New from Northern California

[Nanno]

Welcome! I hope you find the perfect goats. I'm generally a big fan of crossbreds. There is definitely such a thing as hybrid vigor. Saanens are nice goats, but be very careful to choose ones with good feet and legs. That breed has a tendency toward having weak pasterns, splayed toes, and poor hoof quality. They can also tend toward the lazy end of the spectrum from what I've heard, but they are very kind and easy goats to work with. I love the long legs on them! If you're a hardcore hiker, you probably can't go too far wrong with Alpines. They really have the drive to "git 'er done." I've personally never heard anything bad about Toggs. They are powerhouses and tend to have amazing feet and legs with excellent bone structure. I've also heard a lot of great things about LaManchas and LaMancha crosses. Oberhaslis are naturally bold about crossing water. I'm interested to see how people like their Kikos. That breed has been gaining some traction lately but most are young enough at this point that the jury is still out on whether they have what it takes to make excellent packgoats.

In the end, though, it's going to come down to individual personality. A goat can have all the "breeding" in the world and still not have the will to work. And sometimes the least likely "breed" ends up doing the best job. I started breeding Alpine/Nubian crosses because our first goat, Cuzco, was an Alpine/Nubian cross. He was an amazing packgoat. He had almost perfect conformation with amazing feet and legs, he had incredible endurance, was smart as a whip, and he loved to work and work hard. He had personality problems at home (he was aggressive with people), but by golly that goat could shred a trail, and things like water or boulders or huge logs never fazed him.

Good luck finding the perfect packgoats! They're an awful lot of fun!