Wait, Since When do Goats do Yoga?

Written by Andres Salazar

Enjoyed by millions around the world, yoga is an incredible activity that helps people disconnect from the stress of everyday life; practitioners find yoga to be a powerful outlet that lets one ground themselves, strengthening the connection between the mind and the body. Yoga is done all over by people in all walks of life, including everyone, from parents looking to decompress after a long day at work, students needing a break from their studies, and those simply looking to enhance their flexibility. On the other side of things, yoga can also make people way more jacked than you would originally imagine.

The point of it all is that yoga is practiced by all sorts of people seeking to improve themselves physically and spiritually. Although some may think of yoga as little more than simple stretching, yoga can take nearly an uncountable number of different forms. It can be done in a regular studio with classic floor mats, but can also be done in various settings, from a sauna to an office chair, with some variations of the discipline focusing on staying active while at work. With all this in mind, it’s still surprising to see that yoga can now apparently be done with goats alongside you. Even more surprising than that, goat yoga recently came to the UofL campus, in collaboration with Gentle Giant Acres, a southern Alberta-based animal sanctuary and therapeutic farm. As part of the Meliorist’s top-tier journalism investigating only the most gripping local stories, we take a look at goats doing yoga.

Gentle Giant Acres

The origin story of these yoga-practitioner goats starts in 1997, when Gentle Giant Acres was established as a family homestead raising goats, dogs and other animals. A family-owned venture, Gentle Giant Acres restructured itself in 2016 into a therapeutic farm, offering sanctuary to animals in need and giving local communities a chance to interact with some new furry friends. These days, they host events and regularly host both structured and more free-flowing therapy sessions where people can do anything from riding horses to simply petting donkeys and guinea pigs. You can also find them hosting all sorts of different events, such as petting zoos, summer camps, corporate retreats, and of course, goat yoga.

Gentle Giant Acres holds a strong philosophy that interacting with animals can be a powerful outlet to improve one’s mood and can help you become overall happier and healthier. They also aim to empower women and girls of all ages, demonstrating that farming and physically demanding work are not limited to a specific gender. Wellness is at the core of Gentle Giant Acres, not just for the guests coming in, but also for the animals that stay there.

“We provide sanctuary for the animals, because sometimes they need a place of care, just like we do.”
– Tammy, Gentle Giant Acres owner

Goat Yoga at the Grove

Fresh Fest is always pretty wild at the University of Lethbridge. Spend enough time on campus during the weeklong event, and you’ll run into students getting drinks in between evening classes, people getting ready to attend the event’s main concert and all sorts of other campus events. With this in mind, goat yoga seems so different from the average Fresh Fest event.

It all took place at the Grove, the grassy marsh between Markin Hall and the Science Commons, with there being a fence where the goats were ready to show off their yoga-built self-control and mindfulness. Students were lining up in front of the gate entrance, eagerly waiting for their chance to meet their new farm friends. After a quick set of safety instructions and a thorough hand washing, the UofL community was finally able to get started with the goats.

The session started with about ten minutes of breathing exercises, learning to ground yourself and take in the environment. As the students sat peacefully and meditated, the goats gently roamed around, sniffing and tasting the campus grass. Most of these furry friends were right in the thick of the action, sitting down and engaging in their goat meditations right next to their new human training partners, while others seemed to want to graze and relax in peace. The event featured goats of all ages, ranging from a couple of months old to fully grown adults, some of which were almost ten years old.

After a good 10-15 minutes of breathing and mindfulness exercises, the more complex poses started. Students were led through classic yoga poses like the downward dog, the pigeon pose and the aptly named goat squat. What was to note, however, was that the goats generally weren’t doing that much “yoga”. Rather, the real expertise of these goats was in emotional and moral support. Some of these goats, in all honesty, weren’t actually doing that much. Some were just laying down, some were gnawing on some grass, and a couple were actually stretching roughly at the same time as everyone else. A couple of goats also seemingly made the yoga itself more difficult, as some were getting in the way or getting people off balance.

Even though having the goats around seemed to really only make things harder at times, nobody ever got frustrated or lost focus. Interestingly enough, whenever the goats would get in the way, laughter would erupt, and smiles were found on everyone’s faces. The truth is that goat yoga really isn’t about doing hard exercise with coaches that just happen to be animals; it’s actually about unwinding, finding emotional relief in grounding yourself and finding joy in spending time with some new goat friends. By the end of it, people were feeling refreshed, leaving with a revitalized drive to have another successful day, mostly thanks to the goats that made the activity so interesting.

The Next Pose

There’s something so endearing about watching goat yoga. At first glance, when you see “goat yoga” on a list of the day’s activities, it’s almost impossible to think of anything but the image of a bunch of goats doing the pigeon pose in a peaceful unison; and while some might be disappointed in the fact that the activity isn’t actually like that, the real thing might even be more charming.

Students are under constant pressure: it seems like while in university, there’s a nonstop flood of exams, assignments, and annoying group projects. It’s so easy to fall into a downward spiral because of all the academic weight. Doing some outdoor yoga in the warm September sun is sometimes all you need to stay positive. Even better, having a goat bump into you or seeing the goat distract the head instructor while they’re trying to teach just might be the exact thing that you would need to get your day started on a positive note. Goats apparently do yoga now, and participating in it is both hilarious and surprisingly stress-relieving.

We, here at the Meliorist, would like to thank Gentle Giant Acres for giving us an inside look into goat yoga and their farm.