Freedom! Also playing favorites.

 This is my new favorite picture.  I love Daniel!!

I took two hundred photos this weekend (can't beat such nice weather hehe) and after going through them there are close to seventy that I want to share.  That is way too many for one post so I'm going to split them up and make multiple posts.  The first post will focus on the Myotonics (plus Amethyst because she's 50% Myotonic and 50% Boer, not to mention she's in the same pen with them).  I also kind of want to tell you guys more about their individual personalities since there are so many new additions you might not know very much about them.  Or if you're a new reader you might not know any of them very well.

Note:  The blue on Amethyst is marker from Daniel's marking harness.

Amethyst is our first baby that we've bred with this group of goats (we used to raise goats about a decade ago).  She was born February 4th this year so she's nine months old.  She is super friendly since we've been there from the moment she was born (even though her mom was feral when she was born and still sort of is, although she's improving).  We regularly let her out in the yard to free roam and browse.  We had her out this weekend even though there isn't much to eat, mainly to get an updated weight.  She now weighs 71.8 pounds.  It won't be much longer before hubby won't be able to pick her up without risking hurting his back.  Luckily there is a way to measure them (heart girth, length and some math) to get their weight that seems pretty accurate on the ones we've tested using both methods.

I promise I don't play favorites.... oh who am I kidding?  Amethyst is definitely my favorite.  She is just awesome.  She has so much personality, she's independent and doesn't mind leaving the herd, she loves humans, etc.  She's not a total cuddlebug like some goats, but she doesn't mind being handled at all as long as you leave her horns alone.  She isn't crazy about being caught by her horns.  How can you blame me for loving her so much when I've had her since she was this tiny??

Adorable!

She fell asleep in my arms!  How can you not love this little girl?

For those who may not know or don't remember her sire was Crockett who we only had for a short time, but I adored him anyway.  Losing him before Amethyst was even born is one of the reasons she is so special to me.

 Amethyst's sire.  Wasn't he amazing?

 Here is a picture from a previous post with Amethyst and her mom Coral.

I love how Coral as her leg propped up on her daughter.

Anyway, back to the current photos.

 During her walk about she went over to say hi to Jasper's crew.  She's so cute when she puts her ruff up and acts all big and bad.  You'll see more of that later in this post.

Eventually we put Amethyst back out in her pen with the Myotonics.  They had all been up in the small pen because the battery in our solar electric fence charger died.  We finally got the new battery and fixed it so we let them back out in their big pen.  They were so happy with their returned freedom and immediately went about searching for acorns.

This is Georgia.  She is a purebred Myotonic doe that was born in November of 2009.  We bought her on September 29th, so we haven't had her long.  She isn't feral or unfriendly, but she's definitely independent and prefers to be left alone.  She is the boss in the goat herd and doesn't like other goats in her personal space.  She is approximately 100 pounds.  It's crazy that such a small goat can weigh that much.  Myotonics are known for their weight and muscles.  The myotonia causes them to build a lot more muscle than your average goat.  She is fairly strongly myotonic and stiffens up if she is excited or scared.  It's so funny to shake the feed bucket and watch her run toward you and then start to stiffen and move in slow motion.  She doesn't "faint" or fall over.  Older Myotonics learn how to avoid falling.  I'll have to try to get video for you sometime.

We brought Zephyr home the same day as Georgia.  She was born in March of 2010 and is also pure Myotonic.  She is not related to Georgia even though their coloring is similar.  She has blue eyes, unlike Georgia who has brown eyes.  She is slightly smaller, around ninety pounds. Zephyr is much  friendlier.  She is still a bit skittish at times, but she loves attention.  Her favorite thing is chewing on humans, but she doesn't know to be gentle!!  For an animal that only has lower teeth it hurts when they bite too hard!  She's not doing it to be mean, but it still hurts.  She has about the same degree of myotonia as Georgia.  She stiffens up when scared or excited, but doesn't fall over.  I had trouble getting very many pictures of her because she is always hanging around so close.  It's hard to get nice body shots when she is right under your feet.

 We only brought Daniel home on 10/29 so he hasn't been here long.  I already adore him though!!  He is an absolute sweetheart.  He loves attention and he's so easy going and easy to handle.  He doesn't fight when being handled.  It's partly because he's so laid back and partly because he's so strongly myotonic! He doesn't fall over but he stiffens up so much he can barely walk sometimes.  Even when he's not excited or scared he can stiffen when he's just walking around.  You can see his muscles in the last picture above.  Those muscles are caused by the myotonia and just all around good genetics.  Even though I haven't known him long I'm already falling in love with him. 

He was shown on the Myotonic show circuit by his breeder when he was younger and we even got one of his ribbons when we bought him.  The fact that he was handled, trained and shown is part of the reason he's so easy to mess with.  A leash broke goat is such a great thing.  I need to get Amethyst trained to a leash someday..... not looking forward to that because she is such an independent spoiled brat lol.  Anyway, Daniel also has blue eyes, well they are blue and brown marbled actually.  See below. 

 Such pretty eyes!  

He doesn't have horns because show goats aren't allowed to have horns, so he was disbudded (the horn buds were burned when he was a baby to prevent them from growing in).  I don't like disbudding goats.  Their horns serve many purposes and it's just cruel in my opinion.  Everyone is allowed to have an opinion right?  :)

 Back to Amethyst since I've admitted I play favorites.  While I was out taking pictures of the other goats she slipped under the electric fence (hubby fixed that the next day by adding an extra strand) and joined me out in the horse pasture.

 She knows Garnet and Topaz, but she always challenges them! She's terrified of Georgia and Zephyr, but not Garnet and Topaz because she's known them for so long.  In the above picture she was slowly approaching Garnet....

Then Garnet chased her off.  Garnet is higher up in the hierarchy than Topaz.

 So she stared longingly up at the pine needles.

 Then settled for some cedar.

 Finally Topaz came over and the battle started.  Amethyst eventually admitted defeat.

 Garnet had to give her one last head butt to put her in her place.

 Well, that's more than enough photos for today.  I'll post some more tomorrow.