Oh Christmas Tree...

For the past few years my family has cut our own tree from the property. We have a fairly large number of yellow scraggle pines. Today we went to get the trees. One for my grandparents and one for us. The one for the grandparents is fairly small. Small enough that I carried it back on my shoulder. Ours on the other hand is really very large. Large enough that it would have been time consuming and unpleasant to drag it back by hand. So I decided to pull it by goat. I got the two of them out, unbolted the double-tree from the cart, got plenty of rope and the two breastcollars from the harnesses and set out.

I was worried that the goats would try and eat the tree but they were good. They both tried to eat it once or twice but when I sent them away they happily ate the honeysuckle elsewhere. It took maybe 15-20 minutes for me to tie the double-tree to the trunk. I wrapped the rope around the branches, fastened the traces to the double-tree and went to get the goats. They had halters on and let me fasten the leadropes and bring them to the tree. Merry made a bit of a lunge for it but I managed to dissuade them from eating it and they amenably started eating the grass. I got the harnesses on and of we went!

There were some glitches for the first 75-100 yds. Merry's leg got tangled up in the trace, Pippins trace came off a few times, and he didn't pull perfectly consistently but things only got better. By the time we got down from the high field it was beautiful! They were nicely and evenly spaced and walking smoothly in sync.  I was so thrilled! We got home and they each got a carrot and I tried to take a photo or two. I unhitched them and put them back in the stall with some nice hay and beet pulp.

It was such a fantastic experience. It made me feel so good about my relationship with the goats and their abilities. Firstly the sheer fact that I can take them out and just do it. Pull a tree. None of us had ever pulled a tree before but it still went well. They didn't freak out about the great noisy thing behind them. I was very proud of Merry when a trace wrapped around his leg and he just tried to keep pulling. If I had been him I'd have gone bonkers! Apparently they are fairly confidant goats. :) And at the end, when they had both finished drinking I pointed and clicked my fingers and they both walked happily and willingly into their pen.

M.

Biology

is amazing. The reason I'm posting about it is that I think it might interest you if you are into sustainable agriculture. Depending on how would you define sustainable agriculture. I agree with the definition in my biology book: farming methods that are "conservation-minded, environmentally safe, and profitable" I would also add local to this because it takes into account the fossil fuels consumed in transport of goods.

This chapter was on plant nutrition. The essential elements that plants require and how environmental factors effect them. Did you know that a deluge of rain is more likely to wash away negatively charged ions (e.g. sulfate ions) than positively charged ones? This is because they are bound less tightly to the slightly negative soil particles and likes repel like. This also means that positively charged ions are more complicated for plants to get. They have to release hydrogen ions (also positively charged) to replace and release the many bound ions they need for nutrition (including calcium, potassium, and magnesium.) Acid rain has the same effect of putting hydrogen ions in the soil and will deplete the soil of positively charged ions as well as negative ones that normal rains affect.

If a plant is deficient for a mineral chances are it is nitrogen. Various plants get it in different ways but one thing that amazed me was the system that legumes have developed. You know when you put that black stuff on peas before planting them? I had never realized but what you are doing there is rolling the seed in bacteria so that it will be infected from the get-go. This bacteria is called Rhizobium and it is the reason that legumes are often known as "nitrogen fixers" (meaning that they take atmospheric nitrogen and make it available in the soil.) The legumes have nothing to do with the fixing. It is the nodules on their roots that are formed by and contain a strain of nitrogen-fixing bacteria that do this. This symbiotic relationship gives the plant nitrogen and the bacteria organic nutrients that the plant synthesizes during photosynthesis. The infection takes place after a longish molecular "conversation" between the two organisms which leads scientists to hope that, with greater understanding of the process they could "learn how to induce Rhizobium uptake ... in crop plants that do not normally form such nitrogen fixing symbiotic relationships" which would lead to less need for fertilizer.

This leads me to another question. If this sort of genetic engineering/modification could cause a significant increase in plant productivity without a need for expensive harsh chemicals would it be worthwhile? Or does it so go against all natural/sustainable farming principles as to be ridiculous? I don't know the answer. Plants like these and "smart plants" that enable a farmer to tell when there is beginning to be a mineral deficiency in his field before damage from it has occurred could save unnecessary fertilization....

Anyway... those are my thoughts for the day.... I will try to post more regularly henceforth but it is end of semester test time so... forgive me.
M.

Snow...

Cold; not enough to have fun in... just enough to be uncomfortable. I've been trying to figure out next summer... next year... how I will get into college... how I will take the classes I need to take... I've never had to think about so many tests at the same time.

On the bright side I have been doing more with my goats of late... mainly trying to get some hooves trimmed... Neither of them enjoy it... Pippin least of all. Step by step I go. Trying to keep my principles aligned with my actions. In all things.

