Summary at Conclusion of Fellowship

The meaning of life is not 42, it’s 268.57. As a scientist, I like to boil down complicated events into a single data point. In this case, that point is 268.57. Excluding Germany, a financial anomaly, it is the average amount, in U.S. dollars, I spent per week on living expenses while on my Bristol Fellowship. Including Germany, with their expensive train fares and poor exchange rate, that number is US$350.04. For comparison, I am currently making about $300 a week as an office temp.

I went overbudget by $912.74. I had planned to use some of my own savings for short trips to New Zealand and Portugal for personal reasons and so the total for the year was even beyond that total. I lived relatively frugally, but ended up spending more than planned on transportation, mostly change fees on flights pre-purchased and the cost of 3 long-haul flights. Europe and the U.K. were particularly expensive and unfortunately came at the end of the trip and when the dollar was falling against the pound. The majority of my overall budget went to airfare and lodging. The rest was split between food, short personal trips, miscellaneous entrance fees and event fees from concerts to riding competitions, a few souvenirs including riding boots from Argentina, and postal services to mail bulky items like books and pamphlets home.

Staying with my contacts was invaluable. The money I saved on accommodation allowed me to visit more countries and more riding facilities. More importantly, it let me live the lifestyle of my hosts alongside them when not at work and include outside influences on their lives on my perception of their therapeutic riding centers. It allowed those late-night conversations in which I heard the “off-the-record” thoughts on therapy or private debriefing sessions after a long day.
Transport was also fairly easy.

I initially purchased a Round-The-World ticket from a travel agent, of which I ended up using only one leg due to scheduling conflicts with some of my contacts. Having to reroute my ticket cost time and money that could have been avoided with either more concrete travel dates and plans, or by purchasing individual legs of the ticket as I went. Though it caused extra stress to change tickets, I am glad I changed my itinerary by adding four Latin American countries due to information gained at the FRDI Congress in August. I had set out to find the lesser-known programs which obviously do not have websites or listed contact information; I found them by word-of-mouth. The small programs added an extra dimension to my travels and a whole other side of therapy that I would otherwise never have known exists.

The rest of my budget went to food, public transportation, and miscellaneous souvenirs, postage, and entrance fees. I found it helpful to take a few days off to sightsee and travel alone at the end of each destination. It was during these breaks from the project I was able to consolidate all I had learned and experienced and recharge for the next assignment. I also enjoyed seeing something of interest on my own time, meet other travelers, and talk to the local shop and café owners. Each of these elements went into my analysis of the experiences I was having through therapeutic horseback riding.

A major consideration for me was being a single female traveler. I was surprised at how much concern people had for me, right from the start of the trip to the end. It is still uncommon for women to travel for so long by themselves but, while I had to take extra precautions, I believe it is important to challenge the perception that women cannot travel alone, especially in male-dominated cultures like Brazil and Mexico. I had to give up some experiences like going out at night if not in a large group or with a local host, stick to well-guarded tourist areas of cities like Buenos Aires, and be aware of my surroundings at all times. I had to sleep in the airport before leaving Germany in order to avoid standing on the corner by myself in Frankfurt’s red-light district at 3 a.m., whereas with a group I would have probably been able to get a few hours’ sleep in a bed. Still, I had no problems the entire year with safety. I gained confidence for it, and so recommend anyone to consider traveling alone.

The best way I could have prepared was taking Hamilton Campus Safety’s Rape Aggression Defense Course in the spring, before leaving. Luckily I never had to use it, but I was glad I felt prepared.

Traveling alone forced me to find temporary friends in hostels, speak to locals, and be entirely self-sufficient from carrying my pack to checking flight numbers before going to the airport. I was able to improve my social skills which ended up being helpful to find out the pertinent information from the riders and families.

I can realize now how much I had taken communication (e-mail, letters, phone) for granted. Constant access to internet, a private phone line, and a reliable postal system are luxuries I had come to expect, until I found myself without any of them. I had to use e-mail to contact my hosts in each country, easiest by far given the cost of international calls and time differences. I found a phone mostly unnecessary but helpful only when I was in a country long enough for the SIM-card to be worthwhile and mostly for making social plans. I found enough pay phones and pre-paid cards to call home every few weeks and relied on email when possible for all other correspondence. Flight and hostel reservations and minor research was all done online relatively inexpensively at an internet café or the public library, if not at my host’s house.

I was glad to have the support of people back in the US as well as being able to update friends abroad I had stayed with. I was able to contribute to a book on animal-assisted therapies for children with autism via email and begin an article for the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association’s newsletter after contact through email. Emails with Hamilton’s 2006-07 Watson Fellow, contributed to my psychological wellbeing (mostly through humor!) and helped me conceptualize all that was going on around me from someone also right off the Hill.

Now that I’m back, I am overwhelmed by the choices with which my clothes closet daily presents me. I traveled with two pairs of riding pants, one pair of riding boots, one pair of jeans, four t-shirts, one fleece, one pair of sneakers and one pair of sandals. The rest of the weight in my pack was books, a video camera, digital camera, music collected from each country, and photo-CDs. The most important thing I took was my Leatherman pocket knife, always in my checked baggage!!, a warm fleece, and comfortable, reliable shoes. I also had a few hundred U.S. dollars on me, either as cash or Traveler’s Checks, as back-up emergency funds which came in handy.

Anything I did not need I gave away, threw out, or sent home. I needed luxuries like knitting needles when I was in the wool capitols of Australia and New Zealand, but I can reassure travelers that these things are available in other countries. I picked up needles and wool and left the needles in Australia; I took T-Shirts that I was willing to give up and replaced them with the gift shirts I received. The most valuable thing in my bag was my collection of photos both for myself and so that I could show the next country what the previous ones looked like in the spirit of cultural exchange.

Having been back for two months now, I have been a bit disappointed in myself in not doing more volunteer work at my local therapy farm but I do know I will continue the momentum from this project. It has by no means stopped even though I am home. I was able to present my trip to a small group at a farm specializing in mental health in Chittenango, NY in September and am scheduled to speak again in May. I will continue in the therapeutic field generally with my sights on my original goals of a wilderness-based therapeutic riding program targeting young women. I am planning to work in Australia again, with whose environmental compassion I was impressed. The laid-back attitude I found fascinating in the ability to uphold first-world liability standards while utilizing volunteers with a “no worries!” attitude.

I recently received an email from my host of a year ago in Mexico describing how she reunited with two friends, also whom I had visited, and recounting stories of when I was there. They laughed until they were in stitches over the horse with chronic flatulence or both of us falling asleep during a community classical guitar concert, due to fatigue from a long, hot day. If I can spark any conversation, even among old friends, I’ve been successful.

Overall, the trip was great. I am pleased. It was not always easy and didn’t always go according to plan, but I would not change a thing. I was most impressed with the hospitality of my contacts and their desire to show me the best of their individual cities and their enthusiasm in my project. I have no lack of support to continue with the topic of international therapeutic riding. I think I could appreciate each place’s uniqueness without becoming overwhelmed. I found traveling increasingly accessible without being monotonous. It’s this balance I hope to maintain for each rider I work with in the future.