Learn how to do a downward dog with a goat at this Whatcom farm

A farm in Wickersham is catching on to the latest exercise trend – yoga classes with goats.

Goat Boat Farm, a working farm and flower nursery at 364 Innis Creek Road, just off Highway 9, holds classes one weekday evening and Saturdays and Sundays through mid-August. Classes are kept small – about 10 to 15 people per session – and are done outside surrounded by forest, grazing sheep, and baby goats.

“We got goats initially just because we had blackberry everywhere and they do an amazing job of cutting down the blackberry,” said Nicole Schierberl, who runs the farm with her partner, Jon Paulson. “We kind of fell in love with them from there.”

The yoga class “makes a lot of sense just because goats love to interact with people. ... It’s impossible not to smile when you’ve got this little goat kid jumping on you or laying in your lap.”

She attributed her inspiration to Lainey Morse of Albany, Oregon, who started offering goat yoga classes last year after a mom attending a children’s birthday party at her farm suggested she offer yoga classes.

“I said okay, but the goats have to join in,” Morse told CNN.com.

A few hundred YouTube videos later, goat yoga has become a thing.

This story was originally published July 2, 2017 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Learn how to do a downward dog with a goat at this Whatcom farm."