For want of anything more interesting to post here is an essay I wrote for english a month or so ago... about my 16th birthday.

Sixteen

They call it sweet sixteen... Maybe bittersweet is more accurate. The day itself was not particularly anything. Another birthday which I used, as I often do, to make my family do manual labor that might not otherwise get done. In the evening my grandfather told me that I was now “farm manager.” The next day we went to church and, in the evening a goat farm. But the day before my birthday....

I had been at AB-tech all morning. Mum called as I was waiting for Dad to pick me up and take me to get my Learner's permit, she told me that they had found Mama, our chicken, in the barn; alive but with a gaping, maggoty wound on her led. I called the vet's office on the drive to the DMV. They said that I could get antibiotics for the price of $24. I said I'd call them back. We got my permit and drove home. I went to look at Mama. The wound was moving, crawling, as maggots of all sizes ate her alive. She couldn't recover, and yet she didn't seem miserable, at least, she was eating and standing up. But I (and my mother) doubted she could last much longer. I called the vet again and said that we were just going to let her die peacefully. I described the wound and Ann said “That isn't a peaceful death.”

Then followed a conversation on how to kill her. We could break her neck, cut her head off, or take her to the vet's gas her down and then do either of the above. We chose to cut her head off. We though the knife was sharp. We thought we were starting from the right side and so would slit her jugular. Somehow it didn't work quite right. She didn't die on the first try, or the second. I think the third did it. I hope so at least.

If I'm going to be a vet I will need to kill, but not like that. I will have tools. I can try to save first and then let them slip unconsciously into oblivion. In humanity's great fight for life or a dignified death the score in my battle is one: nil, and at sixteen I'm on the losing side.

M.

Walking

Walking. It seems to be one of the easiest ways to experience the dominance dynamics in your "herd." Maybe this is because movement is one of the things that herds do together. From pasture to water; from water to pasture... I like walking with Kip and the goats. It is so interesting to see their reactions to each other, to me, to mum, to the world. Merry is calm for the most part. He doesn't mind Kip unless she is actively nipping (not literally) at her heels, his hackles are mostly down, he is focused on eating. Pippin eats less, he is always aware (and often unhappy) of Kips position in relation to himself and likes doing that sideways canter thing down hills. Kip does her thing... but has learned that sometimes close to Pippin isn't good... or really, most of the time close to Pippin isn't good.

In relation to the humans the goats are funny -- and annoying. They want to be ahead always and at the same time stop and eat. They will try and run ahead and then stop, blocking your path, to grab some honeysuckle. It drives Mum crazy. Especially when I tell her it is a dominance game. Her strategy today, and it worked excellently, was to take the two empty mugs in which we had had our tea, and, one in each hand, walk along in front swinging her arms fairly energetically. If the goats tried to get by on either side they bumped into the mugs. It was uncomfortable and eventually they decided that it was easier to stay behind. This is a wonderful example of what I would call unemotional consequences. The person swinging the mugs doesn't let their emotions get mixed up in the knocking on the nose and so, instead of being a negative punishment it is just an uncomfortable consequence of an unwise decision. The goats seem to get this.

Another thing Kip does on these walks (apart from run around like a maniac) is learn new tricks. So far she knows how to jump onto things, jump up and then sit for a treat. Today Mum and I started to teach her to jump over things. The difficulty is that she generally, if she can, thinks she should be jumping onto things since that is what we taught her first to I have been using my goat training stick (carrot stick) and stick it out in front of me and ask her to jump it. She did it really well at least twice. In training her it is really interesting to notice the similarities and dissimilarities compared to what I do with the goats. For on thing I us my voice a lot more. She knows her name and to come (at least sometimes) and if she is doing something wrong she gets the "game-show-incorrect-buzzer-sound." Amazingly enough she gets it! I didn't formally teach it as in "hear this sound and something not great happens." I just started using it and she started responding. I would love to know why. One similarity in the way I interact with her is when she is/used to be frightened and when I am trying to catch her. I use the same sort of reverse psychology and low/turned away energy and it seems to work! I guess animals are most united in fear.

Enough of my random/often disconnected musings. I mun to bed. Happy Thanksgiving to all! Enjoy your turkey. We are having Indian food. No, not Native American; I mean Indian curry... wish me luck as a non-spicy eater in a spice loving family... I am comforted solely by the thought of pumpkin pie...
G'night,
M.

