Leasing A Goat For 4-H!

[Dreaming Of Goats]

I'm leasing an oberhasli goat kid from my 4-H leaders farm as a 4-H project animal. I have to teach it how to show well and how to show it. I'm sure they will probably help, but do you have any advice on how to? I'm so excited!

 

[Ariel301]

If it does not lead on a collar and leash yet, that would be a good place to start training. Lead training goats can take a while, they're more stubborn than horses and would rather go their own way usually than follow you. Socializing your goat around groups of people, especially kids, can be helpful if it is a little nervous, so it does not freak out in the show ring when people are cheering, kids maybe reaching through the fence to pet your animal as you walk by (this used to happen all the time at local horse shows, the horses would be going around the ring at a gallop and inevitably someone's five year old would be leaning halfway into the arena as they came by, grabbing at their legs, while mom wasn't doing anything to stop it! I imagine it happens some with any animal show though) and all the noise and commotion related to the show are going on. A good thing to do is learn the strong points and faults of your individual animal, so you can figure out how to show off what is best about it and sort of downplay what isn't, when you get in the ring.

Also, if you don't have a lot of experience with body-clipping, I'd advise clipping your goat a few weeks before the show, rather than right before--if you're anything like me, and your goat is wiggly like mine are, you might end up with some goofy looking haircuts lol.

 

[Dreaming Of Goats]

It knows the collar, and we've already brought some of the goats to a little kids fair, so they're probably used to that. I know that it has OK attachments and has a few white hairs on it's ears which isn't a disqualification, just isn't "perfect" I'm going to be working with it like 2 times a week until August, so I have a LOT of time to train and work with it...