Learnt something new today!

That sounds brilliant, and doubly so as you'll be doing it with friends. We melted down a whole pile of stubs of candles and made some new ones when we ran out a few weeks ago, but they were purely functional rather than beautiful. I wish you lots of fun!

hi zoejoy just remembering I was staying in a cabin on some property which my dad owned in Montana. My nephew and his wife had a ram goat. Me being used to other farm animals did not really pay the animal much attention. They had told me I could have some fresh veggies from their garden just for picking them, So ignoring the ram horns and all I started bending over to pick some cucumbers, tomatoes and some lettuce. Uh hush W hoops i was chubby and I guess my butt sticking up in the air was somehow inviting to the ram and whop his horns contacted my rear and down I went face first in the tangled plants of cucumbers. Having satisfied his urge the critter backed off and went to his mistess. My nephew and his wife were helping me up and laughing at the same time. I needless to say was not in very good humor right then, their little girl was laughing and giggling as I rubbed my abused sitter and took my veggies and fled to my own cabin.

ZoeJoy, my goats have never had their hooves trimmed before so it was as new to them as to me. They also live on fire and brimstone and plot evil acts of international terrorism in their spare time, so it was never going to be easy lol Hatley, thankyou for an early morning smile! One of the funniest things I ever saw was one of our mother goats butting one of the dogs straight off a wall and into the river when he showed too much interest in her kid. People tend to forget how hard a goat's head can be, even one without horns.

Next time it's unfortunately going to be with a less placid goat. I shall ensure I invest in some sort of goat straight jacket before hand!

No, it doesn't hurt them. They're not actually solid but hollow in the centre. You keep taking off slivers until you see the colour changing to a little pinkish which means you're near the quick. Obviously, if you kept going then you'd hurt them at that point but before that it's like your finger nails (only much, much tougher and attached to a reluctant host who fights!). I'm with you on the cat claw trimming trick, having used the technique myself when things need doing to them. It works on the dogs too. Sadly, even my approaching the goat shed has them all up on their feet and racing to the door as they are driven entirely by their stomachs so I don't think I'd manage to get anything done.

I'm terrible at trimming anything, I'm always afraid I'm going to hurt them, even the cats.

I can buy tranquilisers for the dogs in the chemist so I guess I could probably buy them for the goats too if I wanted to. I never thought about it! The video clips I was looking at were all American actually, but in reality I think they just had far calmer goats than I do. If they've been used to having their hooves trimmed from a fairly early age I don't imagine they'd fight so much. Also, I imagine that if you were shooting an instructional video you'd take care to make it look easy by using a placid animal as a model! Let's hope next time is easier!

I have eight, but this is the first time I've had to trim hooves. We keep them for dairy and for occasional meat. The cheese I make from them is a million times better than anything we can buy, but they are an awful lot of work.

Exciting? Glamorous? Adventurous? Honestly, I'd rather trim the hooves of a whole bunch of Hells Angels!

Certainly sounds less energetic! Enjoy

Tell you what, next time you can pop over and give me a hand. You can be in charge of the goat, and this time I'LL have the snippers! I'd never thought of the blindfold thing. It's an idea worth investigating.

We've got a dog like that! Soft as anything, and daft as a brush, but had to be tranquillized to allow the vet to look in his eye. Whilst he was sleeping it off in the corner whilst we paid, the most appalling, eye watering stench filled the air. The only thing I can say with any certainty was that it wasn't me, but I'm going to make sure I'm never in a car wash with that dog if he's ever tranquillized again!

I've got plans to get sheep in the longer term actually, but now you've reminded me that they may need hoof trimming too i might have second thoughts .....

I wish you all the best with your exam.