Watch as ‘Hercules’ the therapy horse rolls around in a pile of snow in New Hampshire

A therapy horse named “Hercules” enjoyed the winter weather by frolicking in a pile of snow in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, video shows.

In the 30-second clip, the black horse laid on top of the snow pile in the street, rubbing the side of his face and muzzle in the snow before standing up to shake himself off on Dec. 29 in a video shared by Everett, Massachusetts, police Chief Steve Mazzie.

Hercules was “charming everybody as he always does,” Mazzie wrote on Twitter.

The therapy horse belongs to nonprofit Horses Over America, an organization Mazzie hashtagged in his tweet, WHDH reported.

Horses Over America was launched in 2020 as a partnership between 850 police departments and 850 horse owners “who volunteer their horses, trailers and time to change the landscape of mental health in these towns and cities” in New England, according to its website

It’s active in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

Hercules is a Friesian horse owned by retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Gerry Scott, who founded the organization, the Union Leader reported.

He is often accompanied by Scott’s yellow lab Molly, according to Seacoastonline, and the dog appeared to also be in the video shared by Mazzie.

“When we go down the street you can just feel the energy skyrocket,” Scott told the outlet. “Nothing that goes down the street entices people to pull out their camera like seeing a beautiful black stallion that teams up with a yellow lab and they see three creatures in harmony.”

The organization’s “ambitious initiative” is to “harness (no pun intended) up to 1,800 of New England’s almost 125,000 horses to be used during and after COVID-19 for visiting nursing homes, veterans homes, hospitals, rehab centers, town/city merchants, cancer patients/survivors, Boys and Girls Clubs, assisted living centers, town recreation centers, homeless shelters, military bases, schools and neighborhoods, especially disadvantaged neighborhoods,” according to its website.

This story was originally published December 30, 2021 at 9:36 AM with the headline "Watch as ‘Hercules’ the therapy horse rolls around in a pile of snow in New Hampshire."

Julia Marnin

McClatchy DC

Julia Marnin covers courts for McClatchy News, writing about criminal and civil affairs, including cases involving policing, corrections, civil liberties, fraud, and abuses of power. As a reporter on McClatchy’s National Real-Time Team, she’s also covered the COVID-19 pandemic and a variety of other topics since joining in 2021, following a fellowship with Newsweek. Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, she was raised in South Jersey and is now based in New York State.