{"id":80166,"date":"2019-06-01T13:33:49","date_gmt":"2019-06-01T18:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=80166"},"modified":"2019-06-11T11:03:47","modified_gmt":"2019-06-11T16:03:47","slug":"goat-yoga-connecting-with-animals-the-earth-and-each-other","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/goat-yoga-connecting-with-animals-the-earth-and-each-other\/","title":{"rendered":"Goat yoga: Connecting with animals, the earth and each other"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Stephanie Fox<\/strong>
\nMedill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n

Floral incense float to the floor in a swirl of smoke. A cool breeze sneaks through the window cracks and echoes the sounds of the country. Outside, the sun is shining, but inside Blue Sky Farm\u2019s make-shift yoga studio the low-light and metal star-covered walls elicit a feeling of serenity reminiscent of the forest in A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/em>. Much like Shakespeare\u2019s classic comedy, things aren\u2019t always what they seem.<\/p>\n

Circling the women sitting cross-legged on mats are six baaing, leaping and headbutting baby goats. For the yoga students, the goats are a hilarious addition to an otherwise relaxing activity. To the goats, the yoga students are something they jump off in a flailing ball of hoof and fur.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_8020<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>
This goat loves head scratches! (Stephanie Fox\/Medill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"IMG_8048\"<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>
Curious goats make yoga more fun. (Stephanie Fox\/Medill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"IMG_8135<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>
Baby goats will climb on top of anything–even people! (Stephanie Fox\/Medill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"IMG_8237<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>
All of the goats wanted to get in the picture. (Stephanie Fox\/Medill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"IMG_8029<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>
The only thing better than one baby goat is two baby goats. (Stephanie Fox\/Medill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"IMG_8227<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>
Goats are great at balancing. (Stephanie Fox\/Medill) <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n

June marks one year since Ellen Beaulieu, owner of Blue Sky Farm, started hosting goat yoga at her Sugar Grove homestead. After purchasing the farm in July 2013, she knew she wanted to share the rolling green landscape with those craving nature or just the touch of a miniature horse.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mission is to connect animals, the earth and each other,\u201d Beaulieu said.<\/p>\n

Spreading the word<\/strong><\/p>\n

She quickly realized that creating the farm experience wasn\u2019t the hard part. In order to enter her property, visitors must drive down a winding road adorned with 100-year-old houses, open fields and horses. Once on the farm, guests are greeted by naying miniature horses who stick their snouts through the wooden-fenced enclosure and beg for head scratches.<\/p>\n

Beaulieu struggled with spreading the word about her farm to those outside rural Sugar Grove, where there\u2019s about as much novelty in owning a goat as there is in a city resident owning a dachshund.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first inclination was, how do we share this with people that need it?\u201d said Beaulieu.<\/p>\n

With a background in special education and psychology, Beaulieu\u2019s idea of \u201cneed\u201d comes in a variety of forms. From those recovering from addiction to those simply wanting to cuddle a farm animal, she wanted Blue Sky Farm to be a safe and beneficial space that could meet the needs of all visitors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to sell an experience. But how do you get known for that? That was my struggle,\u201d Beaulieu said. Going from a childhood household that forbade pets to owning a farm demonstrated to Beaulieu how therapeutic petting animals and breathing fresh air could be. But, in a click-bate culture, slapping that sentiment on a poster wasn\u2019t going to cut it. \u201cThen goat yoga came across my radar.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when everything changed.<\/p>\n

By summer, Beaulieu connected with educator-by-day and yoga-teacher-by-night Danielle Todd.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Certified yoga instructor Danielle Todd plays with Blue Sky Farm’s goats before class. (Stephanie Fox\/Medill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the main teacher for Ellen, and I absolutely love it,\u201d Todd said. She spends most of her time teaching middle schoolers English, literature, social studies, yoga and meditation at Grace Holistic Center for Education in Yorkville, Illinois. When she isn\u2019t educating children or tree posing with goats, she leads traditional yoga classes at a studio and piglet yoga classes at her friend\u2019s house. (Todd lovingly referred to this as downward hog yoga.) The pigs used in these classes will one day be sold as pets, so integrating them into a class of people doing yoga prepares them for future human interactions.<\/p>\n

Newborn goats in the studio<\/strong><\/p>\n

Beaulieu uses that same thought when introducing newborn goats into her yoga classes. Often, goats spend the first 8-10 weeks of their life (essentially their entire childhood) nuzzled up with their mothers. By the time the goats are grown, they haven\u2019t been socialized, so their natural inclination is to run away from humans.<\/p>\n

There is a wait list for goats bred by Beaulieu. Not just because she only raises pedigree Nigerian dwarf goats, but because her goats are acclimated to humans, which makes them more manageable adults.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_8000<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>
Goats join the yoga classes at Blue Sky Farm as early as 1-week-old. (Stephanie Fox\/Medill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"IMG_8009<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>
Baby goats are given the freedom to roam the Blue Sky Farm yoga studio during class. (Stephanie Fox\/Medill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"IMG_8123<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>
This baby goat wanted to try out yoga, so she hoped on a mat and struck a pose. (Stephanie Fox\/Medill)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n

