Connection Pooling with ODBC

Question

I've had no problem connection to a mySQL database using using System.Data.Odbc and the MySQL ODBC 3.51 Driver. My problem is that I'd like to use connection pooling (which I've read is automatic or configured through the driver.) I've also read that regardless if connection pooling is on or not always close your connection when done with a query. However when I go to run another query of course it says the connection is closed. So should I open the connection everytime before running the query and close after, will it actual still use connection pooling or persistent connections? Or will I simply be establishing a new connection every time resulting in lots of overhead?