Financially separated from your special interest?

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What do you do when you can no longer afford to pursue your special interest/obsession?

Mine is horses. They make for one very expensive "hobby". I have physical limitations so working at farms like I used to in exchange for riding time/time with the horses is now out of the question.
As of last year, this time, I still had my own horse. I became unable to keep him over the summer.
I have NOT been right since, mentally or physically.
I haven't really left the house. I've gained at least 10 pounds and lost at least 60% of my strength and muscle tone.
Lessons are almost as expensive as board.
Hack horse trail rides are out. I have a moral objection, those poor abused little babies.
I have a gym membership, but I rarely go. (I hate to go alone)
I'm just sitting here at home looking at my riding gear, turning into a giant turnip. (not literally)

Anyone else have a similar problem?
How do you cope??

It's never fun to be separated from something you love. I have the same problem, in part. I need a job to continue expanding my epiphyte garden - I moved to a colder climate and a number of them died in transit, and I can't afford lab supplies or a proper greenhouse for them. What I've started doing is reading a lot, and trying to find other things to focus on in the meantime. It doesn't replace engaging what I want to be engaging, but it works as a stopgap.

To an extent, right now I'm young and physically able, so it's like, able to be conquered that way, so to speak.

One interest is cars, cars however, it's not quite "all or nothing" as in, there's a variety of ways to get stuff done, but usually the tradeoff as always is less money=more time taken to do something. The richer you are, the more money you can just throw at stuff to "make it work" but the poorer you are, if you don't have money, you can either use more time to get money, or use more time to get what you want done, whatever it is.

I have a bigger problem regarding money with my other interest, of figure skating. Right now I'm super blessed, in that my rink with the membership to the gym next door charges like $35 a month for the gym, and unlimited public ice time. But, even a pair of skates seemed daunting to start with, I was quoted like $75 for a pair of hockey skates, so I used the free, but crappy rentals for a long time. Then when I went to PlayItAgain Sports, I found a pair of used but brand new condition hockey skates for $20. Then when I finally got to figure skating, I had a job by then, I was prepared to buy Riedell boots, the lower end boots, Riedell 168s, but thankfully, someone had a pair of used but new condition Jacksons that were way stiffer than the Riedells I wanted, and for only $60, so I got the boots and yeah. Then sharpening figure skates, everyone scared me with stories of the hockey skate sharpeners not knowing how to sharpen skates, this was perpetuated by the coaches who were charging $20 per sharpen, so I got mine sharpened once by a coach, but then I met a hockey sharpener at another rink who knew what he was doing, and then I found out the one at my rink indeed knew what he was doing, and he was only $8.

My big problem regarding skating is, lessons cost $60-80 an hour, which if you think about it, is sorta cheap, as psychiatrists charge the same amount, and I feel way better after skating than any psychologist has made me feel, haha. But yeah, $60-80 an hour is a bit much, I've never had a paid lesson like that. I've gotten help for free from coaches and random people I bother at the rink, and the coaches' helped loads, but since I don't have money, I still skate everyday, but I honestly don't progress too fast due to the lack of lessons. But, I still do it regardless.

Soon, though, I don't know what's gonna happen. Now it's getting to the point where lessons are needed much much more, that and soon I'll probably wanna get new boots, and new anyway, a pair of boots is like 300 bucks for the level I need, and depending on what happens, just blades alone can be like 150. But me right now anyway, I do what I can do, I got a pair of boots that works for now, they may be holding me back, but...oh well.

For your case, it's a LOT harder, there's not really too many ways to cheap out on a horse, and you worked around the money issue by working, and now you can't do that, and yeah. People want me to really focus on other things, and don't really like my skating thing, but yeah, it's one of the things that keeps me healthy, first off, but happy, second off. It's wonderful. I'll hope and pray you get a way to get back riding, as I know the feeling, even if I don't skate for a like a week, it's kinda not fun.

Thank you both very much.
I'm going to try and focus on my fitness for when I do get back to riding.
That's why I joined the gym in the first place.
I'm also going to focus more on my dog.
He's a greyhound. Doesn't it say somewhere in "The Simpsons" to think of greyhounds as little horses?
(No, riding. Only more brushing and walking. Maybe a little training.)
I needed a kick in the butt to stop feeling so sorry for myself for what I don't have.
It's emotionally better focusing on what I do have.

I will probably need more kicks in the butt to keep my focus on other things.

I spend most of my free time playing music.

Last summer I ripped open my left ring finger, so I couldn't play most of the musical instruments I play, at least not fully. I still played them, just couldn't to my full extent, and certainly couldn't spend as much time doing it. For a while, I fully stopped because I kept accidentally using the injured finger at full force, and I also didn't want to start favoring other fingers, which would have messed up my technique once my finger healed.

Focusing more on other things helped, but as soon as I was able (actually, a little bit before, I just played through the pain), I returned to what instruments I could. I would branch out my interests a bit, if I were you, try to find other obsessions to help you get through not being able to do your favorite one.

You could ride my dog. I have two: a samoyed and a pitbull/lab mix. Both are extremely sweet, but the sammy will literally drag you down the street. She's like a tank. She's my special buddy - she gets perturbed by loud noises and takes shelter in my room a lot.

So far what's worked for me: I've got music (guitar and violin - practice every day at noon +/-), writing, reading, a bit of woodworking, I'm starting some garden veggies for planting in the spring (I've set up a sequestered area in my room for the surviving epiphytes, which doubles as a mini-nursery). I'm personally starting to feel overwhelmed by projects, which I suppose is good...

If only I could put that energy into getting a job, I'd be set...

Read about it and amass a vast amount of data, well, that's what I do. Most of my interests are physically out of my reach; I'm just happy doing that.

Incidentally, I had a horse too; she was a majestic animal. I had to give her up due to life events. She's at a much better place now though (she's with a herd, plus the owner uses her in competitions, so she gets a lot of attention). She was an Appaloosa.

My sister used to work with horses at a camp. Is there a way you can channel your interest to still involve horses, but instead of riding, maybe teaching about horses to others? That way you can still be around the horses, grooming them, interacting with them, while also getting others interested in them. I know there's a big difference between participating in an activity (riding) versus teaching it, but you might find it helps to "scratch that itch" just enough until you are able to get a horse of your own again and work on overcoming your physical limitations.