Page 73 - IT'S A RUM LIFE BOOK FOUR Volume 1 "Northcote 1984 to 1998"

OPEN DAY the actual official ceremony was performed very kindly by David Kaye the
Managing Director of Thwaites Brewery in Blackburn Lancashire and Honorary Secretary
to the Shire Horse Society. On the right are the Mayor and Mayoress of Spilsby.
Ruth and myself on the left.

Everything was built on a shoe-string, we never had everything just as one would have
liked as there was never sufficient finance.

All the available money went to keep the animals which initially were just horses, Sam and
Ebony, Jupiter and Hebe. Juno had died by now. There were also a small flock of Soay
sheep, a hardy feral breed from the north of Scotland.
We were supporters of the Rare Breed Survival Trust and much of our theme for visitors
was based on the work of the trust. Soay sheep were a rare breed and very good at
keeping grassland in good “fettle”.

Initially the centre was set up as an enterprise but within a couple of months of opening,
we began to receive requests to rescue big horses.
The very first was Admiral a Suffolk Punch, at the time these horses, the oldest breed in
the UK were becoming very rare and endangered.

A friend in the horse breeding world told us that there was a Suffolk in Leicestershire in
danger of being sold for dog meat. We were given the full information and contacted the
owner who had no concern for his horse, only that it had developed a problem with one of
its front feet and could no longer work every day.

We borrowed a small horse box and raised £900 to pay for the horse and went to see him.
Admiral was a lovely big Suffolk gelding about 9 years old. He did have a problem with his
right hand foot but we would not need him to work all the time so we brought him home.

Admiral was the very first rescued horse and quite quickly we began to take in more as we