Do you know, or can you find someone who actually does therapeutic riding for a living? Can you go and shadow them, and then interview them for information about what a typical day is like, how long it takes to get established, how they got there (education and experience), and what recommendations they would have? Can you work as an assistant while you study? Where are the jobs located? You said you think you would really love doing it, but it would be a good idea to talk to a current practitioner and see if you could shadow, intern, assist, before you had to commit to moving and coming up with tuition.

You may find out that you really don't need a four-year university degree in the subject area to start doing what you want to do. You may (or may not) learn that the specialized degree gets the holder more career mobility and quicker advancement. The point is, you will get the story from someone who is there doing it, and not just a college counselor or catalog. Information interviewing will save you much time, money, speculation, and, I hope, disappointment.

It sure would have saved me lots of what-ifs and pushed me to work harder in my profession.

By all means attend the information session about IBM. The job for which they are hiring may be in San Jose, but they are a multi-national (Fortune 500) corporation. Even if technical writing is not your dream, you can learn something about the company, and you can get some interviewing experience.

I hope something turns up for you that challenges your best talents, builds the skills your want, and rewards you beyond your dreams.