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+--- Thread: Harness Goat Clinic at the WCGE (/showthread.php?tid=2104)
Harness Goat Clinic at the WCGE - Nanno - 03-31-2017
Phil and I are teaching a class on harnessing, hitching, and training goats to drive at the Weld County Goat Extravaganza in Greeley, CO on Saturday, April 29 at 11:00 a.m. The class is open to the public and can be audited for free. If you have a cart goat in training and/or equipment that you would like to learn how to use, please bring them to the class. Your goat must be at least 18 months old and halter broken to participate. Cost is $5 to bring a goat. Otherwise attendance is free. Goats attending the harness class are subject to WCGE health rules.
More information about the WCGE:
https://www.weldgov.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_6/File/Departments/CSU%20Extension/Weld%20County%20Goat%20Extravaganza/Brochure/WCGE%20Brochure%202017.pdf
We plan to bring Finn and Sputnik with both their team and single harnesses and carts.
RE: Harness Goat Clinic at the WCGE - Nanno - 04-23-2017
Just want to bump this thread for any interested Coloradans who might want to come to Greeley on Saturday for the harness clinic. You can bring your goat(s)! If you're coming with a goat, please take a look at the health rules for the WCGE so you know when to show up for the vet check. In-state goats don't need a health certificate, but they do need to arrive during vet check hours to be allowed into the show grounds.
RE: Harness Goat Clinic at the WCGE - Nanno - 05-02-2017
We're back from the Weld County Goat Extravaganza, and as usual it was a blast! We brought Finn and Sputnik for the harness class of course, but we also brought Rambo and Rocky to enter in the dairy buck show.
Finn and Sputnik were conked out the first morning. Finn was asleep with his head in the hay bag and Sputnik was using Finn for a pillow.
But the second they heard us coming, both boys leapt to their feet and were ready for action! The harness class was very low key this year. Not many people showed up, unlike last year where we had a couple dozen crowding round. No one brought their own goat, which was a bit disappointing for me, but that's how it is. We started out with Finn and Sputnik hitched to their wagon, but Finn was too wild to pull well with Sputnik, so I hitched him up single and let him do all the work by himself. Normally the ring is covered with a kind of astroturf carpet, but this year they decided to use deep shavings instead so as to cut down on messes and smells. It worked well for showing, but it wasn't at all a nice surface for driving. It was good for the rambunctious Finn whose only thought was of running off. A couple of circuits was all it took to convince him to abandon his racing ambitions. Once Finn settled down I was able to take him outside the ring and let some of the class attendees drive him.
That evening Phil and I participated in our first buck show!
Also that evening, Finn decided he'd had enough of confinement and started leaping effortlessly out of the pen. Luckily I anticipated this possibility and had brought our wire panels along just in case. By the time we were done, it looked more like a tiger cage than a goat pen!
We didn't have enough panels to enclose Finn and Sputnik together in a larger area, so Sputnik got moved to a private suite. He had no ambitions of leaping the pen, and he probably didn't think he could clear it without a runway. Sputnik is capable of jumping just as high as Finn, but he has to back up a few yards, crouch, bob his head up and down, wind himself up, and then make a running leap to clear anything of substance. Finn, on the other hand, can sail gracefully over almost any obstacle without so much as coiling, which gives him the air of having wings on his feet. It also makes him hard to contain at times.
RE: Harness Goat Clinic at the WCGE - Nanno - 05-02-2017
We had nothing on our schedule Sunday morning except packing up and going home, so we loitered around the show for a while and took some time to drive our team around a large parking lot outside. Saturday's weather had kept us mostly indoors, but Sunday was clear and crisp and our goats were stir crazy from being confined for so long. They were in a running mood, and luckily for us there was lots of room to do it! Oddly, it was Sputnik who was leaping, bolting, bucking, rushing, and fighting the bit. We're used to Finn playing up, but Sputnik is usually the Steady Eddy of our team. I guess he had a touch of cabin fever!
Nothing that can't be cured by a brisk jog in the great outdoors!
Ready for takeoff!
Oops... As much fun as it is to exceed the speed limit, it can be expensive!
Was that joyride worth the ticket price, chief?
I took the reins and slowed things down after Phil's brush with the law, and I had the boys practice crossing this big puddle instead.
Then it was time to pack up and head home! It was a full, fun weekend and I'm proud of our wonderful goats!
RE: Harness Goat Clinic at the WCGE - Charlie Horse - 05-02-2017
I swear you guys need a more stylish rig. Your garden tractor trailer is functional but I'd like to see something with a little more fantasy or western feel and a lot less agro. What about a wooden canoe with 12" spoked wagon wheels? Or what about something inspired by the Road Warrior? Or a classic sled. Wheels on a lay-z-boy recliner for that down-home look? A native american theme with some navajo blankets and designs. Or you could get rid of the wheels, put on a 2-stroke from a snowmobile running a blower and put a rubber skirt on the bottom and make a hover-cart. You'd be the first. It'd be a leave-no-trace vehicle.
RE: Harness Goat Clinic at the WCGE - Nanno - 05-03-2017
Yeah, this rig really isn't doing it for us either. Phil still has his heart set on the Cinderella coach, but I like a lot of your ideas as well (particularly the recliner!). Maybe we can brainstorm when we get together at the Rendezvous.
RE: Harness Goat Clinic at the WCGE - DownUnder Gal - 05-10-2017
Finn and Sputnik are looking fantastic ... and the weather doesn't look too bad either ... I read yesterday that Colorado has over 300 sunny days a year! That works for me
RE: Harness Goat Clinic at the WCGE - Nanno - 05-10-2017
Thanks! The weather was actually very bad on Saturday--merely cold, windy, and miserable in Greeley, but everywhere else got hammered with snow. It snowed over two feet at our house and the folks doing my chores had a very hard time. Sunday was sunny but cold with a biting wind. It was worth it to get out and drive though. The boys needed the exercise. I was afraid if we didn't get them moving they would take it out on our bucklings in the trailer on the way home.