{"id":34924,"date":"2020-04-23T10:32:42","date_gmt":"2020-04-23T14:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yourhorsefarm.flywheelsites.com\/?p=34924"},"modified":"2021-09-09T16:38:04","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T20:38:04","slug":"keeping-goats-with-horses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yourhorsefarm.com\/keeping-goats-with-horses\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping Goats with Horses"},"content":{"rendered":"

For my daughter\u2019s quarantine birthday, we bought two Nubian babies, Willow and Whisper!<\/span><\/p>\n

Before bringing our new friends home, we, of course, prepared a pen for them, installing panels over pipe corral fencing so we could keep them contained and keep predators out, but my end goal is to eventually keep them with my horses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If you didn\u2019t know, goats can make great companions for horses (especially if you have a lone horse), but there are other reasons to house them with your equines as well. For one, goats are browsers and will often \u201cclean up\u201d brush and undesirable weeds, leaving the good grass behind for grazing animals like horses.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another nice thing about goats is that they don’t require much in the way of feed or supplements if they\u2019re on pasture. (They do need hay in the winter, just like horses though.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Goats and horses tend to do well together, but here are a few recommendations I\u2019ve found if you\u2019re new to goats like we are:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Introduce your goats and horses slowly. <\/b><\/h3>\n

In other words, don’t just dump the goats into the horse pasture and expect everything to go smoothly. My horses had never seen goats until now and were quite wary of them at first and the goats still aren\u2019t sure what to make of those giant animals either!<\/span><\/p>\n

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Invest in the right kind of fencing<\/b>. <\/span><\/h3>\n

Goats are notorious escape artists, so if you want to keep them contained, you\u2019ll need the right type of fencing. Four feet is the minimum recommended height and some types that can work for both horses and goats include:<\/span><\/p>\n