Heads turn when nine-year-old Noufan P.V. goes to school. Many look on awestruck as his brown filly, Rasmi, smartly trots along the tarred roads of Anchachavidi village, carrying little Noufan.

Noufan fell in love with the three-year-old horse his elder brother brought home a couple of months ago. “I was afraid of Rasmi at first. I used to hide from her,” Noufan said. But the equation changed soon. The horse is now Noufan’s best buddy. It gets fidgety in his absence and obeys no one else. His father Ummer, a dairy farmer, abandoned his plan to sell the mare when he noticed their friendship. “They are friends. Let them enjoy,” said Mr. Ummer.

Noufan has had his falls and wounds. The scar on his upper forehead shows how hard it was for him to befriend the animal and to learn riding her. He mounts the horse without stirrups and rides her bareback without using a saddle. His sole horse tack is the reins.

“We are proud of him,” said Aleyamma P.J., headmistress of Government High School, Anchachavidi, where Noufan studies in Class 4. After reaching school in the morning, he ties the horse to a tree behind the campus, removes the reins and keeps it in his bag. During lunch break, he gives the mare boiled rice water. His friends cheer loud when he leaves school in the afternoon. “I bathe her on alternate days using shampoo. I give her oilcake, horse-gram, grass and rice water,” he said. Noufan learned to take care of the animal quickly.

“Noufan has become a star on the campus,” said his teacher Sivaprasad. He often gives a lift to his cousin Sinan, two years junior to him. “Watching them come to school on horseback is wonderful,” said Mr. Sivaprasad.