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Crosspost: Balancing Riding and University (Please help!)

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  • Crosspost: Balancing Riding and University (Please help!)

    Thought I might get added response over here and not just in the HJ forum.

    Tell me all about it! I'm writing an article about it for university and have writers block. Anything you have to say about the topic would surely help.

    If you have anything that seems particularly eloquent and would like to be quoted, please feel free to post it here or send me a PM. Full names would be required, but pseudonyms are a-okay. I just need a first and last name to refer to.

    If anyone has any relevant statistics, that would be lovely, too.

    I do not intend to actually publish the article and would notify anyone who contributed if it were to be published (doubtful).

    I am a die hard procrastinator, so at this point, time is of the essence! (I don't actually want to be a journalist and really hate this class, so really I just need to get this over with, preferably while achieving at least a B).

    Thank you so much in advance!
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  • #2
    I don't have anything particularly eloquent to say but I'll just add that it is very time consuming.

    I leave my house at 9:30 to go to class and typically don't get home until around 7. My classes get out anywhere from 1pm-6pm, and if I have time afterwards, I go out to the barn and take care of/ride 2 horses. Then I have to get back home, eat, shower, and try to do some studying before I fall asleep for the night.

    It doesn't leave much time for anything else (not that I usually mind).

    Comment


    • #3
      I'm not sure exactly what you're looking for but I can try and help. I'm an education major, secondary English to be exact I'm a junior now. I've had two horses for my whole college career. One is retired and my Mom trail rides him. I competed up until last fall when I decided jumping was too scary So I switched to dressage but haven't done any competing yet. I take approximately 15-17 credits a semester and usually 6-9 in the summer. I work about 15 hours per week. I find that it's helpful to schedule my classes so I have huge breaks and schedule other days so I have no barn time at all. For example, this semester on Mondays I have a break from 10:15-3:30 and Wednesdays I have one from 10:15-4:30. Tuesdays I go to class and work from 9:15-4:30 and Thursdays I go from 9:15-7:30. This leaves me enough barn time because I could go six days a week if I wanted to.

      The horses are about an hour away so I've logged plenty of miles in my lil' honda I find that it's not hard to balance the two. It helps because I have my Mom 15 minutes away from the barn so she can go up if I can't get out. Also the barn staff is amazing. They do turnout, switch blankets, mix meds, do medical care (wrapping, hand walking, etc...), for a fee, of course, but it still helps immensely. I also ride with a girl there so if I can't get out she can school him or at least lunge him for me.

      As a side note though you didn't necessarily ask about this, I am involved in other things. I am in a sorority and I'm VP Communications and Junior Member Honor Board so usually at least two nights a week I'm at the house doing something DG related. I'm also in a long distance relationship so I go down to Columbus about once a month and then my boyfriend comes up here about once a month.

      Let me know if you have any more specific questions Feel free to PM.
      No hour of life is wasted that is spent in the saddle. ~Winston Churchill
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      Comment


      • #4
        I did it! I actually rode more in college than any other point in my life thus far. I know I had a lot of advantages though, namely:

        - I went to a small school in a small town (the commute was less than 5 minutes and the professors were very flexible and accommodating when I had shows, as long as I was in good standing and made up any work).
        - I went to school on scholarship and was VERY lucky in that my parents supported my riding (in their words, they were only paying for one of us- me or the horse - to go to college, so I'd better figure out how to pay for the other one).
        - I found a great barn. This was my biggest fear moving to college, but I found a great place that became a second family to me. There was always someone willing to help me out (throwing trunk/tack/horse on trailer while I was in class so I could meet them at the show, etc).

        I don't know if it makes a difference, but I did not ride for the IHSA program at my school. I rode and competed (eventing) my own horse with a trainer unaffiliated with the university.

        In my personal experience, the more I have on my plate (to a point!) the more organized and on task I am. Even in high school my grades were best when I was riding consistently, because I knew that if I wanted to have time to do what I loved, I had to get schoolwork done.

        As far as missing out on the college experience- I don't feel like I did! I kept my grades up, was involved in several non-horsey clubs/organizations on campus and lived with a house full of non-horsey girls who are still some of my best friends. That being said, I wasn't training for the Olympics (or even an FEI event) but I ran my older horse through Training and when he retired to his job as trail horse extraordinaire, I started a project horse and had him running novice/schooling training when I graduated. I think it's very doable, depending on how efficient you are with your time and what your financial situation is. Even if you can't afford your own horse, there are still ways to do it (that project horse? He stayed after I graduated and is being 1/2 leased by a current student who can't afford her own horse).
        Balanced Care Equine

        Comment

        • Original Poster

          #5
          Thanks very much! That's all very helpful.

