I have Lamanchas, and have trained a half Lamancha half Nubian to pull one person in a cart. I need to pull myself and my daughter, so I kept two wethers this year to train. There is not much information on 'how to' but I have trained other animals, and Dancer muddled through. The harness is very expensive and I know I could make my own for the two new goats if I knew how to get the supplies (buckles, loops, etc. Any others out there doing the cart thing and sharing training tips?

-- lorraine lamb (jcurtis@frontier.net), May 07, 2002

Answers

Might check out this web site: Harness Goat Society, http://www.goats.co.uk/club/harness/ “The Harness Goat Society promotes the training of the working goat by lectures, slide shows and demonstrations. All breeds and either sex can be trained, but the Society recomends a disbudded or polled castrated male as being the most sutable. These goats can be trained as pack animals, to pull a travoir or to be harnessed to a cart which can be either led or driven.”

-- BC (desertdweller44@yahoo.com), May 07, 2002.

I have a book around here that shows how to use a Draft horse halter as a goat harness. You basically turn it upside down with the part that would go over the horses poll (top of their head) as the breast plate on a goat and the part that would be under the horse's chin would go along the goat's back. They showed it on in a drawing and it was really easy to see how it could work. And some of those draft horse halters are BIG! And you could also use regular size halters to train the goats when they are smaller. -- Cheers, Renee M.

-- Renee Martin (icehorse@altelco.net), May 07, 2002.

Goat Info

-- ~Rogo (rogo2222@hotmail.com), May 07, 2002.

I also want to use a goat to pull a cart, to help me with chores around the homestead. I wanted to try to do that instead of using gasoline powered tractors or other machines, to cut down on noise and exhaust pollution, and also, to allow us to be more self-sufficient (not depending on gas).

I found a nice harness in Hoegger's Dairy Goat Supply catalog. They also have carts and a garden cultivator, made just for goats. I don't have my goats yet. We still have to build housing for our goats. This project is coming up toward the top of the list, and I have hopes that we'll get to it this year. I'd like to have a couple of milk goats, and one wether to pull the cart and cultivator.

I'm excited about this idea, and I've read that goats are fairly easy to train. There's a book called "Your Goats - A Kid's Guide to Raising and Showing" by Gail Damerow. There's a section in there about how to train a goat for pulling or packing.

Keep us posted! Good luck!

-- Christine in California (towanda515@yahoo.com), May 08, 2002.

I use Weaver Leather as a supply source for harness and tack hardware. < www.leathersupply.com > I have custom made goat harness from "scratch" but found that cutting down an old pony driving (no horse collar) harness was much easier.

-- Scotsirish (notreal@anywhere.net), May 09, 2002.

ok, two things, i have made harness out of nylon webbing , sold for belt and handbag straps.. it was 57 cents a yard... i ended up needing about 20 yards total. and i used a regualrllama halter and added reins on it for his head.. for a cart, while i havent looked around much , the larger "garden wagons" i see at home improvement stores look like they might work , i saw one on sale for like 60.00.. i think with some work i could replace the pull handle with a bar and traces....

there are 3 basic places you need buckles, across the front breast strap,unless you goat is fully grown and will never be used by another goat.. the padded section around his withers and belly, and the long strap that goes under his tail ... (i made the crupper a detatchable piece , for washing and eventual replcement)... if you are pretty good at fixing things up yourself, and are willing to measure and measure and measure, before you cut, it is a fairly easy progect...

otherwise here is a link to a company that makes pony and mini horse carts, as well as harness, perhaps they could help you too..

http://www.tripleccarts.com/mini_pony.htm

http://www.goatworld.com/articles/drivinggoat.shtml

this is a good article, not just for content, which is pretty generalized, but cause it shows a homemade cart... looks simple enough

http://www.goattracksmagazine.com/

http://www.llamaproducts.com/qlp/new/index.cfm? select=goat&subsect=none

-- Beth in ND (famvan@drtel.net), May 09, 2002.