“Medical studies prove your blood pressure and heart rate slow down when you touch the ground…or a goat,” says Honey Sweetie Acres’ designated yoga instructor, Julie Lusk, laughing as she and a soft breeze officially welcomed participants during a recent goat yoga class.
The class, held at Honey Sweetie Acres’ Goshen farm, is also attended by a handful of Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats. The online class description warns/promises, “You may or may not be visited by a baby goat who wants to climb on you. T-shirt pulling, pony-tail tugging and pebbles on your mat are all risks you take during class. Bring a sense of humor and prepare to laugh like never before!”
While the class’ overall demeanor was lighthearted and silly, as someone with farm animal experience limited to holding my breath at state fairs and petting zoos, pulling up to the goats’ home turf was intimidating. I was on their playground — literally, their state-of-the-art, slide-and-treehouse-combo jungle gym — where they roam free, embrace anyone and nibble at everything.
Fortunately, Honey Sweetie Acres co-owners Regina and Steve Bauscher are attuned to this common hesitation, hence why the first third of the 90-minute yoga session is solely dedicated to warming up to the does (grown female goats) and topped off with bottle feeding the kids (baby goats). I have found nothing more heart melting than watching baby goats sprint with glee for milk.
Fair warning, chances are slim your mat won’t get urinated on or sprinkled with poo, but if/when mother nature runs her course in your vicinity, the Bauschers are quick to clean up and gift you with a voucher for what has become Honey Sweetie Acres’ prized product: goat milk soap.
Having both grown up around animals — Regina with horses and Steve with goats — the spouses initially opened Honey Sweetie Acres seven years ago simply to get back to their roots. “You grow up, get married, move to suburban towns, hate it and come back to the rural lifestyle we knew as kids,” Regina sarcastically quipped during the farm’s origin story.
Ohio’s legal restrictions on producers selling raw milk also factored in: Steve longed for the richness of unpasteurized goat milk, so he had to find his own.
And when Steve began to struggle for relief from a skin issue using dermatologist-prescribed creams loaded with steroids, Regina called on her professional chemistry background to craft natural skincare products using their goats’ milk.
Within two months, Steve’s skin completely cleared and never acted up again. Miraculous, right? Apparently not.
“Commercial soap is replete with sodium, lots of sodium, which dries out your skin, plus lots of additives, synthetic additives, which don’t do your skin any favors,” Regina said to the yoga group. “Our products are made with a base of all organic ingredients, such as extra virgin organic olive oil, organic coconut, organic shea butter, etc., which, when paired with goat milk, work to keep skin moisturized.”
Maybe that’s why ancient Egyptian Queen Cleopatra indulged in daily goat milk baths and modern Hollywood royalty Gwyneth Paltrow swears by eight-day goat milk cleanses.
Honey Sweetie Acres never used to miss pop-up appearances across town, but with demand ramping up over the last few years, they’ve scaled back their travels to focus more on production. One place you won’t miss them though is The City Flea in Washington Park; but if you just can’t wait for the show on June 16, they do partner with a few local retailers, sell online and operate a storefront at the farm that’s open weekdays 10 a.m.-4 p.m. — and charmingly lined with goat wallpaper.
This may seem like quite the tangent from yoga, but goat yoga is all about the goats. From balancing the babies on your back to learning a tidbit or two about the animals — funish fact: male goats pee on their beards during mating season to attract the females — the practice is most accurately described by Regina as “distracted yoga.”
“While we’re distracted by the goats and our friends and we’re doing yoga, we’re still present and in the moment and that’s what’s really so valuable,” says Lusk, who also teaches non-goat yoga classes in Anderson and Milford.
If this preview whets your appetite, don’t miss the chance to namaaaste: Goat yoga has grown into a nationwide phenomenon over the last couple years, starting on a small farm in Oregon in late 2016 and spreading rapidly to the outskirts of most major cities. Honey Sweetie Acres didn’t trail far behind goat yoga’s birth, offering its first batch of classes in April 2017 with much excitement and success.
Honey Sweetie Acres is currently the only place nearby with regularly scheduled courses. June dates are already full, but July and August tickets are still up for grabs. Class size is limited to 20 and reserved for ages 18 and older; there are Teen & Me specific classes for kids 13 and older and their parents.
Honey Sweetie Acres Farm is located at 2710 Spring Hill Road, Goshen. Goat Yoga classes are $41 per person. More info and to sign up, click here.
