Swordwhale Walking: illustration, webcomic, stories, photojourneys, videos
  • launch here
    • what I do and how much I charge
    • tales of the Earth Life Foundation
    • American lotus
  • art & stories
    • black horses
    • Sea Ponies of Chincoteague
    • Just Animals
    • playing with water
    • Tradigital illustration
    • environmental education >
      • Christmas Magic Mural 2020
      • animal alphabet and counting murals
      • Assateague ponies
      • the salamander room
      • more touch room ocean
      • more: touch room forest
      • wetland
      • wetland art
      • greenleaf
      • reptile week murals: Nixon Park
    • just animals: photography
    • Tales of the E.L.F. >
      • That Darn Elf, a musing or two
      • cast and crew
      • I dreamed of black horses
      • fanfiction: If Wishes Were Elves...
      • Following Raven
      • The Merrow's Cap >
        • Merrows Cap credits
      • Manannan's Horses
      • fandom >
        • Radagast's Rabbit Ride
        • the Lone Ranger >
          • LOLs and Trolls
          • but wait, there's Moore, and Silverheels
          • Hi Yo Silver
        • black panthers and night furies
        • tales of Middle Earth >
          • Mirthwood
          • Loth-LOL-ien >
            • Im-LOL-dris
            • Smirkwood
            • well, that coulda' been worse
        • Sherlocked
        • catz and doges on fandom
        • Faithful Sidekicks
    • murals
    • scribblings
    • coloring pages
  • mermaid tales
    • Gramma Swordwhale's Mermaid Blog >
      • how to mermaid
      • merfolk on the Chesapeake
      • my life as a mermaid
    • privateers and pumpkins and ponies oh my!
    • stupid gravity (the adventures of a mermaid on Eastern Neck Is.) >
      • stupid gravity credits
    • stupid gravity: the search for sea glass >
      • stupid gravity: the search for sea glass: credits
    • Stupid Gravity: Misty Cloudy Windy Stormy Augh! >
      • Misty Stormy credits
    • Stupid Gravity: the search for mermaids
    • mermaids, Moana and Maui, beached on Christmas Eve
    • horseshoe crabs forever
    • stupid gravity: hot hot hot >
      • hot hot hot credits
  • Chincoteague
    • A Beginner's Guide to the islands
    • back to the islands 2021 >
      • Ponies 2021
    • identify that pony
    • chincoteague pony art
    • Fall Roundup Oct 2019
    • Chincoteague 2019
    • pookas pumpkins and swamp ponies
    • Chincoteague Carousel
    • Chincoteague November 2018
    • the 3rd Sea Voyage of Makenuk's Fin
    • wild horses and kayaks 2017
    • wild ponies in camp
    • North Beach
    • on island time
    • saltwater cowboys
    • Chincoteague
    • Christmas by the Sea
    • island ponies
    • Ace and Unci revolt
    • beached
    • running water in between
    • Assateague Light
    • the Haunted Lagoon
  • crafty stuff
    • customizing riders and other characters
    • Wonder Horse repaint
    • Rich Toy hobby horse rehab
    • photo your toys >
      • how to photograph Breyers in the wild
      • welcome to Hawk Circle: telling stories with model horse photography >
        • more Hawk Circle
        • take your models to the beach
      • Lokigator and Throg's Epic Adventure
      • Sam and Bucky's Excellent Adventure
      • Mando and Grogu
      • paint and wet snow pants
      • Legolas and Hwin, snow
      • derps (or how not to photograph Breyers and others)
      • wild Breyers >
        • printable prints and downloads
        • water horses
        • beach Breyers
        • Lotus Legolas and Arod
        • teeny tiny Breyers
        • backyard Breyers and Schleichs
        • vintage breyers
        • Hartland Horses
        • Black Horses
      • educational display
      • Schleich and Safari Faeries
      • North beached
      • more model horses
      • beach party
      • advenatureData
      • Finding Hank
      • Otterlock and Hedgejawn >
        • Hounded in Baskerville
      • how to photograph your dragon
    • ModPodge rules
    • paint pours
    • flour salt clay
    • chalk paint
    • rock it: paint rocks and use or lose them
    • faerie gardens >
      • more faerie gardens
      • faerie festival at Spoutwood Farm
    • sea this tutu (and make)
    • I found Dory
    • knit me a mermaid, or chicken, or Hei Hei
    • sea treasures
    • sea glass
    • sea horses
    • rehabbing horse epic fail >
      • do you wanna build a snow pony?
      • do you wanna build a sand pony?
      • Barbie horse gets a makeover
    • mermaid saddles
    • Yule Laugh, Yule Cry... >
      • a Brandywine Christmas
    • Uncle Bob's Toys >
      • Uncle Bob's Toys 2016
      • more: Uncle Bob's Crafts
      • the Adventures of Mortimer
  • adventures
    • Go Play Outside
