Retiree Invents Mildly Terrifying Mechanical Horse

This horse/go-cart hybrid is a little creepy, but mostly awesome.

Su Daocheng, a 60-year-old retiree living in the Hubei province of China, has had a lifelong fascination with inventing things. His latest creation is a horse/go-cart hybrid–when he pulls the ignition, the go-cart engine roars to life, and the horse wobbles ahead, using spring-loaded hind legs to push its wheels along while the front legs paw the air.

The contraption weighs  about much as a small pony–250 kilograms, or 551 pounds–and it’s nearly 5 feet tall and over 6 feet long. Daocheng says he was inspired by Zhuge Liang, a historic chancellor of the Chinese state of Shu Han in the first century. Liang was known as a brilliant war strategist, and may have invented a “wooden ox and flowing horse” device which is thought to have been a type of wheelbarrow.

And Daocheng’s mechanical horse isn’t just a cool toy–according to Cnet, he hopes one day it could help farmers with tasks that would normally require a real horse.

Go Riding.