I personally LOVE hores!

See my goats at:

www.freewebs.com/sarahsboergoats

When I began writing in 1969, what I knew best was horses (I was breeding Appaloosas and training horses professionally by then), so that's what I wrote about. Over the years I wrote for most of the horse magazines of the day, right up through the year 2001. Horse Illustrated was one of those magazines.

The managing editor of Horse Illustrated was--Karen Keb Acevedo! Karen is one of the nicest people in the world to write for, so when she became editor of Hobby Farms and asked if I'd write for her, I jumped at the chance.

So, instead of horses, I found myself writing about lots of other livestock topics, including goats. I had wethers from time to time and always loved my goats but horses were still my passion.

When BowTie Press (BowTie Inc. publishes Hobby Farms magazine and BowTie Press is their book subsidiary) asked me to write the goat book in their Hobby Farms livestock book series, I totally immersed myself in goats. We made arrangements to visit MAC Goats in Winona, Missouri, to shoot Boer goat pictures for the book and that's when it happened--I met Chiefee (MAC Goats Chief Forty-Five) and my heart was stolen. He was enormous and so, so sweet. I loved the way he kissed his human mom's face and asked everyone else to let him kiss them too (I did, even though he was in rut and pretty aromatic at the time).

Chiefee is gone now (he was a very old guy when I met him) but visiting him from time to time inspired me to buy my own Boer goats. Now I have a small herd, among them two of Chiefee's nephews and a great-grand daughter. We bred them briefly but now they're merely pasture potatoes and pets, but I love them (and their non-Boer friends; we have several Nubians, a Sable, a Spanish doe, and a few mixed breed rescues as well) deeply.

So after 60 years, my obsession gradually shifted from horses to goats. Who'd have believed it! We still have our four old rescue mares and three young horses we bred ourselves. They'll always have a huge place in my heart, but goats are now the primary love of my life.

Sue 

Yes! There's nothing better! And I LOVE being greeted when I walk into the barn; especially when my horse looks at me with those big brown eyes and nickers a hello! Oh I could just go on and on! Everything (well almost everything) about horses is great!