Need help and advice....

[Obi]

Just got back from my Lyme doctor’s appointment and I am being put on a whole new drug protical. In my appointment with my Dr., he mentioned that I have to be careful about overdoing things and being overly exposed to ticks, etc. In subtle words, it was downsize my responsibilities if I want to get better.

I have had a horrible time getting barn help. From kids going out for a pack of cigarettes and not coming back to being stalked by the current farm help (he needs money but has a felony on his record and most likely a drug problem). I live alone with the exception of when my parents visit in the spring and fall.

I have been thinking about offering out my spare bedroom and a stall to a local college student (the school has a equine program) for the school year in exchange for all barn help and odds and ends around the house. Student would pay own horses feed and hay and take on the responsibility of my two horses.

Am I crazy due this? I have tried to find a friend or someone that I know but that did not work out well (drugs, stealing). I am thinking there must be a student who needs to cut expenses with board for both them and their horse. Has anyone had any experience with this? This person would also be needed incase I have a seizure or have health issues where they can call my neigbors who are ready to drive me to the doctors etc.

[Hawleyite]

Yes you need to simplify, I had to to the point of actually selling what I had and actually going horseless for a while. It wasn’t that bad as I didn’t have any heart horses at the time and I was so sick I really wasn’t with it.

I wouldn’t even take on any house boarders. You have to put all your focus on getting better.

I had Lyme for 4 years undiagnosed then 4+ years of being on antibiotics and sick as a dog. Here I am after almost having lyme for 20 years thinking of going to only 32 hours a week of work because 40 just whips me. Still having flare ups with varing degrees of symptoms and now thinking I just might want to go back on treatment just to see if it will get any better.

Please listen to your Dr.

[Coanteen]

This sounds more like you need full-time paid help and some kind of medical alert tool, not a student who for a room and stall would be expected to essentially run your barn, help you around the house and be around in case something happens generally. And pay for their horse’s feed on top of it all.

I think I was the world’s boringest university student, I may have set foot in a dance club twice over 4 years, but in all honesty “being around in case landlady seizes” would not have been my top priority. I did have a life.

I may have you wrong and you may only mean that they’d do the turn-out or bring in/feed the horses, but you did say “all barn chores”, plus other stuff. A student who’s busy studying, going out with friends some, maybe even has a part-time job so they can have the cash to go out with friends, might sour on such an arrangement pretty quickly.