Page 116 - IT'S A RUM LIFE BOOK FOUR Volume 1 "Northcote 1984 to 1998"

At the same moment I saw some folk at our house gate, daughter Helen was talking to the
group, among them two strong men. I shouted for help, all looked in my direction and just
gawped at me. I shouted again but this time used some rather strong language, this broke
their evident dream world and at the same time I dashed up to them and explained what I
needed. I did eventually managed to get those two strong men to aid me in pulling the old
chap back onto his feet before he toppled over sideways and the whole job become far
more complicated.

Daughter Helen vented her wrath on me for swearing at strangers and using strong
language on people who would never come back again. We didn’t see those folk again
and they must have thought the whole episode most bizarre but to me and old Golly it was
just another incident which need a positive and rapid solution, we had succeeded.

THE BIG ONE
Not long afterwards Golly fell down very early one morning. Ruth and I were on our own
and could not raise him. All three of us were getting totally exhausted and I really felt
desperate. I telephoned the fire brigade and explained the situation.

They were simply marvellous and within just a few minutes we had three fire engines and
over 17 firemen on the scene. I explained the situation to the chief officer and he detailed
one fire engine to remain and the others to return to standby. We tried everything they
had, they used the ropes, straw bales and head collar but the old chap was far too tired by
now to help. They used air bags that would normally lift crashed cars and vans but the old
chap just slithered off these.
By now the firemen had been on scene for a couple of hours and I knew we were in need
of something special.

A farmer who often supplied us with hay and straw had a fork lift with a long nose, a
‘Sanderson teleporter’ it could drive close to the open sided building where Goliath lay,
poke its long ‘nose’ through the gap in the building and with the aid of the slings carried by
the fire engine for lifting cattle from muddy situations, we could succeed.

The firemen agreed to give it a chance and I telephoned the farmer, it was just four am!
The farmer and his unusual fork lift arrived about forty minutes later having travelled over
six miles in the pitch dark winter morning.
Having coped with several liftings of fallen animals situations, the fire officer expressed his
concern for Goliath who had by now been lying on his side for almost four hours. I had to
telephone our vet and ask his advice. Julian told me to just get on with it, the old horse
was no good just lying on the ground. The fire chief was concerned for the rapid return of
circulation after the horse stood and its affect on his system.

THE IDEAL SOLUTION
In the end, the solution was just so simple, we slipped the slings around the horse in two
places to give good support hooked him up to the fork lift ‘nose’ that was by now hovering
over his fallen body and gently lifted.

Up he came and although very unsteady for a few moments, the old chap was soon