These five ponies survived years of backbreaking labor, forced to pull tongas (two-wheeled passenger carts) along dusty, rutted roads, but life has turned a corner for them. Mohini, Meghana, Ram, Sundar, and Shyam came to Animal Rahat exhausted with badly neglected hooves and aching legs that cried out for soothing liniment and spoke of what they endured before their rescue. Never taking no for an answer (and there were lots of preliminary rejections), staff’s persistence and determination finally convinced the horses’ owners to embrace a new way of making a living: by using e-vehicles. The Fabulous Five are now enjoying peace, a leisurely life, and friendships at the Sangli sanctuary—they’re “beasts of burden” no more.