Yoga is an ancient practice, but have you tried it with goats? New York Goat Yoga is run from Gilbertsville Farmhouse in South Berlin.
New York Goat Yoga manager Vanessa Pellegrino and owner Sharon Boustani are working to create a training manual to certify goat yoga instructors.
“Vanessa, who is our manager and main goat yoga instructor can’t be everywhere, unfortunately," Boustani said. "So, we had to think about training new instructors.”
Boustani says they wanted to expand on what it means to lead a goat yoga class.
“You have to make sure the students are safe but also the animals,” Boustani said.
Goat Yoga was adopted about 10 years ago on a farm in Oregon. Boustani says it spread like wildfire and now using Nigerian Dwarf goats is a popular tool in yoga.
"It just brings in bits of animal therapy and laughter therapy," Boustani said. "It's a socializing activity. It introduces people to yoga who might not normally attempt it.”
“So if you’re present, your energy, if you’re aligned, you’re good to go, the animals feel that. The people feel that," Pellegrino said. "Making sure that you check yourself, you have some sort of at home mental health care so that you can show up and show everyone a good time.”
Pellegrino says caring for the goats is a key role in being an instructor and is heavily highlighted in the manual.
“When they’re born, they get their mother’s milk, they get all that good nutrients," Pellegrino said. "And then we’ll start bottle-feeding them. Bottle feeding helps them to normalize human touch, to associate us with positive feelings.”
They hope to have the manual complete by spring of next year so they can present it to the Yoga Alliance.
“They give you kisses,” Pellegrino said. “They make you forget about everything.”
New York Goat Yoga does various activities with goats, from disco, to tie-dye theme, to even a wine and yoga night. They even travel across the state to different colleges to let students get the experience.
You can plan your next class by visiting nygoatyoga.com.
