Horseless in College
I gave up my horse to go to college.
My first year in college proved to be traumatic. My parents were strict, and I had led a sheltered life. I was in no way prepared for the campus culture.
Despite the overcrowding in the Freshman girls’ dormitory, it was a lonely place. I went from having my private room to sharing with two roommates. They were friendly enough, but they came with their own “baggage.”
At home, I would have escaped to the trails on my horse to clear my head. Now, I was three and a half hours from home. I wouldn’t have time and couldn’t afford to bring my horse to college with me. I tried to find a way to keep her.
At first, I had agreed to pay my brothers to take care of her. On those infrequent trips home, I began to notice the horse’s stall was less tidy. The boys claimed they hadn’t cleaned it in a week. I knew better.
I began waking up in the middle of the night sweating. I was plagued by nightmares that my beautiful horse was starving in the barn. The image of the neglected horse kept me awake. I couldn’t ask my brothers to do better. I knew they weren’t interested in the horse, just the cash at the end of the week.
Stoically, I sold my beloved horse. Isabelle went to two sisters from my 4-H Club. They rode well and had immaculately groomed horses of their own. The girls had expressed interest in my horse if I ever wanted to sell. I knew she would have a right home. But, I was lost and miserable.
The next fall, I transferred to a large technical college. It was closer to home so that I could go home for the weekends. Ironically, I no longer had my horse.
The school was nicknamed “Brick City.” Located on the outskirts of the Rochester suburbs, the college was a city within itself. Students without cars were stranded and had to rely on the bus system or make friends with kids who had cars.
For a girl from the country, its towering brick walls formed a sterile prison. There wasn’t a horse in sight. The campus was so new that the recently planted trees seemed out of place, struggling towards the sun like unwanted weeds. During the brutal Rochester winters, the school grounds looked like a wasteland worthy of the frozen north.
During midterm, instructors were warned by the administration to lighten up during critiques as suicide attempts increased in January. Caught up in the depths of the winter funk, I turned to food. Like so many other first-year students, the pounds were piling on. When the lavish spread in the dining hall wasn’t doing it for me, I had an idea.
One night in the gloom of winter, my friends and I were commiserating about classes in the dormitory lounge. A friend of mine, a photography student, complained she was struggling to meet assignment deadlines. It seemed excessive to give up valuable study time to participate in soft non-degree requirements like PE. My friend was behind on the required number of Physical education credits necessary to graduate. She would need to double up to graduate on time.
An Interesting Proposition
On that dark wintery night, I had a brainstorm. On the general principle, I wouldn’t say I liked Physical Education classes. But one bonus point for this high priced private college, it did offer a wide variety of PE classes. I had already taken both sections of “Horseback.” Repeats for credit were not allowed. Besides which, off-campus courses like horseback cost extra, and I was already working two jobs to pay for books and food.
Would my friend be willing to sign up for and pay the fee for “Horseback,” which consisted of jumping lessons at a local stable? We had the same first name, and no one would be any the wiser.
On the night of the first class, I carpooled with other students on their way to the stable. The likely hood of being recognized was small. I knew the stable never used the same instructor twice. The instructors were students who rotated internships from ritzy Animal Husbandry colleges in Virginia.
A successful enterprise
I breezed through the rest of the semester as an undetected imposter. My friend received an “A” in Advanced Jumping and three credits in PE. I kept contact with the animals whose company I loved. My spirits brightened. Classwork and being away from home became a little easier.
Whenever another student in my circle of acquaintances complained about Physical Education classes, I was always willing to lend a sympathetic ear and quick to offer, “I could help you out. I could take a class on your behalf. Would you be willing to sign up for riding lessons”?
Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
I continued to stand in for several other students, usually juniors or seniors who needed PE credits toward graduation. I am not condoning cheating. I just found a way to maintain my sanity and help a few friends along the way.
Keep the Dream Alive
Is there a way to achieve your goal on a smaller scale? Be creative. Could you satisfy your interest by researching your passion online and reading about it?
Is lack of money preventing you from following your interest? Start a hope jar. Squirrel away a small amount of money each paycheck and begin saving for the future.
If a lack of time is holding you back, maybe you can find a club and dabble in your passion once a month or on the weekends?
Could you volunteer or offer your services to someone who needs help?
If the activity is something you already have experience doing, can you get a job doing it even for low pay?
In hindsight, I probably could have gotten a job at the first college and kept my horse. But, I did not come from a family that thought that way.
