I read in an e-mail earlier today that you should always carry WD-40 and duct tape. If something is stuck and you want it to move, use the WD-40. If it moves and you want it held in place, use the duct tape. But there are ooohhhh so many other uses for these two wonder tools. When I raised show goats in high school (no snickering), WD-40 was the wonder ointment for shining their hooves and horns. Of course, shining their horns with a lube that took 40 formulations to perfect is one of those things you do at the very last minute. Goats' horns are very good handles to grab them by as their making a mad dash for the gate and henceforth freedom. So I always made sure that the horns were shined after the show collar was on. Have you ever walked a goat with a collar and lead? No, you say? Well, I'm a believer that it's one of those things you should try at least once in life. If not for the sheer sake of being able to say you "walked a goat", then at least for the looks you get when people drive by, stop, back up, and hang out their window to say, "Wull ah'll be! I thought that was a big ole dog you were walkin'!" And you get to smile and say, "nooooo...it's just my goat!" Gotta love small town life. (I do miss it)
What most people don't know about walking goats is that there is a weight limit. The goats I raised for show were in the meat goat category. Now, don't get all PETA on me -- I raised them for breeding stock and don't eat goat myself. To me it smells like goat whether it's on the hoof or on the grill. Now, a good grain fed steer is a whole nother matter! I digress. So, these meat goats are hefty creaturs. My girls weighed an average of 160 pounds full grown. Folks used to stop and ask when they were 'due'. Uhhhh...they're not pregnant, they're healthy!!! Like any animal, the male of the species usually runs a little heavier. My boys I raised for stockshow could hit 160 about 3 months before the stockshow. I learned the hard way that when you're walking your show goat that outweighs you by a good 50 pounds, if he decides to take off at a dead run back to the house to join up with his compadre, there's not a whole hell of a lot you can do - especially when you have the lead rope wrapped around your wrist and you're being drug down the street while using your other hand as a brake. That was one of those moments where you hop up, look around to see if anyone saw, pray no one did, and haul butt back to the house and back to the safety of enclosed spaces. If I had thought pounding on him with a big stick would have taught him anything, I probably would have been fined for goat cruelty. But, as it was, when I got back to the house, there he was in the backyard, peacefully nibbling on some grass, eyeing my rosebushes, and giving me this sleepy peaceful goaty look like, "Oh, hi! Where have you been?" Stupid goat.
So, if you ever get to take a goat on a walk around the block, be sure to check its weight. Either that, or stock up on the neosporin and the gauze wrap becuase you'll need it after picking asphalt out of your pavement inflictions! I'll see if I can find some pictures and will post them with some other goat tales.
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