Games today

I went out to formally "play" with my boys this afternoon. With the frozen chestnuts I had gathered this fall they were very happy. I had been worried because, when I had tried to play a little bit at liberty a couple feeding times ago, things had not gone very well. However when I put the halter on Merry, he was willing to have it on and once the chestnuts came into play, very enthusiastic about figuring out what I wanted him to do. This consisted of jumping through a window, (it was only two feet off the ground... don't worry) some touch it, hindquarter yielding, and backing up a small (but relatively steep) hill.
Then I put the halter on Pippin and did some touch it, backing, sideways and jumping through the window.
Here are some things I noticed. Using treats, chestnuts, I felt that Merry, at least, got almost frantic trying to do everything he could possibly think of to figure out what I wanted him to do. I suppose you could think of this as good but it makes me rather uncomfortable. I feel that his brain isn't really there and he can't learn anything, and, if he was larger then his moving that fast without his brain in the right mode could be dangerous to me. Don't get me wrong. Treats can entirely change a goats attitude for the better, especially those of this goat-anality. The important distinction to make is between a reward and a bribe. A bribe is holding the treat on the side of the jump to want the goat to go to, a reward is when you ask them (or tell them) to do something first and then, 'oh wow! what a coincidence!' they get a cookie.

Also I think I have taught Pippin to assume that when he goes to a fence he is going to do sideways and it is hard for him to let go of that... I haven't yet figured out how to change that (possibly some backing) but if you are just starting out with your goat I would suggest you be careful not to teach those assumptions. It had to do, I think, with my desire to perfect sideways. If instead one day or minute we had gone to the fence and done sideways and the next just backed up alongside it things might have worked out better...

And one last thing... I think backing can be really good for a goat... not so much that that is all they do, and not always on the same piece of flat land in the pasture, but up hills, over rocks, through gates, across streams etc. As long as the environment is not one in which they might potentially injure themselves I can really get there brains in gear. Of course as with anything do it too much and you risk it becoming an automated reaction to stimulus which is useless but under certain circumstances there is nothing like it!

That is all for tonight.... I'm not sure I've done a post on the yo-yo game but if not then that comes next... it's only fair after that backing rant :)
M.

Here is an episode of radio lab to compliment my last post... find out more about this program at their rather pythonesc website http://www.radiolab.org/

Enjoy!
M.

Watch it...

I cordially request that you watch this.... all the way through... If you aren't laughing at the end I will send you a free halter :) :D have fun!
M.

Fun game for Bored goat

Most people may not have this problem but my goats get bored very easily. However there is one game that Pippin especially really enjoys and that is the touch it game. The idea is that you point to something and the goats touches it, either with his nose or feet. It seems like it would be mind numbing but, because of all the things in the world to be touch and the different degrees of difficulty you can find it give the goat purpose and something to use their brains for. I would start with something really obvious, a cinderblock or even something a bit larger. I think it would be good to have it off the ground so it stands out from the normal topography. Point with the hand that has the lead rope in it towards the block and with your other hand put rhythmic pressure just behind the shoulder blade. When the goat takes a step in the right direction release and pet them. Continue in this way and any time the goat touches the block praise. You could also give a treat but I would be inclined to reserve them for when the goat touches it with his brain there is a big difference between randomly bumping into something and intentionally looking at/touching it. reward the intentional because that is what will stick and it encourages them to use their brains. I will diverge and say that one thing I have noticed with some animals that are clicker trained (although it may have worked really well for some people) have a tendency to move fast and somewhat frantically as if they are just trying everything they can think of as fast as they can to get a treat rather than trying to figure things out. Of course this is not an overarching statement... just an illustration of why I prefer to reward only the brain. Once you master large objects there are infinitely many smaller things... I have even managed a large piece of gravel on days when Pippin is really engaged... Anyway, something for you to think about. I would really love to hear if any of this works for you or if you disagree with any of it... Otherwise I feel like I'm writing a blog to thin air.... which isn't very motivating...
M.

A Merchant of Venice

I've been reading A Merchant of Venice in Homeschool and after seeing an article in a magazine about the site "wordle.net" decided to do one of the Play.

enjoy! M.

Blood Transfusion

On Monday a goat friend called me to talk about her goatling who was not doing well. She had had coccidia (which they were treating) and also had a huge worm load and (as she found out the next day after the vet came out) a PCV of 8 (normal is close to 30). What all this means is that the doeling (Nibbles) was extremely, critically anemic and needed a blood transfusion. On Wednesday she called and asked if Pippin would be the donor. So Friday afternoon I met our vet (Dr. Erin Purvis) and did the transfusion. The procedure was roughly as follows.

