It's yoga. But with goats.
It might sound oddly ridiculous to some but people love it -- and it's even helping others cope with the holiday stress in an interesting way.
Classes are ramping up now that the weather is cooling off so that means goat yoga is here to "namaste" in Florida.
The latest trend to sweep the country is now becoming increasingly popular across the state.
"The perfect combination," said Katherine Hof, a yoga teacher who leads Leads classes at Circle Bar C Dairy Goat farm in Indiantown. "Just petting them, it brings down your blood pressure, it helps with stress."
On a daily basis, the dairy farm focuses their dairy goat herd providing raw milk, yogurt, cheese, soap, and other products. But with the newfound trend in goat yoga, the farm took the opportunity to branch out and start up yoga classes earlier this year.
The hour long classes involves going through guided yoga poses -- usually outdoors -- with several baby goats roaming around the yoga mats. Staff are on hand to monitor the goats and clean up inevitable messes. If you want to take a break from yoga poses, staff are more than happy to hand out a goat to hold. Sometimes, the baby goats will fall asleep your arms.
Most of the time, the goats are running through the class with chaotic curiosity.
"They're eating my hair, they're eating my clothing," said Hof. "They'll eat anything that's hanging off you."
The point of it all, Hof says, is that yoga is supposed to be fun.
"Goats are friendly and cute and just so joyful," she said. "It's like being a kid again."
Linda Martin said she loves that aspect of goat yoga.
"Yoga is your own practice. You're not competing with the person next to you," she said. "You may be doing a downward dog and a goat is doing a downward dog on your back or one's flying over you. One crawled up and fell asleep on me, it's so warm and cuddly."
She loves goat yoga so much, she has become a regular at the Circle B Dairy classes.
"It's relaxing. It takes you back to nature out here under the oak tree," she said. "I've seen people come out here who are a bit tight and stiff and they need yoga. But by the end of the class, they're holding the goats, laughing and talking to other people."
"It's a very odd combination. I think i got knocked out of a yoga pose but it was really fun!" joked Samantha Musso, who attended her first ever yoga class by going to goat yoga. "It's something different and I think that's what people want to try it. It's such a relaxed, chill class. You can stop and just play with the goats, you can take a picture with the goats."
Yoga is what you make it. And for the people, the goats are helping them build a new connection within themselves.
"I think it's wonderful for society to get more involved with each other and animals and nature It's what it's all about," said Martin.
Circle Bar C Dairy Goats hosts classes on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. Click here to check their schedule.
Downward Goat in Loxahatchee also hosts goat yoga classes at Krazy Hearts Farm. Click here for more details.
Here are some other goat yoga options across the state:
