Chat
07-03-2014, 01:08 PM
Aloha everyone,
I am somewhat "new" to goats, I breed and train performance horses and Dobermans (and have judging credentials on both) as well as having bred Llamas, Alpacas, and Exotics. I have had goats under my management before, but in the capacity of being companions for breeding stallions. I also have owned for a short time a Nigerian Dwarf milking doe (she was just freshened at the time) but it was a much more casual relationship I have had with them.
One of my many business ventures is I own and operate an adventure hiking company here on the beautiful island of Kauai (Hawaii) and guide visitors through some of its more remote and stunning scenery. In many areas around the Canyons and cliff areas we encounter a lot of wild (feral) goats running in astonishingly vertical spaces. It occured to me that it would be easier -and infinitelty more fun and entertaining- to do the hiking tours with goats carrying the gear. I have packed horses, mules, Llamas, and have little day packs for some of my dogs, it occured to me it probably wouldn't be all that different to do it with a goat.
A little bit more colorful background on me, is that I was a professional contortionist and movie stunt woman. I grew up performing occasionally with the circus, and we had a Saanen/Angora goat who was made into a unicorn (his name was Lancelot, he is quite famous on the internet) and his kind of different original owner was working with a very minor surgical procedure to make goats (or any horned animal) into a Unicorn by moving their horn buds before they fuse to the skull (sometime in the first few days after birth... which seems to me to be entirely less distasteful than the disbudding procedures that are already common practice at that age for goats) So I had this idea of doing hiking tours with unicorn goats (just because it was a way to make it just a bit more interesting and fun).
Just as I was coming up with this idea (before I was even thinking of looking) A friend of mine called me with a little orphan baby goat which was exactly what I was describing to her. The family didnt want to raise an orphan, and if I didnt take her, they were going to feed her to their pig hunting dogs. Yes, it is gruesome and barberic, but that kind of thinking is sadly common in the local culture on the islands. So the short version of that, is I ended up with an orphan doe of undetermined origin. If I were to make a guess I would say she is probably part feral, spanish meat, possibly alpine, kiko or Boer (as those are the most common breeds here and the place she came from has mostly Boers, Spanish, and captured ferals). She LOOKS like a little black Oberhasili with long ears... her ears stand base to tip, but they are twice as long as the Alpine and Nigerians I've seen. I would say she was out of one of their ferals, just because she is much more alert, observant and mentally engaged than some of the other regular domestic bred ones I have helped raise in the past.
Anyway, this is my first adventure in raising an orphan... what a series of adventures it has been!
I thought I would say ALOHA and introduce myself (and "Moesha: the Blaque Unicorn") and my new forray into goat packing with my planned "Blaque Unicorn Adventures" project.
I am somewhat "new" to goats, I breed and train performance horses and Dobermans (and have judging credentials on both) as well as having bred Llamas, Alpacas, and Exotics. I have had goats under my management before, but in the capacity of being companions for breeding stallions. I also have owned for a short time a Nigerian Dwarf milking doe (she was just freshened at the time) but it was a much more casual relationship I have had with them.
One of my many business ventures is I own and operate an adventure hiking company here on the beautiful island of Kauai (Hawaii) and guide visitors through some of its more remote and stunning scenery. In many areas around the Canyons and cliff areas we encounter a lot of wild (feral) goats running in astonishingly vertical spaces. It occured to me that it would be easier -and infinitelty more fun and entertaining- to do the hiking tours with goats carrying the gear. I have packed horses, mules, Llamas, and have little day packs for some of my dogs, it occured to me it probably wouldn't be all that different to do it with a goat.
A little bit more colorful background on me, is that I was a professional contortionist and movie stunt woman. I grew up performing occasionally with the circus, and we had a Saanen/Angora goat who was made into a unicorn (his name was Lancelot, he is quite famous on the internet) and his kind of different original owner was working with a very minor surgical procedure to make goats (or any horned animal) into a Unicorn by moving their horn buds before they fuse to the skull (sometime in the first few days after birth... which seems to me to be entirely less distasteful than the disbudding procedures that are already common practice at that age for goats) So I had this idea of doing hiking tours with unicorn goats (just because it was a way to make it just a bit more interesting and fun).
Just as I was coming up with this idea (before I was even thinking of looking) A friend of mine called me with a little orphan baby goat which was exactly what I was describing to her. The family didnt want to raise an orphan, and if I didnt take her, they were going to feed her to their pig hunting dogs. Yes, it is gruesome and barberic, but that kind of thinking is sadly common in the local culture on the islands. So the short version of that, is I ended up with an orphan doe of undetermined origin. If I were to make a guess I would say she is probably part feral, spanish meat, possibly alpine, kiko or Boer (as those are the most common breeds here and the place she came from has mostly Boers, Spanish, and captured ferals). She LOOKS like a little black Oberhasili with long ears... her ears stand base to tip, but they are twice as long as the Alpine and Nigerians I've seen. I would say she was out of one of their ferals, just because she is much more alert, observant and mentally engaged than some of the other regular domestic bred ones I have helped raise in the past.
Anyway, this is my first adventure in raising an orphan... what a series of adventures it has been!
I thought I would say ALOHA and introduce myself (and "Moesha: the Blaque Unicorn") and my new forray into goat packing with my planned "Blaque Unicorn Adventures" project.