It wasn’t even possible 40 years ago when I was in college. Girls either lived at home, and limited their options socially culturally by staying in their high school head space. Or dropped out of college to go back to horses. Or stopped riding. There might somewhere have been very wealthy kids who took their jumpers to a school with a riding program, but not anywhere in my orbit.
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I taught and trained all through university and wrote a final 4th-year exam directly after riding in a clinic.
I am not well-heeled so there were definitely trade offs. I drove an absolute beater and lived at home in a very unhealthy environment driving a 45 minute triangle daily - 45 min from home to uni, same from uni to barn, and about the same from barn to home. I did not own my own horse but have known several people who travelled to school with their horses up to 35 years ago. 30 years ago. 25 years ago. I may not know any personally now, but I see plenty of “looking for board” ads for students taking horses to school with them.
I cannot say what is right for the OP as I don’t know their financial or family situation well enough, but I do know that horses got me through an absolutely hateful time at university.
From the sounds of things, leasing as many (if not all) out as possible and getting the hell out of Dodge to concentrate on school may be the right choice, but none of us can say that for sure because we only have snippets and don’t know anything much at all about the OP.
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Wait. What? That’s a pretty broad statement. I started college…counting on fingers…48 years ago. I certainly didn’t come from a wealthy family. And having a horse while you were in college was absolutely possible, even for the not-wealthy. You didn’t have to choose between living at home, giving up riding, or dropping out to go back to horses.
I also managed to “backpack around” with my horse after graduation while I “found myself and got secure.” Once I was older and a teeny bit wiser, I knew it was a stupid thing to do and was definitely not in my horse’s best interests, but I did it.
Now, is it realistic for the OP to try and take one or more horses along to school in DC? No. Like everyone else has already said, that’s both unrealistic and a really bad idea all around.
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All I can speak to is what I observed in my city with my peers. Perhaps if we had been in a place where it was the easier to keep horses it wouldn’t have been a tradeoff.
I’m pretty sure people were attending CSU and brought their horses for a long time. It started out as an agriculture school and has a well-known veterinary school.
Rebecca
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Ah yes. That’s the kind of college where it would be easier. Canadian universities tend to be in larger cities, never heard of one that had stables or even an equestrian team until very recently.
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Guelph. London. Waterloo. All very horsey areas in my general vicinity. Students bring horses. I’ve also seen plenty of kids looking for boarding while they’re at uni in the Ottawa and Kingston areas.
Then there are the colleges sprinkled all over the province in smaller communities as well.
Taking horses with has been happening for many years in Canada. Not everyone can do it, but it definitely happens.
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well my wife did better, we kept her childhood Shetland in our basement. The basement contained the garage so it was easy to walk the pony in/out through the garage door.
Pony’s stall was the converted coal storage room which really was a nice stall.
Some one reported us to the city who sent an animal control inspector who sheepishly asked “we have a report you have a horse in your horse?”
No, its a pony.
As we went down the stairs to show him, pony nickers at him. He looks around, we explain she is put into the dog pen in our backyard during the day. showed the inspector how we handle waste and her feed. He pondered a while coming back to say actually there are not any city ordinances that I can find prohibiting this, I need to get back with you.
A week later a representative from the county animal welfare came, we went through the whole deal once again…pony nickers at inspector as she hangs her head over the Dutch stall door. This inspector was like a kid, he was all smiles saying he wished he had a basement.
Then finally the city inspector returned, to say after review there was Nothing in Any animal control ordinance that you have broken.
So pony lived in the basement
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I haven’t lived this long accidentally.
Words of Dad Wisdom. You are a single young woman. You need to be smart. Don’t put yourself in a position that is bound to end bad.
I’m not super high in the street smarts department, but I’ve gotten smarter since I live in marginally crappy neighborhood & next to the rental from hell, which has periodically been a drug house. For a few years, I had the police non-emergency number on speed dial. I’ve probably called 911 a dozen times in the last 15 years.
