Why children in the Northeast ride horses to school

In Assam and Meghalaya, children’s daily school commute often means saddling up a horse.

Transcript

00:00What looks like a cool viral moment is actually a daily necessity for children living in the

00:07Northeast. 8-year-old Yuvraj Raba from Assam's Borbakra village rides to school on horseback

00:12barefoot with his school bag slung across his shoulders. Short videos of his morning

00:16rides went viral, admired for the confidence and poise of the young rider. But for Yuvraj,

00:21it's not a hobby, it's the only way to reach school. His village is tucked away in the hills

00:26where transport is hard to find. This video from Meghalaya's West Khasi Hills shows a similar

00:31reality, a young boy in uniform riding a horse to school, with a black dog faithfully trotting

00:36alongside him. FYI, rugged terrain and monsoon rains make roads unreliable in the Northeast,

00:42leaving many villages cut off for months. With vehicles often out of reach, horses provide

00:47a practical and affordable way to get around. For Yuvraj and other children, riding them to

00:52school is simply part of everyday life.