Goat yoga made its Montreal debut to rave reviews on Sunday. It’s when people do a yoga class surrounded by curious goats.
Yoga is all about zen and relaxation. Though goats may not be synonymous with those things, yogis seem to love having goats crawling all over them while they’re trying to focus.
“It’s really different,” said yoga instructor Tanya Dawe. “Really fun, super distracting, but the goats are adorable and everyone is great. Everyone is really into it.”
Organizers said goat yoga has been done in several cities across Canada and the U.S., but Saturday was the first time in Montreal.
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People in the class had to strike their poses as goats jumped on their backs, smelled them and otherwise bothered them. Participants were laughing and smiling the whole time.
“I don’t know if my breathing was so on point in this class,” said participant Stephanie Brais. “It was a lot more laughing.”
“The idea is to have a yoga class with a fun little distraction,” said event organizer Justin Rudick. “The idea is to raise money for charity.”
The event held in a tent near Peel and Saint-Jacques streets was put on by Chive Nation Montreal, Yoga Vieux Montreal and the Asista Foundation. It was a fundraiser for Asista, a non-profit organization that supplies service dogs for people with mental health conditions like PTSD, autism and severe anxiety.
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“We wanted to come up with a unique way of fundraising for the foundation because we supply these service dogs at no cost. We fund ourselves, so we decided to come up with goat yoga,” said Asista Foundation spokesman John Agionicolaitis.
Over 400 tickets were sold to their goat yoga events in Montreal and Laval at $30 each.
“Our goal was to have raised about $10,000, which would allow us to supply five service dogs to people in need. I think we’re going to attain it because we sold out all our events,” said Agionicolaitis.
The goats came from Ferme du Domaine Quinchien in Vaudreuil.
“Many of our animals are rescue animals, like Rainbow here,” said farm owner Diane Levesque. “It’s a fun game for them. They’ve very affectionate, they love people.”
Organizers hope to make it an annual event.
“Everyone has said nothing but positive things. We’re really excited and we’re hoping to do it next year. We’re hoping it creates more buzz and raises more money for service dogs,” said Rudick.
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