1. Shave and scrub (with surgical scrub and alcohol) Pippin's neck. Then put in his catheter, superglue it in a spot to his neck so he doesn't pull it out and put a layer of soft wrap and vet wrap around it (also so it doesn't fall out)
2. Go down to Nibbles and do the same to her (although it took longer to shave because she was fuzzier). Leave her under supervision so she doesn't pull her out.
3. Go back up to Pippin and prepare to draw blood. This includes removing all the lactated ringers solution from a 250 ml bag, put some heprin in the bag to prevent the blood clotting, then get the blood.
4. The getting the blood gets it's own section because it went v-e-r-y slowly at first. When you are drawing with a catheter (especially in these quantities) it takes some fiddling to find the right syringe to put the right amount of pressure to get out the blood without collapsing the plastic that the catheter is made of. Eventually however we found the magic formula and got all 250 mls of blood. Throughout all this Pippin was wonderfully cooperative, stood still, was sweet etc. As soon as we were done Erin pulled out the catheter and bandaged him up and he was done! Mum and Dad and John took him home and gave him some hay.
5. Meanwhile Erin and I took the blood down to Nibbles hooked her up with a slow drip and so continued for well over an hour. Nibbles was also well behaved (only tried to bite through the line once!) but the same can not be said for her brother... he tried very determinedly to make trouble the entire time. Anyway at last we got it all in her and left her sitting under her heat lamp.

I got some footage that I will be putting on Youtube soon if anyone is interested. Anyway that is my contribution to the blogosphere for the day!
Hope you enjoyed it!
M.

Random Musings

This is mainly a filler until I'm able to post about the blood transfusion I did with Pippin on Friday. I've been thinking about various things like what I'm going to do next summer... The current plan is to travel to California (hopefully via goat farms...if you are willing to have me send me an e-mail please!) and also to participate in the program "Summer Ventures in Science and Mathematics".

I've also been thinking about the morality of the amount of money our society spends on "Healthcare"... especially in animals. It seems that many of the important things in life are a conflict between the rational and the emotional. As I'm planning on becoming a vet one thing that seems to me might be hard to deal with, would be people who want to do chemotherapy for their dog with cancer. It seems so wrong, when there are children starving in the world, our country, my town, people with cancer who can't pay for treatment, and all the other inhumanities, that anyone be allowed to pay for that sort of treatment for an animal. And yet in some cases, for some people, their pets are their children. How can you tell them that there is no hope, that it is time to help them die. In some ways human doctors have it easier. There is never any question of "putting their patient to sleep" whether the condition is untreatable or the patient/owner can't afford to pay. And yet maybe the animals are the luckier. A human with a terminal disease who is in pain can't choose to end their lives (at least not without great inconvenience.) An old dog who is in the same position can have its life ended. 

I don't know what is the right thing. One half of my brain is being rational as my emotions try to shout it down... I'd be interested to hear what you thought.

M.

Charcoal.

Liquid charcoal is the one thing (well maybe one of two or three things) that I consider essential to my medicine chest. I know many people have a lot more in theirs but I can't afford all those meds which I may not use before they expire. However I have used activated charcoal at least two times to date and it gives you something to do.

On the downside you need 4-8 bottles for goats my size. Today I only had 1.5 but I gave Merry all of that after he started acting strangely after our walk today on which he ate some bittersweet.... And he seems to be doing better now.

What I keep thinking about is that I'm not really sure that it was the bittersweet. We got back and he went into the stall, lay down and was breathing strangely. He wouldn't put weight on his front left leg when he stood up briefly again and I was freaking out. We called the vet and talked to her. She was great. We are now just monitoring as Merry has improved tremendously... However back to what I was saying at the beginning of the paragraph... I almost wonder if his breathing was messed up because i pulled the wrong way with the piece of rope I was leading him with when we came in... or if it got stuck or something. It doesn't seem like it could be that because I really wasn't using that much pressure... but it is just something I've been thinking about... One more reason not to use a collar... (in my opinion)

Anyway I'm very tired now (not sure why but it is a fact) So good night!
M.

p.s. I also strongly suggest buying a 60 cc catheter tip syringe from your vet. The one I had made it a lot easier to get the charcoal down him. It was still awful... but at least not as bad as it might have been.

Making and adjusting halters

I originally intended to do a video of this subject but our camera is out of batteries and I don't have a tripod so for the sake of making something actually happen here goes.
On the right is my attempt at color coded depictions of halters. The length between knots isn't accurate or to scale but they will serve their purpose. The image on the left that is black with colored knots will for the purpose  of this post be referred to image A. The one on the right with the red and blue string is just to give you an idea about where the strings are going.
Let's start with making halters. There are also some documents on my website in the documents section The one that says "how_to_tie_a_rope_halter" has decent directions. The knots in the image in that document that are labeled 1-5 in that document are, in my image, the two red ones, the green, blue, and pink. Use the fiador knot (shown in the document) for the dark purple one.
I think I may have gotten off track a bit. Step by step. Here goes:

