BHA Fitness

There was a day when I spent a little time in the gym...not a lot, mind you, but a little.

Those days are gone.

Long gone.

I've traded in the spandex for denim,

the cute little running shoes for muck boots,

the nautilus equipment for 50 lb. bags of feed and bales of hay!

And the toned, rippling muscles of those body builders that populate the gyms for this....

 The Muscled Men of BHA Fitness!

(LA Fitness, eat your heart out!)

Meet Fred, who holds the current title of "Mr. Goat America"...

Fred loves to pose for the camera,

flexing his muscles...

showing their definition and bulk.

Next to strut his stuff is ole "one-horned" Chip.

Chip is a four time winner of the "Strongest Goat in the World" competition!

Here he is rounding out his shoulders to show you his back muscles.

And flexing his glutes, quads, and hamstring muscles....

Oh, how these boys love to show off!

Seriously, though, Fred and Chip are two of our fainting goat bucks.

What makes them so muscular are two things...

Testosterone is the first.

Myotonia is the second.

The Fainter is a normal goat in every way 

except that it has a hereditary muscle condition called myotonia.  

Myotonia causes the muscles to contract or stiffen when startled or excited.  

Fainters do not actually faint or loose consciousness.  

Excitement, fear, or surprise, etc. will cause the goat to get stiff, loose its balance, and fall over.  

The stiffness lasts for only seconds and the goat is fully alert the entire time it is “down”.

Adolescent "Chip"

Our goats have a very strong myotonic gene and are always rather stiff,

and extremely muscular as a result of these frequent muscle contractions.

Besides causing a bit of tension (head-butting) between the bucks,

testosterone enhances the muscle size as you can see by the difference between

Fred, Chip and Donald (our wether or neutered male)...

Donald may be the wimpy guy at the gym,

but without all that testosterone-induced behavior, he has more time to pursue his other interests

like art, music and theatre.

He's best friends with all the girls too...

which is something the guys envy!

Reminder:

Tonight is the deadline for our Summer Giveaway.

If you haven't left me a comment  on this past Monday's post....

go check it out and enter.

Tom and Chuck will be picking a lucky winner on Saturday.

I will post the video of their "pick" sometime Saturday or Sunday.

I wish I could be more specific....but you know how things go on a farm.......

Hope to see you Monday with more Tails from the Farm!