Page 11 - GOLIATH THE TALLEST HORSE IN THE WHOLE WORLD

CHAPTER 4

AT NORTHCOTE

It was a cleft stick situation really, we did not have a
choice, we had set our stall out to look after horses that
need care and Goliath was a classic case. Looking at his
history, which John Young explained to us at a later date,
he deserved the best we could offer.

Things at that time were not too bad at Northcote, we had
been operating for four years or so and our income from
visitors was keeping up with the costs...just.

We had a fairly large loan and had just renegotiated that
from an overdraft to a mortgage as interest rates had
risen to an all time high of around 20% and the bank loan
interest was crippling. Little did we know what was
around the corner.

We said ok to Kevin and he told us he would let us know
when the vets caring for Goliath would give him the green
light for travelling. At the time of our conversation, he was
still recovering very slowly and it would likely still be some
weeks before he was strong enough to cope with the
long journey to Lincolnshire.

In the meantime we made some preparations. Our trailer
box used for the wedding carriage was altered to provide
stalls inside and partitions to give Goliath some support.
Our old series two long wheelbase Land Rover would not
cope with this long journey, even with its special Ford
“Essex” V6 petrol “heart”.