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Why would anyone want to use a goat for packing? Well, they don't eat much, are easy to transport, a full grown goat can easily carry 40-50#, and they are much like taking your dog along for company, except-----They'll do all the work!
Actually, goats have been used for centuries, to carry loads, starting in places like Iran and Tibet. Goats like to travel in herds and will quickly let you become part of their specific "herd."
Goats require very little extra food to be transported for them, unlike llamas and horses. Goats are also less likely to leave behind reminders of their presence in the wilderness. No large manure piles, broken limbs, and pawed out areas. Goats fit the "no trace camping" ethic very well. (I'm a 20 year horse packer, so feel well qualified to comment on this.)
A full grown wether can easily carry forty to 60 pounds of gear. That's a lot of stuff, and if you need more you can just add another goat!
Goats are also easier to transport than larger pack animals. They will fit nicely into a small pickup with a canopy.
Goats also cost less and are less costly to maintain in the non-camping months. Two goats will live on a 1/4 acre. Two is the minimum recommended number of goats as they need companionship, although they will attach themselves to other species , including you, if they have no other goats around.
A healthy, packgoat quality imprinted kid starts at $150. You can maintain one for about $30 per month, including vaccines and feed if you are willing to learn to give shots yourself. They require shelter, but it doesn't have to be fancy, just dry and windproof. They do well in cattle panel fencing, or field fence with hot wire top and bottom.
If you've heard old wives' tales about goats, including the one that all goats smell bad, well, that's only the bucks and they're not usually used for packing. And as far as goats having nasty dispositions, not the one's that are properly raised. Goats are similar to a good dog in temperament , if raised correctly.
Goats are ecologically sound, easy to train, and love the contact with humans associated with packing. They are really useful and fun animals to work with.
I don't believe the "perfect packgoat" exists. But, there are attributes that you need to be aware of when picking your prospect. If you are a light, weekend packer you will be able to use a goat with some flaws, but the harder you intend to work your goat, the more of the following items you will have to take into consideration.
Prospects should be:
These, of course describe the "perfect" goat, but the harder you plan to work, the more they need to have good proportion and strong bone and feet.
To de-horn or not to de-horn, that is the question. There is a lot of controversy over this. Horns work somewhat as a cooling system in goats. They are also a major liability in herd management.
The arguments pro and con are many, but I have never had a problem with de-horned goats overheating, when properly conditioned.
Whichever you decide on, all your animals should be the same. My position is that horns look really cool, but they can do a lot of damage to a person or to another goat, so in my herd we're all dis-armed.
I will sell horned kids by order, but otherwise they're all dis-budded by about 1 week.
A goat can have all the great conformation in the world, but if he's not a "gung-ho" goat mentally, he's worthless as a packer. Good pack goats like to work and spend time with people. It's obvious when they're very small. In fact, my predictor for success as a packgoat is, if they follow me into the training mud puddle for their bottle, they are likely to be good packers.
Some goats are lazy. Nubians particularly have a reputation for this, but this doesn't mean that all are.
A goat from a reputable packgoat breeder will have been bred to select for "gung-ho goat" qualities. Goats should show that they are well-socialized and not exhibit fear or aggressiveness toward people. By the time they are weaned, they should not be butting or jumping up on people. It's cute in kids but not in full grown spoiled monsters.
Your goat should be willing to respect you, just like any other working animal.
Goats are relatively easy to train. Unlike horses, who take a year or two to be properly trained, goats can be trained in a few training sessions. The learning curve is high, and in fact, if you start with kids, they will know everything they need to know well before they are old enough to be able to actually carry a load. Goat training involves imprinting, which is done shortly after birth, and trail specific training, starting at birth and extending through the training process.
Imprinting is the training that takes place at birth, when the ability to consider humans as part of the herd is most open to our influence. Anything that happens in the first 48 hours of a goat's life is incredibly influential in how he sees the world and the humans in it. Ideally, you are there when he is born, you dry him off and feed him, let him listen to your voice and handle him, and he considers you his mom. This affects his relationship to you for his life span. Dam raised goats are likely to be more suspicious and less willing to follow you into a strange situation.
An imprinted goat can transfer his attachment to another human fairly easily. Imprinting stacks the later training cards in your favor.
***Imprinting is also considered to make it less likely that your goats will stray off to be with wild goats if you hike in areas containing wild goats. This helps prevents spread of disease to wild goat herds, which is a concern of land managers in those areas.***--- Contributed by Gary Slominski
Goats don't need the lengthy training sessions that horses do. They are much more accepting of the whole training process and less likely to object to the saddle and other equipment. Goats are already agile, if raised in a pasture environment and have things like rocks or spools to jump and climb on.
The basics for training are:
Leading and Tying---The best way to teach a goat to lead is to teach him to tie well. This can be started when the goat is 3 weeks old by tying him while you working in the barn. Tie him at about 12" with a wide flat nylon or leather collar. This can be done daily for about 3 weeks. A goat who is tied this way and learns to give to the pressure will lead well forever. Don't leave the goat unattended when tied, ever. They need to be rescued occasionally. Also, don't tie him where he can jump onto something and off the other side. This will hang your goat!
If you start training with an older goat, you can use a sheep halter or a dog halter called a Halti(TM)(available at pet stores), or even a goat driving bit to teach him to lead. Leading by the head is recommended for goats who don't give well to pressure, and makes them much easier to handle.
The basics for leading are just like dog obedience, except I teach mine to follow me, rather than lead in the heeling position. Most packers (including myself) let the goats go on the trail with no lead, but it's necessary sometimes to be able to lead them; around lots of people, on dangerous roads, and some areas do require leads on pack stock. Once your animal leads well, you can pack string them with ease.
More Later....The goat seems to have eaten my webpage. Or, you can just order the book and get lots more information like this. See the Goat Tracks magazine book page for ordering information.
Updated on August 11, 2003