Here are Dianne’s responses to what people got from Giacomo:

I was looking for “likes his ears rubbed” but this is true…he gets an itchy spot between his horns, and I’ve seen him scratching it himself using a blackberry bramble, and the handle of my manure fork, and I’ve scratched him there, too. 

Giacomo wasn’t in a petting zoo (to my knowledge) but he may have described it that way.  After being dumped at the ranch (a county park) he was originally in the big goat pasture, where they let groups of kids in to pet the goats.  He did behave badly there, threatening to knock people down, and that’s when they moved him to my pasture.  I wasn’t involved but ranch workers were. 

I think it is accurate to say that he is  a funny goat who does not think he is a goat, perhaps because he has always been with human company.  Generally, he is playful fun loving and likes to make people laugh.

His best friend is  a horse, but not a draft horse, but I was curious as to why they thought that.  My horse, George,  is larger than most, and he is a former harness racer.  So if someone was not very familiar with horses, they might have picked up on his size or his being hitched up and thought he was a draft horse.  He’s a standardbred. 

 

Oh, forgot about treats…does not like carrots or apples, never tried him on chocolate or sugar cubes or pineapple.  He loves pine needles, pine shavings, and the overripe Asian pears my friend would bring by the bucket, and once ate several of the pumpkins I’d grown and left to cure in the sun.  And he eats cardboard, given the chance.  :-)  

 
I can’t say for sure if he likes kids or not, my guess is “not”, but he does have a devoted fanclub of young boys who pick pine needles for him, and he doesn’t mind them a bit. 
Giacomo taught me to get pine needles for him this way: 
 
Stare at pine needles up out of reach
Stare at Dianne
Repeat until she gets a clue

 Cute Photo

 

 

 

Your Stories

Here is another incredibly great story from a reader:

In response to your query about animal experiences,  I have always “known” that animals respond positively to me. Dogs, cats, horses generally want to be with me. The horses I have ridden for pleasure riding have  invariably (so I’m told) gone better, more willingly etc. than usual. My son’s dog has, since a puppy and now 12, singled me out for an ecstatic welcome.

 

One incident that stays with me is when I was participating on my first “horse whispering” course a few years ago. The group was checking in one morning and I was talking about an impending family reunion that I was feeling a bit nervous about due to the historic family dynamics. The horse herd was in the distance grazing and one horse, a recent addition to the herd, detached herself and walked the few hundred yards across the field on her own to stand directly in front of me. She remained there with her nose on my chest completely relaxed and breathing deeply for about ten minutes while I continued my disclosures. She then raised her head, blew out long and hard, shook herself and rejoined the herd.
I felt as though I had been supported and empathised with and felt immensely moved and grateful to her.
Her owner then said that she had had a very troubled past that included rejection, feeling misunderstood and judged. A mirror of my childhood. Since then whenever I meet up with her I sense a bond of mutual understanding and love.
 
Marianne