1. Take your piece of string (I advise starting with about 15'), fin the middle and on either side of that point tie two normal, overhand, pretzel knots about 5-6" apart (for standard goats)
2. Line those two knots up with each other and go down about three inches (more if you are just learning) and start to tie the fiador knot. (in the document) It will probably end up with really big loops, uneven ends etc. Don't worry! Just tighten it up and look admiringly at it for a few moments.
3. Now it is time to adjust the nose part. In my opinion the only/safest way to adjust a knot is carefully, one string at a time, keeping every other bit of the knot as tight as possible at all times. Keeping this in mind, make your halter face you with the fiador knot at the bottom. starting at one of the red knots take up any slack between the red knot and the purple/fiador except for about 3" and carefully feed it through the fiador knot until it comes out at the bottom. Tighten the knot. Do the same on the other side. The nose piece should fit as described in the previous post.
4. Now your loops under the nose are probably too large. Time to fix that. Focus on one loop at a time. As you will see a loop consists of the string coming out of the fiador knot (originally from the nose piece) turning around, going back in, and coming out as a loose end. You want all the slack in your loops to go into the loose end rather than back into the nose. Start by tracing each string coming out of the fiador knot back to it's origin. I still haven't figured a short cut to this. When you have found the one that ends up as a loose end feed the slack after it and pull the knot tight leaving a loop about an inch long under the knot. Do the same with the other loop. The hard part is pretty much done so pat yourself on the back and have a cookie. :)
5. Now for the rest of your halter. Take the two loose ends from the fiador and tie the green knot as a double-overhand (instructions in the documents folder on my site) about 2-3" down the rope from the fiador. If you aren't worried about nice round knots/aesthetics you could just hold them together and tie an overhand/pretzel knot. In my experience in tying halters I find that I generally make this section too long so err on the side of a tad shorter than whatever you measure.  
6. Now we find that two ropes diverge in a halter and you must initially take the one that takes a really long time to tie. In other words. Coming out of your green knot will be two strings. One (when facing you) will be on the right and the other in the left. If you want a halter that has a tie in the conventional place (the left of the goat) take the right string and go up about 4" and tie a double-overhand knot (pink knot). This time you will be tying the first part as shown in the document and then turning around and coming back. The loop formed should be about an inch long.
7. Now for the first cheek piece. From the pink knot you just tied you go to one of the original centered pretzel knots (red). Use this knot as the first part of a double-overhand and thread your rope through as the other. Proceed to the other red knot and repeat. You're almost there!
8. Finally it is time to take that other rope that you abandoned back in step six and tie it and the end you have been using together in a double-overhand (blue knot).
9. Now you just have to cut these two ropes off about 1.5' away from the knot ( If you don't have enough of one rope you will have to thread some of the one you do have enough of back all the way through the halter.) and singe/sew them together.

Congratulations! You have a halter!

If you already have a halter but are trying to adjust it to fit a smaller goat start at the nose band as described in the "Making" section and feed slack rope through to the loops under the fiador. You will have to move the red knot up so they are centered on the nose (Space between two red knots = the two spaces between each red knot and the fiador combined.) Then all you have to do is keep following the rope taking out slack between each knot and making sure each knot is tight before you go on. If the end of the ropes are already singed you'll probably have to cut them even again and re-sew them. I would never try and adjust a halter to fit a bigger goat. Save it for the next baby and just make another. It is a lot simpler in the long run. The same applies with a halter for a roman-nosed goat. Save yourself the hassle and just make a new one.

I use this rope and purchase it from a local store for less than it is sold online. I think 3mm is a good size for a goat  so as long as it isn't much bigger anything should work. just make sure it isn't too stiff or rough.

If after reading all of this the prospect of making a halter is too daunting, you can't find any rope, or you just need one sooner than you can get around to making one I do sell them for about $8 each with two dollars shipping (and possibly a discount if you get more than two.) E-mail me if you are interested.
2 creeks goats "at" gmail . com (remove all the spaces)
M.
p.s. I will attempt a video of this as soon as I can but I'm not sure when that will be.

Halters and Fitting them

As you may have gathered I believe firmly in rope halters. My goats are comfortable in them and yet will also respect them easily. However they won't work if they don't fit. Too large and they might slip down and end up in the goat's mouth. Too small and they are painful.

The image on the right illustrates the basic placement for a halter. The top image, all in blue, depicts a well fitting halter. Maybe a bit loose but not much (and it's the computer's fault not mine). The second head has a side piece that is too long and results in a nose piece that sits too low on the cartilage of the nose and may inhibit breathing. The third photo also has a long cheek piece which in this case results in the strap behind the ear slipping back. If this strap were to slip too far it would hold the head in a very uncomfortable position. Even with a well fitting halter this piece can occasionally slip down so be sure when playing with your goat that you are aware of your equipment and what it is doing and how it is working at all times.

