Today we’d like to introduce you to Kimberly Brooke.
Kimberly, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I have been teaching Yoga since I was first certified in 2012 at The Yoga Institute of Houston, and my husband and I moved out to the Magnolia area in 2014 to get chickens for eggs and a small herd of goats for our own personal home dairy.
In early 2017, I started receiving messages from my friends on Facebook about “Goat Yoga,” and, since I was a Yoga teacher with goats, they insisted that I absolutely had to do this! Initially, I pushed back, since I thought it was silly and distracting during “real” Yoga .
Right after Hurricane Harvey came through in August 2017, because we had goats, we were contacted by several farms that had baby goats that were either rejected or their mothers died during the birth due to the stress of the storm. My husband and I ended up taking in six, three-day-old baby goats (two of which were premature and required extra care).
Since we wanted to provide the best lives possible for these babies, we started feeding them raw, non-homogenized, A2 Jersey cow milk from a dairy farm in our area, as we didn’t have goats in milk at that time. To be honest, it was about to price us out of doing goats. The milk was very expensive, but we didn’t want to feed them conventional milk from the store or goat-milk replacer, because that can make them very sick.
I had just quit my job in the insurance industry a few months prior and had been trying to figure out what my next step would be… My husband came up with the idea to give Goat Yoga a try, and I again pushed back. When he put it into financial terms for me (that we wouldn’t be able to keep the baby goats with the “milk bill” we were accruing), I finally did some research on the positive and legitimate health benefits of Yoga with goats, and we offered our first class at the end of September 2017.
The response has been incredible. It has allowed us to continue to rescue baby goats, share this amazing therapy with thousands of Yogis (most of whom have NEVER done Yoga before), and create a space where these goats can live and thrive and be loved on and cuddled for the rest of their lives.
It wasn’t long before we were able to offer mobile classes (we can do Goat Yoga in your backyard!) and partnered with a local craft burger and brew restaurant in the Cypress area where we host our public, weekend classes.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Surprisingly, it has been pretty smooth! People love the goats, and I have found that they are very forgiving, even when they get pooped on!
I had a learning curve when it came to running a business, and I guess you could say that every day came with a different hurdle that I had to overcome, but mostly when getting used to speaking to so many different people.
I did receive some pretty nasty Instagram messages from animal-welfare activists in the beginning, but I had a ton of people back me up and share that we are treating the goats ethically and NEVER make them “perform” or do anything that they don’t want to do.
The goats are so willing and happy to be around our Goat Yogis that they load themselves into the trailer and will curl right up on your Yoga mat for a cuddle and a nap! They get very excited before classes.
It’s been amazing!
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Goat Yoga Texas – what should we know?
Goat Yoga Texas specializes in an experience like no other. We offer a specific Hatha Yoga class designed to maximize the goat interaction that is perfect for beginners or pros! You get to make the class as intense as you want it to be.
We do not age the goats out (we still have our original Harvey rescues in the Yoga Corral with us), we do not breed for Goat Yoga, and we don’t rent our goats from breeders or other farms. These are MY babies, and they live with me and my husband at our house. They are family to me.
I am definitely proud of our five-star rating across Google, Facebook, and Yelp. Since September 2017, we’ve had just shy of 3,000 people take our classes, and every single one of them has left with a smile. We have worked hard to develop the class, the atmosphere, and our mobile capabilities. I make it a point to respond to every phone call or email that I receive.
We are definitely known for our quality of Yoga (I have nearly 1,000 teaching hours under my belt), our friendly and well-behaved goat herd, and for the fact that we can set up nearly anywhere. We provide all of the fencing, the music, the goats, and the Yoga. We bring the party!!
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
My husband, of course, without whom I never could have done any of this. He has been my greatest supporter, shoulder to cry on, Goat Yoga advocate, Web site designer, and he is NOT afraid to tell me to suck it up or hold my feet to the fire. He has believed in me since day one, always encouraged me to chase my Yoga dreams, and maybe the only other person who gets as excited about goats as I do.
My parents, too, for instilling in me a “farm girl’s” work ethic, despite being raised in the city. They always pushed me to do my best and go for it, even when they thought I was a little crazy for wanting to go off the deep end and give this “Goat Yoga thing” a try.
Arizona Goat Yoga and the owners, April Gould and Sarah Williams, for putting on the FIRST Goat Yoga class in 2015 and kicking everything off. WHO KNEW?!
And, of course, all the AMAZING people who put themselves in our hands (hooves?) for a couple of hours every weekend to take a class or have a birthday party or have us over to their homes to let the goats eat and poop in their grass. We wouldn’t be ANYTHING without the awesome, compassionate people in and around Houston. It truly is one of the friendliest, down-to-earth cities in the world.
From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU, everyone!! <3
Pricing:
- $29/ticket for our public weekend classes in Cypress, Texas
- Private/mobile classes vary, so contact us for more information about your next unforGOATable event!
- Contact us about special groups (Girl Scouts, NCL, wedding parties, Wounded Warriors, etc)!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.GoatYogaTexas.com
- Phone: 281-732-7833
- Email: howdy@GoatYogaTexas.com
- Instagram: @GoatYogaTexas
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/GoatYogaTexas
Image Credit:
Goat Yoga Texas
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