Page 117 - IT'S A RUM LIFE BOOK FOUR Volume 1 "Northcote 1984 to 1998"

amazing the entire crew by his sheer size. After only having seen the horse lying down and
struggling for so long they had just no comprehension of how big he was, once on his feet.
He was after all still the “Guinness” World’s tallest living horse.
All enjoying a well deserved cup of something hot we watched the horse gradually recover
his equilibrium. Apart from opening the old wound on his flank, he seemed fine.
Everyone was thanked profusely and we stood and reflected on the lesson we had
learned.
We needed a hydraulic lifter for the old horse. However the lift was made it had to operate
swiftly and smoothly, no jerking or hesitation and certainly it could not be slow.

Goliath had demonstrated this time just how he intended behaving as he was raised into
his normal vertical position, he struggled and twisted and turned as soon as his body was
clear of the floor, it had to be quick and very strong!

Another lesson we learned that evening was that Big Bonnie was very concerned by it all,
just as soon as Goliath was back on his feet and as we all enjoyed our welcome drink,
Bonnie came up to Goliath and gently stood very close by his side taking some of his
weight and helping him keep his balance until more fully recovered from his ordeal.
He totally understood his companion’s problem and did his best to help.

We asked Andy from County Durham if he could help with Goliath’s lifting back onto his
feet, obviously we could not keep asking the fire brigade to turn out every time.

Andy had been a good friend to the Centre over the years, he was an engineer and very
talented in his field. He came to assess the problem and we decided to turn one of our old
Ford Major Tractors into a ‘Golly Lifter’.