On one of my goat groups someone recently asked about fitting halters to Boers with extreme roman noses.  To the left is a photo, if not of a Boer, of a roman nose. There seems to me to be no way you could get a halter made for dish nosed goats to fit a roman nose. Firstly the nose band needs to be significantly larger than for, say, a Saanen of the same size. Then also the distance from the behind- the-ear band to the nose band on both the side (A) and below (B) would, I imagine, be significantly shorter. I might also, now I am looking at this image more, more the connection of "A" to the nose band up a bit (not so much as to interfere with the eye but a little bit more to hold the nose band more securely.) Please note that I've never tried making a halter for a roman nosed goat so all this is just an educated guess... if you have a roman nosed goat you want a halter for I'd love to either make a halter for you or give you any guidance you wanted to to modify the instructions for a normal halter for a Boer.

Another thing I started thinking about when I was looking at photos of roman nosed boers online is that the bucks often have serious dew laps! I wonder how one could accommodate these in making a halter!?
Any thoughts?

Also in working on my website, Margaret Shackles, a friend/mentor of mine suggested I add a book section under resources. This is, of course, an excellent idea but I need your help to come up with useful, informative, even just amusing goat books you have and love! You can just send me the names or, even better, add a little review with information on why this book is useful.

Thanks,
M.

I promise...

...that I will post something interesting and informative soon. My excuse is that I've been rather busy what with the PSAT this morning and intake for Animal Compassion Network this evening. Intake (for me) consists of holding cats/kittens while Margee, a very nice vet who I met this summer, draws blood, gives vaccines, de-worms and microchips them. Everyone there is really nice.

Anyway I've been doing school and that all day and I still haven't finished all the chemistry I need to but never mind... I'm too tired so here is a photo of our dog before we adopted her. :)

Good night,
Miranda

Too much energy?

I have been communicating with GoatSong ever since she got a halter from me (and it has been a great conversation.) In a recent e-mail she asked:

"Heidi despises being still, and I have a really hard time getting her to do things simply because she wants to keep moving! Like when you want to work on rhythmic pressure and getting them to yield their hindquarters, there’s no time to try and get Heidi to do that, as she is already walking away before you can even start! Any suggestions on how to apply some brakes to this gal?"

I thought there might be someone out there who was interested in my response so here it is:

"Re: standing still.... goodness... Merry has that problem sometimes... but I think he is more nervous than bored. I think I'd just be a lot more energetic and faster. What one Parelli thing I have says about Left Brain Extroverts (LBEs) which is I think what Heidi is, is

DO

• teach her something new at least once a week (probable more)
• Keep sessions active interesting and playful. use obstacles, become more imaginative ad when he's really playful, increase the pace and get him to do more.
• Mischief is her middle name; so give him things to do with that busy mind and mouth. This horse loves to play trick on you, so why not teach her some tricks on purpose?
• Use long lines- Give her room to move.
• praise a lot, have fun, lots of scratches and smiles she likes to have fun.

Don't

• Bore her with endless, mindless repetition. She is smart! When you know she's got it (even just a little bit) move on. You can always come back to it and add polish little by little.
• Slow calm riding (or playing) is not really this goat's dream. She wants to be active, go somewhere.
• Punish her (I know you know this one though)

So being more specific..... with the hind-quarters maybe give her a better visual/feel-able about where you want her front feet to stay and break up working on that with jumping/running/weaving etc. something active.

For instance. Teach her to put her from feet on a pedestal (preferably round maybe an old tire with the center filled with dirt.) Then you can do something like jump a jump, run between two poles, and then put her front feet on the  pedestal and yield her hindquarters 1 step then stop doing that and go immediately on to something else. Don't let her drag you along. You go as fast/faster than she wants to go and for longer (but in a productive interesting way.).... if you see what I mean.

With the driving game (rhythmic pressure) I'd ask her to do more faster. Don't take as long for your phases. Of course it is a fine line between going fast enough to make it interesting and going to fast and dreadfully confusing her. Hopefully that helps you a bit.... gives you some ideas to try....let me know how it works! I've never personally had to deal with this so these are just ideas... :)"

hope you found that interesting/informative. Up next! Haltering and halter fitting.

M.

Home again Home again...

Well the fair was fun, exhausting, chaotic... But at least we made quite a few kiddos happy. Unfortunately I wasn't able to play with the other goats... I started to but it was at the end of the day and they were a lot more skittish than when I went down last week... so I let them be. Never mind....

It was a fun time though. Perfect weather, a good number of people, and pulp from apple juicing (to Merry's joy.) If you had been there you might periodically seen a goat, harnessed to a cart with a small child in it barreling down between the vendors to come to a grinding halt in front of the apple stand. It wasn't quite as out of control as it sounds. I was careful of the small ones. Actually, one of the first kids to have this experience called out to me as we were running "slow down slow down! you'll hurt the little house!" (the little house was a doll's house set up point out sustainability issues.)

