Horse Helps Goat Get Some Height

Occurred on March 17, 2022 / Krestova, British Columbia, Canada

Info from Licensor: "Our hobby farm is a labor of love. We have an assortment of "lemon" animals, with the majority being males or non-breedable females. Some of these critters often would have found themselves with a very different fate, so I'm excited to give them a long happy life with full bellies while free-ranging our little acreage.

I work full-time, and all my hours outside of my day job are spent tending to the animals and capturing their crazy antics on camera. I really enjoy show casing their unique personalities and sharing with my friends and followers through social media.

Bouge is a coming 15 year old semi-retired mountain horse. He was used in the Rocky Mountains for several years packing people for hunting trips. We figure as a result of those years of hard work he has some overuse injury to his hind end. He's still sound to ride, but I like to let him enjoy his semi-retired life on the farm. He's really warmed up to people since we've let him relax more.

Arret is just over 1 year old Nigerian Dwarf goat. He is our class-clown/trouble-maker. He's always into or up to something. Either sneaking in the house with our dogs and jumping on the counters, or sneaking into the car for a ride, or bossing around everyone on the farm.

Arret started to hang out with the horses instead of the goat herd last summer. The goats would be nibbling on trees, and Arret would be out to pasture with the horses. He seemed to think he had the same privilege's as the dogs (with the house and car) but surely thought he was a horse. About 2 months ago I was outside quickly with my indoor dogs, and noticed that he was on his back. I didn't have my cell phone so couldn't take an picture. I had thought, darn it I missed it! Turns out within the next few days he was up again. They started spending the better part of the days together. He was using the hay bale to mount him, and Bouge didn't seem to mind. When the hay bale gets low, Arret will whimper or paw at his side. As the snow is melting I've started to let them free-range together in the yard, so he's using the rock pile, snow banks or the truck to mount him. Today he even scooted off the deck onto his back and they went for a little trek to all the trees around our front yard. Sometimes, Bouge will even line up to let Arret on his back. I'm thinking it's a mutual friendship- you scratch my back-I'll scratch yours. In this case almost literally. What's really special, is that Bouge will respond to Arret's pawing motions and move almost like the goat is giving commands to move forward. He also uses his body to balance, and has some sort of "stop" command worked out so that Arret can tell him when to stop and he can munch on the trees. He also likes to take naps on Bouge's back.

They haven't been trained for it. I can't really control when it happens. If people come visit for a few hours and there are areas for Arret to get on Bouge, you are likely to see him riding around at some point during your visit. I have placed him on his back to show people Arret riding, but they are animals, and like us, don't always want to cooperate and go for a ride! I usually capture them out of a window then run outside to snap some pics in the moment.

We've had lots of attention from the media wanting to share this story, and do interviews. It's really exciting to see the amount of people who are as excited about this relationship as I am. I spend the better part of my days with my critters, and they really are very special with unique personalities. Everyone is amazed at how well everyone here gets along-even my vet has been shocked that the dogs, chickens, horses, goats, sheep and cat seem to enjoy cohabitating the property together.

I've had some neighbors capture some pictures on their walks. Many of my friends and local community has asked to come out and meet Bouge, Arret and all the other farm animals. I hope to make our farm more accessible this year so that we can invite people over for farm tours. Lunch with the goats, a pony ride, and even the opportunity to cuddle a rooster or bottle feed a lamb."