Photo by unsure shot, courtesy Flickr

A smaller version of Luis Jimenez's "Mustang" is at the University of Oklahoma's art museum.

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The horse in question is a 32-foot-tall fiberglass sculpture of a mustang installed last February at the gateway to the Denver International Airport. Some residents of the Mile High City are having trouble getting used to it, the Wall Street Journal reports, and a local developer, Rachel Hultin, has begun a campaign to have it moved.

Hultin has created a Facebook page, Bye Bye Blue Mustang, which now counts 7,600 supporters, and has dropped off 200 protest haikus at the Denver mayor's office this week. (One reads: "Because of this thing/ People think they are in hell/ Instead of in Denver.")

"It looks like it's possessed," said one city resident of the bright blue sculpture with red neon eyes. "I have a huge fear of flying anyway, and to be greeted at the airport by a demon horse — it's not a soothing experience."

Mustang, which was commissioned by the airport from sculptor Luis Jimenez in 1992, has already made headlines; the artist was killed in 2006 when a hoisted piece of the work fell on him and crushed him. His widow and children helped finish the mustang, and the piece was installed last year at the airport, at a cost to the city of $650,000.

Jimenez was critically acclaimed for his bright, often carnivalesque, art, which frequently combined Chicano themes and Western history. But other pieces have also caused uproars, such as a smaller and more muted version of Mustang that was installed at the University of Oklahoma's art museum in 1997. That piece was eventually accepted by the community, partly because it was moved to a less prominent location and partly because people adjusted to it over time.

Denver officials hope the latter will happen in their city, where rules require any public-art installation to remain in place for at least five years in order to honor the artist's intent and give the work a chance to grow on people.

In the meantime, Hultin has launched a public education effort to help people understand the sculpture and become interested in it rather than afraid.