    • Nature Deficit Disorder
    • I heart Nature
    • autumn light
    • cats
    • mushing 101 >
      • dogs on wheels >
        • Autumn Run on Wheels
      • dogsled
      • dogsledding: running on snow! >
        • Groundhog Day
      • kids and dawgs: first sled run
      • Klondike Derby
      • Sled Dogs and Pirate Ships
      • Christmas Day Run: Rail Trail
      • Horses and Huskies: when predator and prey share the trail
      • Schipperke doo dah >
        • Runnin' with the Big Dogs
        • Hobbit Husky
      • women who run with the wolves
      • Play Time
      • wubba wubba
      • New Year's Dog Day
      • Team Swordwhale
    • trains, sleddogs, and horses oh my!
    • butterscotch and sprinkles
    • horses >
      • horse reference for art
      • ponies small but mighty
      • First Horse: Saraf
      • the Wild Black Mare
      • between thunder and lightning
      • Goliath, Nevada Mustang
      • Yataalii
    • Planet Water >
      • Planet fish tank
      • planet toadpool
      • Planet Pond
      • Under the Lake
      • Planet Stream
      • Planet River
      • Planet Marsh
      • Planet Ocean
      • Planet Water Bird >
        • Planet Water Bird: gulls
      • Planet turtle
      • Planet water snake
      • planet amphibian
    • kayak! >
      • blue boat home
      • kayaking 101
      • favorite good boats
      • some kayak videos
      • kayaking Assateague and Chincoteague
      • how to train your dragonfly
      • Chasing Raven
      • the Susquehanna River >
        • the Rock Garden >
          • return to the Rock Garden
        • Conewago Dreamin'
        • the Conejehola Flats
        • Thunderbird Island (petroglyphs on the Susquehanna)
        • to the White Lady and Beyond
      • Calvert Cliffs fossils
      • Sassafras River Lotus Paddle >
        • Return to the Sassafras
        • sassafras river 2015
        • sassafras paddle 20160814
        • Sassafras River 2017
        • Sassafras river 2018
      • Eastern Neck Island >
        • winter marsh, winter beach
        • Eastern Neck Island: under the supermoon
        • more Eastern Neck Island
      • Pinchot Park
      • Lake Marburg >
        • where are the manatees?
        • ...and the dolphins???
        • macros and SAVs
        • Lake Marburg 2018
        • how to be a kayaking Gramma
    • beached
    • dive in! (SCUBA) >
      • Gourd of the Rings
    • mid Atlantic seashells
    • longship company >
      • December sail
      • Sae Hrafn at Oakley
    • pirates and privateers >
      • Sailing 101
      • Schooner Sultana 1768
      • Capt John Smith Shallop
      • Pride of Baltimore II
      • Kalmar Nyckel
      • downrigging 2010 >
        • Chestertown autumn
        • Downrigging Weekend 2014
        • Downrigging 2015
        • Downrigging 2016
        • Downrigging 2017
        • downrigging 2018: pink tardis
        • Downrigging 2019
      • privateer weekend
    • horseshoe crabs and red knots >
      • horseshoe crab spawn 2021
      • slaughter beach
      • horseshoe crabs and semipalmated sandpipers 2019
    • surfboards and watchtowers: Cape Henlopen >
      • beached
      • Watching Whales >
        • Watching Whales...again
    • Seadogs: Newfoundland water trials
    • wind hounds
    • wild things! >
      • baltimore aquarium
      • there's a hummer in the garage...ceiling ...
      • critter cam
      • sky walking
      • leaf-fall
    • The Adventures of the Good Ship Fearaf
    • the incredibly dead blog page
  • art class
    • framing 101
    • watercolor: how to
    • sip n paints
    • acrylic painting 101
    • wildlife art class
    • Santa, You're Doomed
    • (drawing) horses 101 >
      • horse color 101
      • gaits
      • ponies in motion
      • tack
      • Draw: a horse
    • dogs and wolves
    • go ahead, draw a pirate ship
    • anthropomorphism (cartoon animals and stuff)
    • the Little Kids Page of Big Ideas
    • mural: how to >
      • Gabriel's Whale
      • stuff you need
      • drawing (mural)
      • drawing mural 2
      • painting
      • mural jungle
      • mural bat cave
      • mural cats
      • mural ocean
      • mural arctic
      • mural leaf smacking
      • watershed mural
    • crayons and colored pencils
    • palettes
  • wait wait! let me get the camera!
  • who perpetrated all this???
    • swordbroad
I've occasionally shared my life with goats. Think dogs with hooves. As livestock, they have lived with humans all over the world in some of the poorest pastures imaginable, giving meat, hides and milk, and fabulous cheese. As pets, they are fine companion animals for humans, horses or other livestock, and can be taught to drive or all kinds of fun: dancing, agility tricks etc. 