I’ve stayed in my house because I had an underwater mortgage for several years. If I could have broken even when the pharmacy was open next door, I would have been gone.
When I was first in the Navy and looking for my first apartments, I passed on some trendy, “up & coming” neighborhoods for a safe, suburban, cookie cutter apartment. A house with character is great, as long as it doesn’t get you shot. When I was helping my sister house hunt, she asked my opinion on a scenic wooded path. “It looks like a great place to be raped.” 
She’s a little more sheltered than I am.
If I were you, I’d offload a horse…or four. I moved about a half dozen times during my first 2 years in the Navy. Having 2 cats limited housing choices, a horse would have been a giant PITA. I rode where ever I could and finally bought my own horse when I had orders in one place for 3 years. There have been times when I shipped horses to the Midwest (near the parents) to eat cheap grass when things got tight.
I do live in the DC region now & work near the Navy Yard (another great neighborhood. NOT!). I’ve kept horses in NC & central VA for years. In part because the DMV is a terrible place to have a Saddlebred, but also because it’s been cheaper to keep a horse in full training and do the weekend thing, than to do the DIY thing (both in gas & sleep.)
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Yep, I did that in the 90s. Just one horse. I fed and cleaned to help with costs and always had at least one job.
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When I was stationed in DC I boarded in backyard horse set ups in Potomac and then Great Falls, VA. Much cheaper than formal boarding stables. It worked for me because I just did trail rides.
Trails were awesome, but way too many off-leash dogs chasing horses. I taught my gelding to spin around when I dog came up fast behind him and then chase the dog. Right back to the owners!
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So YOU are who inspired Cereal aka 2Raw2Ride?
Kidding!
Times were different Way Back When.
I was in my late teens when a friend & I hitchhiked from Chgo (where we lived) to Champaign to visit boys we knew in college there.
I shudder now when I recall the series of rides we got…
& Somehow made it there & back without leaving our bodies in some cornfield 
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I hitched from Amherst, MA to San Francisco in the early '70’s.
It was a different time.
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Yes! A friend from college and I were talking about this the other day. When I think about some of the things we did back then it makes my hair stand on end. But we never gave any of it a second thought and never had any problems. I was so lucky. I mean, yeah, it was a different time, but still, I think some of those choices were really stupid even back then.
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I hitchhiked in my teens, but only if I were with at least one other girl, and a boy was preferred. I just did short jaunts, but my husband hitchhiked everywhere in his teens and early 20s. He did some long distance stuff.
Once I started driving, I would pick up girls who were hitchiking, but not boys unless I knew them. Somehow, I was never axe murdered either hitching or picking up hitchhikers.
Rebecca
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She hasn’t come back. I don’t think she wanted our votes saying to downsize her herd and focus on school. It’s a horse board. We’re supposed to tell her to find more horses! 
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She did come back to correct us on her living situation, and how absolutely horrible it was. Maybe expecting us to change our minds, saying, “oh, you poor thing, do whatever you want,” instead of our very sound (IMHO) career and lifestyle advice. I’m more than three times her age. That half century of additional experience that so many of us have has got to count for something!
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It also became clear that she was living free on family property and her mother was calling her ungrateful and incompetent for not making it work. So big family dynamics to work out. Understanding your mother is sabotaging you and likely doesn’t have your best interests at heart is difficult for a dependent young person. We weren’t able to give simple tips to make the situation work.
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Yes, there were a lot of complications that we weren’t initially aware of, and untangling herself from at least some of those family dynamics may well be the first/critical step. Simple tips from strangers seem inadequate to the situation(s).
She also seems enamored of living in her own house on a horse property with four horses and a dog. Shoot, I’d love that myself!
ETA: In terms of first steps, my vote would be for rehoming all of “her” animals, including dogs, cats, etc. This would remove most of the parents’ financial restrictions.
OP would then be mobile and could move into the school dormitory, where she could learn in depth of other ways of living, relating to one’s parents, preparing for the future, etc.
My 2¢ worth.
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