Lainey Morse - The Little Book of Goat Yoga: Poses and Wisdom to Inspire Your Practice

Ive been an animal lover all my life. When I was a child living in Muskegon, Michigan, my family always raised dogs, so I was constantly surrounded by furry four-legged friends. I loved those dogs, but the animals I had always wanted were goatsI just never lived in a spot where I could have them. That all changed once I moved to my farm in Oregon 4 years ago at a point in my life when I was going through many transitions: I had asked my husband of 10 years for a divorce. A few months later, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease called Sjgrens syndrome. The only escape from the emotional and physical pain I was experiencing at that time was animal-assisted therapy. Thats why the very first thing I did when I settled into my farm (aptly named No Regrets) was get chickens, barn cats, and my long-awaited goats. I started with two: Ansel and Adams.

I looked forward to coming home from work every day so I could go out in the field or in the barn and spend time with the goats. Goats are incredibly special animals: they possess a very calming demeanor, yet theyre also really mischievous and do things that make you laugh all the time. Its the mixture of those two qualities that makes them such unique animals and why I always find time with them to be so therapeutic. They are ruminants that chew their cud (a portion of food that returns from a ruminants stomach to the mouth to be chewed for the second time) for around 8 hours a day. Cud chewing is a very methodical and meditative process, which, as a human, is very calming and fascinating to watch: you snap into the present moment and dont think of anything else.

Nuzzling with Annie on my farm.

Most of the time, I enjoyed my goats by myself, but I gradually started inviting other people over who I knew were stressed out or illwhether it was just a bad day or something more serious, I could see that being with goats really made people happy. I started hosting weekly gatherings where friends could come and enjoy some drinks, conversation, and animal therapyI called the nights Goat Happy Hour, and I couldnt believe the response. Attendees enjoyed their wine, sure, but I knew what they really wanted was a good snuggle with one of the goats.

At one of the Goat Happy Hours, Heather Davis, an attendee who happened to be a yoga instructor, and I were standing out in the field surrounded by goats. As she observed the beauty around us, she suggested holding a yoga class at the farm. Though I thought it was a great idea, I warned her that goats would definitely climb all over the humans if they were anywhere near the class. She was not deterred; in fact, thats exactly what she had in mind! We decided to give it a gosince I was a photographer, I had her out to do a promo shoot to see how yoga with goats might look and if we could get anyone to come to the farm for such a thing. Sure enough, as soon as Heather got into a pose, my baby goat Annie jumped onto her back. It was such a spontaneous, fun, and happy moment, and with that photo, goat yoga was born.

After seeing the pure joy on Heathers face as Annie accompanied her through her flow, I knew we were on to something. I saw how my Goat Happy Hours brought people joy, so why not pair goats and yoga? The two seemed to fit perfectly together: goats are meditative, calm, peaceful creatures who arent afraid of a little exercisewho better to accompany yogis through their poses? We held our first class the next week, and 40 people happily showed up.

After hearing about us, a writer at a local publication, Modern Farmer, wanted to do a story on our goat yoga classes. I gladly sent the writer pictures of the first class and told him I thought the magazines readers might think this was fun, but I had no big expectations. Almost immediately, though, the article went viral. After the Oregonian saw the Modern Farmer piece, they did a feature about goat yoga, and my life changed forever: suddenly, there was a 2,400-person waiting list for the classes, and I was doing 30 to 40 media interviews a day. I started receiving e-mails from people around the world saying how just reading about the classes and seeing pictures of the goats had helped them cope with depression, cancer, chronic illness, daily stress, and more. It seemed something so simple and puregoats and yoga!was dramatically changing peoples lives. It was at that point that I quit my job of 10 years and decided to focus solely on the farm, on goat yoga, and on making this my lifes work. Its the best decision I ever made!