ARTHURDALE — The “downward facing dog” is one of the most common and well-known yoga poses. Sunday March 4, participants in Arthurdale Heritage’s new yoga class were able to experience the “downward facing goat,” instead.
Baby goat yoga, a new style of yoga that has taken the country by storm over the past few months, made its way to north-central West Virginia.
“Yoga is all about relaxing, so what better way to relax than with animals,” said Holly Groves, the baby goat yoga class instructor.
The class is designed for beginner-level yoga participants in order to allow anyone that wants to learn a new fitness routine to do so in a fun, furry and relaxing atmosphere.
“It is all about stretching, letting the goats play and not doing serious, hardcore yoga,” Groves said.
Some of the goats were more interested in the hay bales scattered around the room than they were the yoga, but the class participants enjoyed the goats’ presence.
Michele Stephens, who is also a yoga instructor, found out about the goat yoga class from a friend and jumped at the opportunity to join in.
“I love goats, so I didn’t expect to actually do any yoga,” she said. “It’s fantastic. (The goats) are so sweet. I’m actually probably going to drag some of my friends here in a couple weeks.”
Since she only started teaching yoga in November, Groves was initially nervous about leading the baby goat yoga class when she was first approached by Arthurdale Heritage about it.
“After (they) asked me, I met some people from Pittsburgh that were teaching goat yoga and decided that it was something I could do,” Groves said.
Arthurdale Heritage held the class as a fundraiser to help keep up the historical property.
