Watch Chinese Inventor Ride His Mechanical Horse

chinese, mechanical, horse, su daocheng
Su Daocheng and his mechanical horse

Just when you think you have seen it all, another example of human ingenuity comes along. This time it’s Chinese inventor Su Daocheng from Shiyan in the eastern Hubei province of Central China and his motorized ridable horse.

The horse is around five feet tall, six and a half feet long, and weighs in at around 550 pounds. It’s powered by a recycled go-kart or lawn-mower gasoline engine. Its robust steel frame bends in the middle to allow for steering. All four legs are actuated via two drive-shafts and differentials, similar to a 4×4 vehicle. The legs are cushioned by spring/shocks that look like coil-overs. This version of the horse appears to be driven by rear legs only, and has two small wheels in the middle for support. Perhaps, this is the paved road going version?

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The horse is actually meant to assist farmers with plowing. It’s more cost effective than using an actual horse. However, field plowing requires a good amount of power, and it’s not clear from this footage whether the machine is ready for real work. The inventor reportedly spent two months to come up this prototype. There is also an issue with steering in this demonstration, but we are sure that Su Daocheng can overcome these issues.

Watch this footage from Rex Features.