<p>Answering some questions: </p>
<p>There is nowhere on the LAC campus itself to board the horse. The barn where the equestrian team rides is a 10 minute drive from campus, and the horse could board there. It would be full board, where the barn staff is responsible for the primary daily care of the horse, so not as time-consuming as if my daughter had to do all of that herself. The time commitment could be as low as riding an additional 1-2x per week, and probably at least once could be back-to-back with a team lesson. </p>
<p>The horse’s owner would have to approve a move of the horse, but I don’t anticipate that being a problem. I doubt he would allow team use of the horse, since it is an older horse and he wanted a lease rider who wouldn’t overwork the horse, and since my daughter was only just beginning to learn to jump it was a good fit. </p>
<p>I don’t know if she could ride the team horses on her off-time - that is a good question to ask. However, she wouldn’t ride the team horses during competitions. In IHSA, you ride the other team’s horses. </p>
<p>One of my daughter’s arguments in wanting to take THIS horse to campus is that her trainer has said that this horse is a particularly good horse to learn jumping on, and that the other horses at school probably won’t be as good. And my daughter is very competitive, and wants to improve quickly in this new riding discipline. </p>
<p>I fully understand that this is a luxury problem to have. But relative to the costs of attending her expensive private LAC, the additional cost is not so high. Her trainer always says that riding horses is expensive, but cheaper than therapy. There is a family history of mental health issues and psychiatric care, so I don’t want to deny her something that could potentially help her well-being, but on the other hand I don’t want to add to her stress level. She is generally pretty social and has a good group of friends (both from the barn and from school), so I’m not overly worried about her ability to make friends at her LAC.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the feedback.</p>