiful Court Square area.

Since the historical society announced this project, we have always thought it would succeed. It seems to be even more successful than we had imagined. The painted ponies have made us all proud. Can we keep them?