My son brought a few of his friends over the other day to see our goats for the first time.
All his friends have always been really fascinated by the fact he has goats, but it’s difficult for them to come over because of the distance.
They did come recently, though, and we all had a great time hanging out with the goats.
One question that I thought would inevitably come up, though, was one of them asking whether or not you could ride a goat.
I thought I would put this debate to rest as quick as I could.
So, can you ride a goat?
No, you can’t ride a goat. Certainly not a grown adult, and a child, even though it didn’t weigh much, would still likely spook the goat and make it very uncomfortable—endangering both of them. So, no, however you look at it, you cannot ride a goat.
Don’t ever ride a goat.
If you are considering doing so as a grown adult, however big and strong your goat might appear, it will not appreciate being ridden.
At best, you will just fall right off. At worst, the very act of putting your weight onto its back could injure it immediately.
Let’s look further into this.
Should you ride a goat?
No, you absolutely should not ride a goat.
There is, first of all, no reason to.
If you’re thinking you could do it just for a moment as a joke, don’t.
In that moment you stand a serious chance of breaking the goat’s back—the chances of it recovering fully from this are very low.
If you want to ride an animal, you should ride a horse or a camel.
There is really nothing else that can carry the weight of human safely.
Don’t risk your goat’s health because you feel like seeing if it can take your weight.
It can’t; leave it alone!
But, even if it were a small child that perhaps the goat could take the weight of, this doesn’t make the situation any better.
Do goats like being ridden?
No, they don’t.
That one is simple.
Goats hate being ridden, and indeed so does any animal that isn’t specifically trained to be ridden.
Animals don’t like being ridden any more than you would!
Again, whether you are a large, heavy person or a small, weightless child, the goat isn’t going to appreciate it.
You have to remember that you’re putting both the goat and the rider at risk.
Whoever is on there, the goat is likely going to simply buck them off as soon as they are down.
This presents potential danger for a child and anyone, however low the danger may be.
So, no—goats hate being ridden.
Can kids ride goats?
No, they cannot!
While they may stand a chance of actually being supported, even for a second, by the goat’s weight, it is not any safe for the goat and especially not for the child.
Even for a strong goat, too much pressure in one point of its spine is going to have a chance to cause a serious problem, even potentially breaking its back.
Even for a young child this is a very real possibility.
However old you or the person wanting to ride the goat is, it is not safe and you should not do it.
Is there a safe way to ride a goat?
So, just to reiterate and summarize, there is no good way to ride a goat.
No matter how old or young, how light or heavy, it is not eve safe to ride a goat.
What sets goats apart from horses in this sense is that, in many goat breeds, the back arches up with their spine as the highest point of the back.
Horses, typically have a wide, muscled back, which the spine runs through the middle.
This means that, whereas you can balance the load on a horse’s spine, you can’t on a goat’s.
Not to mention the fact that horses are not born comfortable with being ridden.
They have to be carefully trained to that point—so goats lack both the biology and training to be able to be ridden.
However cautiously you approach it, you always stand a chance of injuring your goat if you try to ride it.
What to do, then, if the worst happens?
What to do if you injure your goat riding it
Firstly, don’t panic.
You made a mistake in riding it and can learn for the future, but you need to focus on getting the goat help.
If you can, get a vet to come out to the property as soon as you can.
It would really be best if you don’t move the goat very much after its been injured, as this could make a broken back worse.
In any case, the only thing you can really do is consult a vet.
Explain what happened, and your goat may have a path to recovery.
I cannot stress enough, then, that there are no safe circumstances under which to ride a goat.
The biggest, strongest goat in the world and a small weight to carry is still not safe for either the goat or the rider.
Never, ever ride a goat, as you stand a real chance, even if for only a second, of causing a serious, fatal injury.
There is no safe way to ride a goat, and no reason to do so anyway.
It’s a natural question for kids to ask—after all, why should we ride horses and not goats?
But it’s seriously dangerous, matter how old you are.