I volunteered to foster Butterscotch and Sprinkles (aka, Butterscotch Ice Cream, aka Mocha Latte) and Sprinkles (aka Ms Sassypants aka Dark Chocolate Milk). They are LaManchas, which normally have very tiny ears ("elf ears" or "gopher ears"). They come in every goat color there is, but these two look like breakfast drinks. Butterscotch is slightly lighter and has more impressive horns.

They are very friendly and love treats, and should be easy to halter train and if there is time, perhaps drive.

Here's a look at their first day with lots of pasture and a couple of Big Hairy Monsters. The horses are Svaha (mustang/Arabian) and Goliath (mustang). They are used to goats and were interested to have new friends.

The pasture here is a dry lot, Svaha cannot be on lush grass. (everyone gets plenty of hay and Golli has his own grass pasture) It is also winter, so everything is the same color as the goats. The toys in the paddock are originally for the Siberian huskies to climb on and leap over, as well as to school horses over (old horses, so it's at a walk). The goats are amused. Goats love to climb.

Here I have woven wire fence to the ground (Siberian proof and goat proof, also proof against random wandering dogs and coyotes)(though Golli would certainly stomp any predators that got in). Goats, like Siberians, are escape artists, so a secure fence is important. I have a run-in shed horses and goats can go in when they want to be out of the weather. Both are quite hardy and often like to stand outside. It's healthier than being locked up in a barn. The goats have one side of the run-in with a horse-deflector: a rope (and later a 2 x 4) that lets the goats under but not horses.

One Siberian can be told OFF! and she will ignore the goats on the other side of the fence. The other is larger and more enthusiastic and is kept on a long line for now so the OFF! can be enforced. If you have goats and dogs you'll need to introduce them carefully, and teach the dog to stay back. Goats will defend themselves by lowering their heads and ramming.

Goats make wonderful intelligent pets or companions for other animals. Goats with horns are no more hazardous than horses with hooves or dogs with teeth! It's all about training.

goat life hacks

Goats are browsers, horses are grazers. I usually throw hay on the ground for the horses, but goats object to food that smells funny or doesn't meet their standards (even though they taste everything from the wooden platforms here, to clothing, to rope to the pool noodle lining the edge of the gate). I rigged a hay rack in a section of the paddock the horses can't reach (roped off by electric rope the goats duck under). Sheep, by the way, are grazers, and can't eat goat feed: the copper in it is toxic to sheep. Sheep and goats are related, but not close enough to produce hybrids (except very very rarely).

An old kiddie gate cable tied at the bottom creates a hinged hay holder (bungeed at the top). The hay is held against the fence so the goats can stick their tiny muzzles through the fence rectangles to eat. I spread a few of the rectangles a bit to make them bigger. The goats also like to lie down here. Horses don't often lie down, they usually rest standing. Goats are even toed ungulates with stomachs like cows: multiple chambers, so they chew a cud and lie down while doing it.

The run-in shed is roped at the front to exclude horses. The goats make nests in the back on the straw. 

Goats (and the original type of sheep) have thick hair coats with an undercoat of wool. Both goats and the primitive type sheep (hair sheep breeds) shed the wool in spring. You can comb it out with a dog rake.
Picture

​goat life

The goats are bonded (possibly sisters?) and like to climb on the stuff in the paddock (set up originally for dogs and horses). They also do what goats do, bock each other with their horns, often rearing first. They also shove each other. It's all play. They are quite gentle with humans. They use their horns to scratch themselves, and to defend themselves against predators (think coyotes or stray dogs). They also look magnificent.

 goat halter training and driving

Halter training is pretty simple, tug, click, reward. A tongue click is easier than carrying a clicker, and I don't accidentally feed it to the goat. When the goat steps forward, I stop tugging. I can also use a training wand to tickle or tap the goat forward...or a come along, a rope around the hindquarters. Or get a friend to walk ahead so the goat has someone to follow at first. Reins (line on each side) begin to teach the goats to turn "gee" or "haw" with voice commands. Gee and haw are used for most driving animals including sled dogs.

Sprinkles stood up on the chair and I turned it into a "trick"... click, reward. Goats have an instinct to climb. think mountain sheep, it's how they evade predators.

​ goats get new home

A family signed up to adopt the goats. Here they are meeting the goats. The goats work as well in collars as halters, so they're only in collars for this. On a trail, or driving, I'd put a goat in a halter, as with a horse, you have more control, they're very strong. Of course even horses can be trained to work at liberty or bridleless.

Sprinkles occasionally used her horns to bump people to show her dominance ("bow before the queen!"). This is something to work on in training. Both are quite happy to follow people around... and to dig into your pockets for treats. As with any animal, especially ones bigger than you, you maintain awareness of where your face/feet/other body parts are in relation to hooves/butts/horns/teeth. Like, don't place your face above a grazing horse/goat/cow/etc... a raised head will fling you a few yards, break something, or poke holes in you.

The girls were quite thrilled with their new goats. A third animal was added to the adoption: apparently the SPCA had a chicken (in a kitty carrier). The hen's boyfriend had been picked up by an eagle (though I wonder if it was actually a redtail hawk) and eaten. The hen escaped but no longer lays eggs. She is quite lovely and black with iridescent feathers. I made some emergency collars out of binder twine (aka baler twine) for the goats to travel in. 

To learn more about training goats, google "harness goats". "goat agility"...

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.