I love my Manitou forklift.
It is sturdy,reliable,versatile.
We have used it every day
whilst building our new house.
It carts pallets of blocks and tiles
around the site with ease.
It provides a working platform
that can be moved more easily
than a scaffolding tower
By turning the forks upside down
the extra metre of height
has enabled us to work on the roof
with the platform at eaves height.
A detachable 1 ton front bucket
made spreading and grading 50 ton of stone
(creating the front drive)
a breeze.
How many more jobs
could the beast do?
WELL
one more!
A friend arrived on site
the other morning-
“could he borrow the Manitou
preferably with a driver”
I drove the forklift to his house
up a very narrow track
into the woods
eventually into a small field
where one of his 2 horses lay dead.
The job was to forklift
the dead animal to the road
where the knacker wagon
would collect it later
A relatively simple job
as the horse was an Anglo Arab stallion
and not much bigger than a shetland.
The final journey passed without incident
albeit slowly for fear of the body
sliding off the forks.
Getting the animal off the forks
proved more difficult.
Ropes,crowbars and a ditch
provided the answer.
I didnt have my camera to hand
and cant show you the pics.
Perhaps as well really…….
The horse died of
“ENGORGEMENT OF THE PENIS”
I leave the scene to your imagination;
Suffice it to say
it was not a pretty sight!!
You can imagine the subject of the jokes
for the rest of the day
cant you? 
Posted by Peter 