“The movement part is totally optional, take it or leave it, but what’s not optional is loving on goats,” Ashley Zawrotny, yoga instructor, said to her class.
Founded by Lainey Morse in 2016, Original Goat Yoga opened its first location in Bellfountain, Ore. Classes are hosted at No Regrets Flower Farm and Animal Sanctuary, where people of all kinds visit Morse and her 10 goats.
This yoga session was filled more with deep laughter than deep breaths, as the goats chose their humans and refused to leave their sides — or even move off their mats.
“What this is doing is getting people outdoors. Maybe they do the yoga, maybe they don’t. We don’t really care,” Morse said. “We’re getting them outside, out of that headspace. And those goats really help, because they’re not focused on anything, but that goat that’s right in your face, and snuggling and making you laugh.”
Luci Brady received a goat yoga experience as a gift from her grandmother to celebrate her graduation from Oregon State. Brady and her family gathered in a fenced grassy area on the property, where mats were laid out for both human and goat participants.
“I love yoga. It’s even more fun with goats,” Morgan Murphy, Brady’s relative, said. “They just want to be loved, and they don’t care who you are or what your opinions are, what you’ve been doing all day.”
Morse echoes a similar sentiment, noting that people were drawn to yoga during increasingly difficult times.
“It feels like it’s a happy distraction,” Morse said. Animals have increasingly been incorporated into wellness regimens to take advantage of their therapeutic Goats and yoga, two rising trends of the time, caught a lot of press attention, and since 2016, Morse’s business has expanded to eight locations across the country.
Annie, the goat yoga poster child, passed away on May 30. But Annie’s impact in bringing people out of the chaos of their daily lives and into nature has motivated recognition of animals’ healing capabilities.
There may have been a shortage of mat space, but there certainly wasn’t a shortage of joy. nature, and Morse’s goat yoga may have been the catalyst for this trend.
For Morse, her connection to goats was rooted in this healing relationship. In 2015, Morse, facing an early-onset autoimmune disorder, picked up two goats from a Craigslist post.
“I would come home from work and go out in the barn or in the field, and the goats would lay around me,” Morse said. “They were so social and loving, and I was like, ‘What?’ I had no idea that goats were like that.”
Noticing the benefits of cuteness and cuddles from her two new friends, Morse began to share the wealth by inviting friends over to bask in the love of goats. This be- came known among Morse and her community as “goat happy hour.”
Incorporating yoga into these happy hours was a natural progression. In 2016, during a charity event featuring one of Morse’s goats, Zawrotny, a local yoga teacher, approached her with the idea of combining both their passions.
At the time, the newborn kid, Annie Goatley, became the face of the Goat Yoga logo: a small, white goat with a pink nose, would soon be plastered on barns across the nation.
Goats and yoga, two rising trends of the time, caught a lot of press attention, and since 2016, Morse’s business has expanded to eight locations across the country.
Annie, the goat yoga poster child, passed away on May 30. But Annie’s impact in bringing people out of the chaos of their daily lives and into nature has motivated recognition of animals’ healing capabilities.
There may have been a shortage of mat space, but there certainly wasn’t a shortage of joy.