          I'm mostly trying to get my brain headed in the right direction for this article and hear about different people's experiences to see how they compare to my own and those of people I know in person.

          It's all helpful, so thanks!
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          Comment


          • #6
            It was hard. It sucked, actually.

            I hated having to get up and go clean stalls to work off some board costs- I would have rather slept in on Saturdays. I am not good at time management, so even when I had what should have been long enough to get to the barn (30 minutes) work (an hour) and get back (30 minutes) I still more than once had to choose between showering or going to class. Sometimes I had to choose between going to class or finishing work. Barn work always won... BO would definitely notice if I didn't get work done... professor wouldn't notice me missing (and I didn't like stats, anyway).

            I felt guilty for not going to the barn more when I did have the time, and when I was at the barn I felt like I was missing out on the bond my friends were building during all those down-time interactions on the hall, in the suite, at dinner, at the library, etc.

            I wish our sport didn't come with the attached scent of equine. Sitting next to a sweaty guy who just used the gym wasn't so bad, and if he at least put a hoodie and sweats on over his work out clothes you really barely noticed. I, however, could only mask the smell by showering, and even then it sometimes lingered on my hands. So, even though I had time to drive out there and work or ride, by the time I got back I still had to park my car, walk to my dorm, shower, change clothes, and then walk to the academic quad. At least the "traditional" athletes had their facilities right in next to the quad, so they could work out, shower, and change all within a 2 minute walk to class.

            In grad school, it's worse. I have a fair amount of down time, but I'm too mentally exhausted to make time to get out there, and again, the showering thing. Now that I'm interning, it's important that I shower every morning and look fabulous (lol), but I really hate taking 2 showers a day (it dries me right out!) but if I don't shower, I'm stinky and the bf loves my horses but doesn't love their lingering poop scent in our bed! So I try to plan to go out on days I don't have other things going on, but that's only 1 day a week, and I usually sleep almost that whole day, and by the time I say "get thine butt to the barn" it's about closing time. Winter makes it harder, too.

            Really sad part? The barn is almost right at the L-shaped juncture of my travel home each day after internship.

            home

            L internship
            barn

            (sorry if the formatting didn't stick...)

            At least I found someone to half lease! From COTH, actually!

            So, I'd say the most important thing about making it work in college is (and this is if you want a "normal" college experience, complete with parties and friends and joining clubs and really putting your best into your academics and work study opportunities):

            - having money so you don't have to work off costs
            - having the horses very near you
            - having a barn you can trust to take care of your horses when you can't be there (I've been at the same barn for almost 10 years now- they've got a monopoly on my trust!)
            - having someone who can half lease, which lessens the financial, emotional, and practical burdens of owning a horse you don't get to see much.






            When I'm queen of the world, college students and recent grads will get a sizeable break on board/vet costs after passing a moral, personality, and general worthiness test

            I'll keep y'all posted on that front, tee hee.

            Comment


            • #7
              Probably your best example of someone who has demonstrated a commitment to both would be the founder of the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association, Bob Cacchione. Bob was a sophomore at Fairleigh-Dickinson in 1967 when he founded IHSA (with the help of professor and fellow-horseman, Jack Fritz), to assure that every student had an equal opportunity to discover riding while at college. Today, that amounts to 100s of participating colleges, and 1000s of riders throughout the US, and Bob is still truly hands-on about the organization he loves, including bringing the prestigious IHSA Nationals to the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington for both 2010 and 2011!
              For more feedback or remarks to help with your article, I warmly invite you to become a friend of Intercollegiate Horse Show Association on its official Facebook page (Product/Service), and to keep abreast of the college action through Twitter, @IHSAinc
              The FB page has more than 1700 enthusiastic students and riders eager to give you their thoughts on this very good, and very empathetic, question!
              Thnx, or you can contact me on FB, too, at L.A. Pomeroy -- I'm the new IHSA media liaison, and happy to help in any way.

              Comment


              • #8
                Maybe not helpful, but I actually quit riding in college because I knew I wanted to go to vet school and didn't want to have the distraction of trying to ride and all the classes, labs etc. that I needed to have good grades in. (Not that everyone trying to go to vet/medical/grad school needs to quit, just what I did.)

                I rode/competed from age two to college, sold my horse and quit riding (regularly) during college, started riding (other people's horses) on weekends in vet school, then after vet school got my own horses again.

                I don't think it's awful to take a break, and doesn't mean you won't ride again.....

                Just another perspective!

                Comment

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