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August 21, 2004
ESMGPA Picnic
Host John Bloomer talks about washing and drying goats for the ring. Be sure when you dry the goats you move their hair back following the body for a longer look.
Here's a doe getting washed. Special guest Brenda Larner of Agnew Boers recommended horse shampoo, especially one that is good for white-haired animals. Her secret? Mix ladies' salon peroxide 1:1 with the whitening shampoo for a bright white. Be sure that conditioner is used, especially if the goats are washed often. One brand,Peppy, is a spray-on conditioner that is great for sheen.
A goat in the stand, waiting to be clipped and groomed.
Speaker Brenda Larner talks about grooming and clipping. Some of her favorite tools are on the table behind her.
Clip the hair around the feet. She uses a size 10 blade.
Trimming the hair under the tail, and shaping the rump.
Shaping the hair at the rump. She is still using the #10 blade.
Make a line following the line of the belly. At the naval, go back towards the tail the width of the blade. Back at the naval, go against the hair up to between the front legs. This opens up the goat. No other belly hair is trimmed.
Inside the leg, Brenda gives a close trimming. But overall you want the goat to retains its hairiness.
John Bloomer and Denny Hamm (Poplar Ridge Farm) look on.
The tail area is clipped but the rear legs need to be blocked. In Brenda's hand are some good grooming tools. The brush is used for the clippers. Be sure to lubricate often as well. A scotch comb is good for removing loose hair and for directing hair. For shedding after winter, a double edged horse comb is also useful.
Don't forget to wash and dry your goat's face before a show too! Here, Brenda trims the doe's chin. She will move on to clean up the area where her horns would be.
When prepping the horns for show, use dry wall sanding paper to smooth surfaces. Be careful not to rub too much or too hard as you can cause some bleeding. You can use hoof ointment on the horns for polish and shine, but never ever use water-repellant hoof treatments on horns or risk your goat's health.
Face all done!
Trimming feet. Repeat after Brenda: Font side, inside; backside, outside. This means, when trimming feet, trim the inside of the front feet a touch shorter than the outside hoof. With the back feet, leave the outisde a touch shorter than the inside. This follows the way a goat naturally distributes weight.
Front side inside. See how the inside is trimmed shorter.
Working on the back feet. Be sure to square off the toes as well, and leave some of the heel. Even though it is the easiest part of the foot to trim, leaving some of it high helps the goat's pasterns and helps her to walk better.
Using a grinder for a smooth hoof.
You may see some blood while trimming feet. Stopping when the hoof is pink is a good practice but not always realistic. The chip on the side hoof there was caused by a split in the hoof wall. Trim that off and spray with a foot treatment. Brenda highly recommends Hoof Master from
Mid States.
The finished foot.
Teaching a goat to lead can be easy, or so Brenda says :D This the day the goat had other thoughts. Brenda uses a correcting collar and a show dog lead. For children showing goats in the ring, she recommends using a halter on the goats for better control.
Using the short lead.
Everyone enjoys a fine spread of food for lunch, including some goat meat dishes. Afterwards we adjoin to the horse barn to watch Boer Goat 101, an informative slide show of good and bad points of selecting stock for breeding. After this point, we headed out, flanked by several other guests who wanted to take advantage of the break in the rain to get some work done at home.
Posted by roosterh at August 21, 2004 2:07 PM
Comments
I was wondering if there is a video and maybe even some close up pictures of trimming and hooving. Also if there a bigger pictures of these that are shown.
Posted by: Michelle Crain at April 12, 2005 4:02 PM
Posted to
Events and Festivals |
Goats
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