On the day I visited the farm, guests are lucky enough to spend an entire hour with all baby goats. Often, a variety of ages are in the mix, but with it being breeding season at Blue Sky Farm, Beaulieu has a surplus of babies to socialize.<\/p>\n

As Todd leads the class from child\u2019s pose to cobra, the goats hop off people\u2019s backs and sniff extended fingers. A barefooted Beaulieu weaves across the room and scoops up one of the smaller goats. The white and brown head snuggles against her chest as she whispers softly.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re doing such a good job. I\u2019m so proud of you,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Beaulieu notices me watching and informs me the goat is only a week old. As she sets the doll-sized fuzzball back down, it shakes it\u2019s rear and skips toward the other babies roaming the room.<\/p>\n

Owning a business with goats means looking out for goats doing their business<\/strong><\/p>\n

Late-spring through early-fall, Blue Sky Farm hosts Friday night classes from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday morning classes from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. every other week. Blue Sky Farm also offers \u201cGoat Cuddle\u201d sessions on Thursday nights from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Those interested in 2-hour private goat yoga parties can book their event for $300.<\/p>\n

As traction picked up and news of Blue Sky Farm spread, Beaulieu recognized another issue. While she wanted to provide the \u201cfarm experience\u201d to visitors, that didn\u2019t mean she wanted people stepping in goat excrement or sticking their hands in urine. At the same time, when you\u2019re working with animals, they\u2019re going to relieve themselves whenever they feel the time is right.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Beaulieu starts each class with this disclaimer:<\/p>\n

\"\"
Ellen Beaulieu opens each yoga class with a friendly speech. She tells visitors to “leave their expectations at the barn door.” (Stephanie Fox\/Medill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cPeople will always say, \u2018Will I get peed and pooed on?\u2019 and I say, \u2018Absolutely, you will see them pee and poo. They\u2019ll look you straight in the eye and you\u2019ll think you\u2019re having a little bonding moment and they\u2019re pooping,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the risk people take when they sign up for goat yoga.<\/p>\n

Luckily, the goats rarely go while atop a person practicing cat-cow or any similar poses. Instead, they squat on the concrete floor and Beaulieu rushes over to immediately clean up the mess.<\/p>\n

But sometimes the goats do get a little too<\/em> comfortable.<\/p>\n

A couple of months into hosting goat yoga, all of the guests laid in savasana when very calmly one woman said:<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019m being peed on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it warm?\u201d Beaulieu recalled saying back.<\/p>\n

With a heavy, meditative breath the women responded, \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then, Beaulieu has honed the skill of identifying a goat about to pee.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had the joy of watching her make eye contact with a goat standing proudly on the back of a human. Almost in slow motion the goat starts to lower itself into position. But before it\u2019s too late, Beaulieu swoops in and plucks the goat away and safely places it on the floor.<\/p>\n

Goats on the go<\/strong><\/p>\n

When the leaves turned red, Beaulieu encountered yet another challenge. She thought her earning season would end in the winter because she knew it was too cold to host classes at her farm.<\/p>\n

\"\"
At the end of class, visitors have the chance to take pictures with the goats. (Stephanie Fox\/Medill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But then, organizations reached out in the hope of collaborating. This launched \u201cGoats to Go,\u201d in which Beaulieu would bring her baby goats to senior living facilities, painting classes and yoga studios in the area.<\/p>\n

From a trip to get fast food that turned into a drive-through photo shoot when employees realized there was a goat sitting on Beaulieu\u2019s lap, to the confusion of customers entering a burger restaurant who thought the goats they could hear in the yoga studio next-door were on the menu, traveling with goats always ends in shenanigans.<\/p>\n

A successful year<\/strong><\/p>\n

As of mid-April, Beaulieu reopened her barn doors to those interested in a combination of goats, yoga and a farm setting. In less than a year, word of Blue Sky Farm\u2019s goat yoga classes crossed state lines, bringing in guests from Chicago to Iowa.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so proud of us. We\u2019ve made it a year and it\u2019s grown,\u201d Beaulieu said of her accomplishments. \u201cI understand so much more what people are looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Guests of Blue Sky Farm love seeing the goats run around in the open field. (Stephanie Fox)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That means, a heavier emphasis on the experience rather than perfecting each yoga pose, as well as a station for goat selfies at the end of class.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s joyful. It\u2019s silly. It\u2019s a space for little connections,\u201d Beaulieu said.<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Ellen Beaulieu hugs a 1-week-old goat during a yoga class at Blue Sky Farm. (Stephanie Fox\/Medill)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Stephanie Fox Medill Reports Floral incense float to the floor in a swirl of smoke. A cool breeze sneaks through the window cracks and echoes the sounds of the country. Outside, the sun is shining, but inside Blue Sky Farm\u2019s make-shift yoga studio the low-light and metal star-covered walls elicit a feeling of serenity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":80168,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194,27,28,29,4741],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-business","category-general-interest","category-health-and-science","category-spring-2019"],"yoast_head":"\nGoat yoga: Connecting with animals, the earth and each other - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/goat-yoga-connecting-with-animals-the-earth-and-each-other\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Goat yoga: Connecting with animals, the earth and each other - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Stephanie Fox Medill Reports Floral incense float to the floor in a swirl of smoke. 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