Discovering your inner kid

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Close your eyes. Take a deep breath in through your nose. Let it out through your mouth. Move into downward-facing dog pose. Peek one eye open, see a goat staring at you. And before you know it, that goat is jumping up on your back, the little hooves kneading away your sore muscles in a rough goat-y massage. Goat yoga is a phenomenon that was popularized when a farmer from Corvallis, Oregon, Lainey Morse, decided to start a yoga class where goats would wander around the participants, occasionally jumping on their backs, gently butting their heads and giving them goat kisses. The idea spread, as more and more farmers started to use their goats for more than just making cheese. Now, it’s in Port Townsend. Karen Wyeth, from Dragonfly Farm, has offered goat yoga classes since last October, with her three Nigerian Dwarf goats, Rusty, Rolo and Oreo. “When you lean over, you’ll have a goat on your back,” she said. “It’s a natural instinct they have when they’re young. They love to jump.” Wyeth and her daughters have worked to train the goats to interact with humans during the yoga class. As a teacher leads the students through a traditional vinyasa yoga session, the goats wander around, gently sniffing, occasionally eating some grass and jumping up on people’s backs when they go into downward dog pose, child’s pose, or cat/cow pose. “It’s a way of simulating more of the inner child that we lose when we grow up,” said Melissa Kremer, who taught her first goat yoga class on June 22 at Dragonfly Farm. “Sometimes we take ourselves too seriously. It brings you to being more present, instead of falling into autopilot.” Balancing a goat on your back does bring you to the present. It also released a steady stream of giggles from the class, as Rolo, Rusty and Oreo chose person after person to jump on. “I want to do a lot of goat snuggling today,” said Jamie Paszek, who came from Sequim to participate in the goat yoga class. Other students came all the way from Tacoma and Seattle to join in the class, which was attended by 11 people. For Kremer, who has been teaching regular yoga since 2015, adding goats to the mix is refreshing. “Yoga in a studio setting has been around for so long,” she said. “It’s been exciting to bring something new to the table and to do it with little horns and hooves.” Wyeth offers goat yoga classes two times a month this summer. The next classes will be offered on July 6 and July 20. For more information, visit dragonflyfarm-pt.com. Reserve by phoning Karen Wyeth at 360-344-8021, or email dragonflyfarm.pt@gmail.com.