Aiming to provide a fun day out while also educating the public on animal welfare, Rose Bridge Farm and Animal Sanctuary in Dresher, Pennsylvania offers visitors the chance to participate in a unique wellness experience: goat yoga.
Goat yoga is exactly what the name suggests; it’s an hour long yoga session, which would already be relaxing enough, but also “participating” in the session are eight infant Nigerian dwarf goats.
These goats are really the star of the show; they climb and balance on guests as they go through a variety of poses designed to allow for goat-human interaction.
As well as the yoga session itself, participants get the opportunity to bond with the goats through a feeding session prior to the yoga, during which the goats’ handler, Barb Murphy, provides an educational talk about the goats themselves and the conservation efforts of the sanctuary.
Murphy believes that the work of the sanctuary provides a “second life” for the goats.
“Every [goat] is rescued,” Murphy said. “We get 90 percent males, because we rescue from the dairy industry where, unfortunately, they have no use for them because they don’t produce milk.”
Murphy also believes in the importance of conservation efforts when it comes to goats, no matter how small.
“If they weren’t rescued by sanctuaries like ours, or even individuals with their own little backyard farms, they would come to nefarious ends,” Murphy said.
Rose Bridge Farm and Animal Sanctuary’s aim is to raise the goats and then adopt them out to members of the community as pets.
They provide animal husbandry sessions to further this goal, with goat yoga being one of the ways in which they prepare the goats for life around humans.
“[Goats] make great pets; you don’t need a whole lot of space for them and they’re actually trainable,” Murphy said. “The yoga socializes them; they learn how to interact with people and get used to being around humans, so when we go to adopt them out they know what to do with people.”
Murphy also believes that goat yoga, and more generally being around animals, benefits humans as well as the animals it helps to rescue.
“If you’re stressed, be it because you have your finals or exams or something like that, the animals are great because you can only focus on them while you’re here,” Murphy said. “You’re not thinking about anything else that stresses you out, and when you go home it puts you in such a good mood.”
Rose Bridge Sanctuary offers yoga sessions every Saturday and Sunday, as well as a number of other human/animal interactive experiences, such as horse yoga, goat hiking in Wissahickon Park and volunteer opportunities for those interested in volunteering with animals.
As well as Nigerian dwarf goats, Rose Bridge runs conservation programs for a multitude of animals rescued from the food and livestock industries.
The farm aims to save these animals from premature deaths and pair them with individuals, families and organizations that share their view of animals as companions, not resources.
They do this through experiences like goat yoga as well as other animal husbandry sessions, such as snuggle time with rescued cows and pigs.