You are definitely not alone. I hope in the future, I will be able to afford a horse of my own. I've had two previous shares and it worked for a while, but I had to give up due to unforeseen circumstances. I've been looking for ages and managed to find absolutely nothing that is remotely near me as I rely on lifts from le parents. How about volunteering at your local RDA? I used to and enjoyed it so much. Working with the horses gave me a massive sense of responsibility and working with the disability adults and children taught me how to deal with people who were different from me and I absolutely adored it and made a lot of great friends . Unfortunately, I had to give up because of school. School took far too much of my time up and I never had time for volunteering any more, it's also part of the reason why I had to give up my share as I couldn't change my days. What about maybe full loaning or sharing a companion horse/pony, that way you could have a horse of your own and horsey contact, wouldn't have to put in the long hard hours which come with riding and would still have a horse that is like your own . And you could get lessons when you have time, which would always leave you with something horsey to do :3. Or you could buy a miniature Shetland pony that lives out all year round .
Try looking on www.trade-it.co.uk/ there are always people looking- some may be happy to let ypu have a Sunday for a bit of financial help. Best of luck.