What was really cool was talking to a man who had his two Suffolk Draft horses and was doing a logging demo. They were gorgeous and he also gave me a few tips on logging with goats! I hope to try it sometime in the near future.

More photos to follow when I get them....
M.

Coming Soon!!!

I'm going to the fair this weekend. To be more precise the True Nature Country Fair and I will be giving cart rides and doing a goat care and training demonstration. What this means is that I will get to play with an on site goat who I doubt has ever had a halter on! I'll video tape it and share the footage so you can glean some ideas and take note of all the terrible mistakes I make and avoid them. The goats there are Boers (and big ones) so I will also get to try playing with long eared goats. I expect it to be a good deal more difficult as the messages they are sending me will be subtler... like trying to hear a whisper after having my boys yell at me constantly :) However I'm sure it will all be very fun. I'm going down with the whole family as well as two friends from California who have started a garden here in Asheville. (see their blog http://citysecret.wordpress.com/ )

Apart from thinking about goats I've been playing with Kip (our dog), splitting wood, and doing school work. It's really very interesting... Have you heard of bioluminescent algae? See a video here. It is thought that this response (of lighting up when disturbed) might have evolved as a response to predators which tried to eat the algae and that the algae light up to attract fish to eat the predators!

Anyway enough of algae. "Talk" to you after the fair!
M.

Rhythmic pressure.

As touched on in the previous post I use rhythmic pressure when I'm at a distance from a goat. I envision it a sending little "waves of energy" at a part of a goat to get them to move. Of course if they don't listen to the waves then they will get tapped. I think this method is probably the hardest to explain to people and differentiate from just whipping/smacking the goat (which you obviously don't want to do). The difference is, of course in the phases. These are slightly different depending on what you are doing.

If you are asking the goat to yield their hindquarters using rhythmic pressure the first phase is that of looking at and focusing your energy on the point in between the belly and the hind leg. Then, still focusing on that spot I will start waving my hands a little and click my fingers. I will continue to do this making my actions gradually bigger and closer to the goat and the point I want to move until I'm touching them and continue until they move.

If you want to ask your goat to go forwards using rhythmic pressure the phases are similar. Standing at the goat's shoulder with you body facing diagonally and holding the lead rope in the hand farthest from them point forwards and bring up your "life." This essentially means that you are saying " Ok, time to go, I'm the leader and I think we should go this way." If they don't move, and they probably won't, raise you other hand (still keeping the lead rope in front) and start waving and clicking. Proceed as described above until the goat moves forwards. Also, at least when you are starting, you should be putting some constant and forwards pressure on the halter.

I'm afraid I haven't explained it very well but here are some things to try and I promise that I will get a video soon:

1. Yield hindquarters using rhythmic pressure (from both sides)
2. Travel from point A to point B.

Hopefully this gives you some things to try.
M.
p.s. I'd love to hear any feedback you had on what is good and what isn't. You can either comment on this blog or e-mail me at 2creeksgoats "at" gmail.com.

Yielding to Steady Pressure

There are two (main) ways to indicate to a goat that you would like it to move. Steady pressure and rhythmic pressure. An example of rhythmic pressure is when one wiggles a rope to get a goat to back or twirls the end of the lead to encourage forward motion. Steady pressure is using one's fingers to move a goat backwards or putting pressure on a halter to get them to come towards you. As a rule I would use steady pressure when the goat is within two feet of you (except in the leadrope case) and rhythmic pressure when you are further away.

When teaching a goat to yield to steady pressure start by "focusing your energy" on the part of the goat you want to move, then, using just the tips of your fingers, put pressure on/touch the tips of the hair... then the skin, then the muscle, then the bone. Give about 3 seconds between each phase, more or less depending on your goat. The instant the goat moves, no matter what phase you are at release all pressure to make absolutely clear to the goat that they have done the right thing.

Some things to can try to teach your goat to yield to steady pressure:

1. Put your fingers on either side of the goats nose and, using phases ask it to back. Remember to release the pressure the instant the goat yields at all (even so much as shifting weight in the desired direction).
2. Back with fingers on the chest.
3. Yield hindquarters 360
4. Yield forequarters 360
5. Lower head (put fingers behind ears)
6. Pick up all four feet
7. Lead by front leg?

There are some ideas to get started with. The first six are very important. I will add more interesting ones (for those of you whose goats get bored easily) at a later date.

M.

The friendly/desensitizing game

Hopefully your goat will let you touch it and comes running to you in the field.... If not then you need to play the catching game. If your goat comes to you but is not comfortable with you touching it, or when you are introducing a new piece of equipment, you need to play the 'friendly' game.

