Goat yoga? Animals join class

COLUMBUS » Three rows of yoga mats line much of the green lawn between a farmhouse and barn on a back-road property in Groveport.

Strategically positioned between the mats are bowls of goat food.

While students spend an hour moving through downward dog and cat/cow, a revolving cast of goats — cheerfully ignoring the odd human activity — circulate among the food dishes and seize the opportunity to indulge in some tree bark and wildflowers along the fence on the edge of the yard.

Goat wrangler Marissa Mulligan, an animal-science major at Ohio State University just finishing an assistantship before heading home to Philadelphia for the summer, keeps the goats in line, warding off any potential head-butting incidents.

Chickens, as serenely indifferent to the goats as the goats are to the humans, also stroll through the yard, pausing occasionally to take thorough dust baths while roosters perch on the fence and enthusiastically announce their presence.

Yoga, at one point esoteric and then mainstream, has lately moved into wild territory.

Dana Bernstein, who teaches the goat yoga classes held twice a month at Harrison Farm from May through September, specializes in “experiential yoga,” including classes that combine yoga with wine and chocolate.

Goats make for a far less solemn hour of yoga than some offerings, even if the class moves through a typical vinyasa sequence.

The experience offers its own special set of hazards, as well as welcome distractions.

“Got a little overactive bladder over here,” Bernstein warns. “I don’t know what I’m stepping in.”

Then she suggests: “Shower before, shower after.”

At the seasons’ first session on May 7 — a breezy, blue morning with an enough of a chill in the air that some participants start out in hats and sweatshirts — some of the goats show more interest in humans than others.

Matriarchal Garden Goat — recently turned unicorn by an injury that destroyed one of her horns — surveys the situation impassively.

Two much younger goats show more curiosity. Fiveday-old twin kids, followed by protective mother Corn Nugget, take a serious interest in participant Jen Johnson, nibbling her pants, licking her water bottle, and finally settling down for a nap on her yoga mat.

When Johnson extends her leg in a pose, Corn Nugget seizes the opportunity to taste her toes.

Kay Kasberg of Pickerington chose the class as a way of celebrating her 60th birthday, bringing six family members with her.

“Goat yoga — it’s pure Ohio, isn’t it?” Kasberg said.

Farm owner Katherine Harrison, who doubles as an event planner, began offering goat yoga on the farm on a small scale last year, after she met Bernstein while planning her wedding.

The fifth-generation farmer grew up on the 76 acres with her grandparents. She now has about 70 goats, 30 sheep and 100 chickens.

STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN — THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE VIA AP Yoga instructor Alison Walter leads a “goat yoga” sesson at Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, Mass. Shaker Village has joined other farms in the outdoor yoga trend.