A lot has happened in a short time..

[River Buffaloes]

Ummm, what misconception? The question was, why were the horns removed, not who decided to do it. My answer was that it's considered a safety issue, for the people handling the goat, for the goat itself, and for other goats. And it is - 4H doesn't just think they are "prettier" that way, they are concerned about the safety of the children showing the goats. Obviously, most of my goats weren't dehorned, so I can attest to the fact that even with people-friendly goats, collisions between me and their horns did occur, and it was painful! (The scariest was one time when I leaned over to put a feed pan down, and the tip of one goat's horn caught me right on the brow bone. It hurt like the dickens, of course, but there was also the thought, "oh, lady, what nearly happened to you!") I actually asked to have Spike dehorned (disbudded) when he was castrated, but he was about 10 days old at the time and the vet wouldn't do it because they felt his horns were already too big for them to do a clean job of it. Many was the time that I regretted that delay - my sole remaining goat, which is now 18 years old, has a goose-egg-sized knot on her side from an awkwardly healed broken rib (most likely caused by a goat horn, and I'd give you odds it was Spike). After my herd matriarch died of old age, Spike and Luna (another doe) were vying for the top position in the herd, and Luna suddenly turned up dead one morning - though I can't prove it, I believe Spike killed her (or to be more precise, mortally injured her). Many was the time I saw a goat limping after escaping from his nasty little leg-hooking trick; that he never managed to break a leg may be something of a miracle. If ever a goat should have been separated from his horns at birth, Spike was that goat; I think all of our lives would have been less stressful if he had been.

A lot of goat fanciers in this country dehorn (disbud) babies as a matter of course, believing that a few seconds of unpleasantness at that age may head off a lot of headache and heartache down the road. The goats won't be using the horns to defend themselves from predators (especially in the mini breeds, they're pretty much useless for that, anyway), the only thing they will be using them against is each other, and possibly people. In fact, the usual advice is to have all horned goats, or all hornless in a herd; those with horns often ruthlessly bully any that don't have horns. Even in an all-horned herd, there is a pecking order, typically, the bigger the weapons, the higher the rank. I would even speculate that this may be the logic behind the preference for a shapely set of horns in @River Buffaloes country; good horns being seen as an indicator of a strong, healthy animal, one that will likely do well for its new owner. An animal that had misshapen or broken horns would be at a severe disadvantage when introduced into an established herd, if everyone else had a good set and knew how to use them. If it survived, it would probably be at the lowest end of the dominance ladder, and be a "poor doer" because of limited access to food, water, shelter.
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I never thought that way, but you maybe right. Having all horned or all not horned herd also sounds logical. I remember well that when I was a child, I saw the cow without horns and I was very confused. Then people told me that these are foreign cows (jerseys and Friesians) and they are dehorned because their horns are "ugly". In them too only cows are dehorned, not the Bulls.


In goats, buffaloes and native breeds of cattle neither males nor females are dehorned, because horns are important in their standard of perfection. Each breed should have a specific type of horn, otherwise it is not "pure". So horns are important in their evaluation. For example jhalvadi goats should have spiral horns, Pandharpuri buffaloes should have long sword like horns, Murrah buffaloes should have small and round ring like horns etc.

Jhalwadi goat

Gaddi goats

Pashmina goat (source of one of the most expensive wool)

Murrah buffaloes

Pandharpuri buffaloes

Kankarej cattle

 

[rachels.haven]

Those ARE pretty horns. Very artful.
I think good horns might be something that has to be bred for like anything else. Dairy goat horns are different than meat goat horns, and even our meat goat horns are not as nice as those you pictured above-some are nice, but others not so much. Stabby little knife things coming out of the head are what dairy goats and most cattle tend to wind up with. Meat goats tend to be slightly nicer. If they were well curved backwards in a way they couldn't hook into you or other living things I think people would be less against them.

Quite frankly, the spiral horns are cool.

As a side note, I guess americans like their texas longhorns, but they still look rather stabby to me (and a bit like a headache).

 

[MuldrowHomeFarm]

We kept all our goats horns......I think it is a personal preference

We haven't had any issues but would probably not remove horns unless it was necessary.