The idea behind the friendly game is that by going to your goat's threshold and then backing off, you can gradually build up their confidence. You take a great big fear and chop it up into littler pieces which are much easier to tackle. For instance. Say your goat is ear/head shy. You probably will not accomplish much if you just keep going directly for their head again and again. You may even make the fear worse. Start at the shoulder. Most goats are comfortable with being touched there. (If you are trying to catch a goat approach it at an angle towards the shoulder but that is another topic.) Just hang out and scratch it. Gradually move up the neck towards the sensitive area. As soon as you think the goat is un-confident, or even unsure, back off. Go back down the neck a few inches.... wait, and then go back up. Maybe a little further this time. Be sure to keep your "personal energy" neutral while you do this. Eventually, one would hope, the goat will decide that maybe you aren't actually going to rip its head off and will be comfortable being touched on the head

Here are some things to try to test your friendly game/goat's confidence:

1. Touch the goat all over with your hands (if they are comfortable with it). Make a note of any sticky spots to work on again later.
2. Toss a rope gently over them six times.
3. Put on your halter in a polite fashion.
4. Stand by the shoulder and "helicopter" the rope over your's and your goats head. Don't wack anyone!
5. Flap a raincoat
6. Open an umbrella
7. Get the goat to go across a tarp spread out on the ground

Of course you don't need to/shouldn't try all of these immediately. I'd try the first three before you start doing other games (unless you have an aggressive goat in which case respect comes first) and then come back to the others as you and your goat progress.

Have fun! Happy goating
M.

This is a change.

I had originally intended this blog to be devoted solely to goats. But I have discovered that there are too many other interesting things going on around the 'farm' and so I will henceforth be writing about all of those things (well not all) as well.

As you may or may not know my family recently moved houses. I specify houses because the house we moved into is right next door to the trailer that we have been renting for the past ten years and the land we are using has not changed at all. My family lives right next door to my mother's parents who own the 15 acres on which my goats live. Enough history.

The most recent (and exciting) development is the remaking of our garden. I say remaking because the garden had been taking a break for two years while my father (its main cultivator) built our house. The time has come to dig it up again with many improvements. We now have raised beds made out of cinder blocks from a wall that we tore down while turning the barn into our house. Dad used the rototiller to break up the dirt a bit and then we used a string to get all the blocks lined up beautifully.

The other improvement is to the soil. As you will probably find if you ever make a garden from scratch that when you first dig it up the soil it is hard and lumpy and full of bits of grass and roots. The problem with the roots is that they give the weeds an unfair advantage. You will have better luck if you start ahead and get all the bits and pieces out first thing. How to do it? How to get a soft, weedless bed? Sift it. Yes. My current project is indeed that of sifting two 4x20ft garden beds. Our lettuce (or more accurately beets and kale) will have a bed so soft that they will sleep for a hundred years. (Didn't you know that that was why plants don't talk? Refer to Chapter 2 of Alice Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll if you have no idea what I'm talking about.) 

That is what is happening right now. Apart from in the garden I'm also harvesting wild passion fruit and gathering all the chestnuts which happen to fall in my path..... The goats think they are excellent treats.
M.

Understanding Body Language

Commanding is one sided. Communication is two sided. To make your interactions with your goat communication you first need to learn how to understand what the goat is saying and why it is doing what it is doing. I think I can safely say that there are two main reason a goat does things; two states it can be in when it is acting. One is fear, the other is confidence (which can be broken down into littler pieces but not now.) . A goat can run because it is scared or run because it is having fun. A goat can resist having its hooves picked up from fear or because it just doesn't want you doing that right now. In the hoof example you can see how much it matters whether the action/reaction is fear based or not. If the goat is scared you should back off, go more slowly, and give it time. If the goat is just resisting because it wants to be dominant you need to keep holding the hoof (even if the goat rears etc.) until it complies so it will respect you. That is why you should be able to read your goat. How do you do it?

Firstly: I've had people ask me if a goat wagging its tail means the goat is happy. The short answer is no, with the qualifier: not necessarily. The way I think about it is that you look at the rest of the goat (ear position etc.) for the emotion and then at the tail for the magnitude of the emotion. This is because I've seen my boys wagging their tails furiously both when they are drinking a nice bottle of milk and when they are fighting.

The emotion shouldn't be too hard to figure out. Ears back means that the goat is either paying attention to something behind it or not particularly thrilled with life at that moment. Airplane ears mean a goat is just chilling. Ears pricked forward can either be about being happy/interested or really focused on something in front of it. You should also look at the position of the head and neck to get more information. A level neck/lowered head is a relaxed goat. If the goats head is held up high then it is looking out for danger/scared. I think the optimal position if you are playing with a goat would be with the head somewhat up.

You should also look out for a goat that is licking it's lips/chewing without having eaten anything... they are learning.