# Treadmill?



## HoosierShadow

Hi Everyone, okay, so a friend is giving my kids a tredmill to use to help exercise their goats, really awesome of them to do! With my kids showing more babies this year, it's hard to get them all a decent workout sometimes, so this will really help.

I have lots of questions.

This would be for wethers, does and bucks.

1. Anyone have pictures on how you made your frame around the treadmill? 

2. What is the best way to teach them to start running on a treadmill? 
How long do you have them run? I know it's not a 'race' just to have a slow, steady pace.

3. Do you work them every day on the treadmill or every other day? 

4. How soon before the first show do you start working your wether on a treadmill? 

Thanks for any help.


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## crazygoatlady_inthemaking

This is the treadmill^

We tie them and feed them as they walk to train them to walk on it. We do this for a a week or so until they get the hang of it and then start to exercise. For exercising.. Make it where they are standing on their back legs with their front legs on a board or something a little higher than their back legs so they only walk with their back legs. We make them walk as fast as they can on their back legs for 90 seconds and then take them off. We do that every night for a week or two and them turn the goat around so they are doing the same thing as before but walking on their back legs backwards and do the 90 seconds and then take them off every day an it packs on the muscle!

We do the exercises usually everyday but usually have one or two off days to give them a break.

Running them makes them leaner and doesn't work as well for gaining muscle.

We get our goats as fat as we can and then about a month or two before the first show we start the exercising process.

Hope that helps!


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## HoosierShadow

Thanks it does help a lot! I appreciate it!  

For exercise in the past, my kids walked them on their hind legs, has worked well for them, so this makes sense. It's funny watching them though, looks like they are dancing lol, they walk the goats forward and backward. Treadmill training will certainly help on days when we don't have a lot of time, and will hopefully help with their breeding goats to keep them healthy. 

I am going to see if I can pick the treadmill up in the next week and get it set up.


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## crazygoatlady_inthemaking

No problem glad i could help!


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## HoosierShadow

We picked up a treadmill from a friend yesterday. It's a smaller one, not as long. I'm anxious to get some framing done on it tomorrow, and slowly start having the kids work their goats on it with my supervision. should be....interesting.

Now the thing is, IMO it doesn't go real slow, it's okay, but I am worried it may be too fast for them to use backwards? Instead, I think we'll have the kids use the treadmill for running/exercise, but also have them walk them by hand on their back legs backwards afterwards.


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## crazygoatlady_inthemaking

When we walk them backward we try to get them to go as fast as they can which isn't running speed usually like a fast walk speed so i don't think it would be too fast for them!


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## HoosierShadow

They boys are working 10-15 minutes a day on the treadmill. We made a box that goes around the front of them, and wood for their front feet to stand on so they are walking with their hind legs only. Started feeding them on the treadmill while they work, and it's been great so far! They generally walk right up there, and all we have to do is tie them and turn it on. They do great, usually about the last 1-2 minutes they start wanting to back up/wanting to stop, so we have to take up any slack in the halter lead so they keep their rhythm & front feet in place, but otherwise they can generally move their head.

My son's wether is still really 'flabby' in the midsection <like me lol>, I'm going to have him start walking him backwards on his hind legs, and try to figure out a way to run a few sprints with him a few times.


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## HoosierShadow

Ok, so here is some video of the boys from about a week ago, just got a chance to post on youtube tonight.
I will try to get better video tomorrow, as it was late evening and it was getting dark.

Right now I generally put the kids wethers on the treadmill in the morning <they are at school> that away in the afternoon they can work with them, hand walk them and they walk with them on their hind legs <looks like they are dancing>.

The boys are on for 10 minutes, they eat as much grain as they want. They do great, although the last 1-2 minutes they start getting a little cranky, so we just encourage them to keep going.

They are tied to a pallet loosely, and have a fence feeder mounted on it.

This is my son's 'wide' wether, haha... We love this boy, he is such a sweetheart. I honestly think we should have kept him a commercial buck...





My daughters wether - he's walking a little faster in this video than we usually have them walk.






We don't expect any prize winning goats from this, but want them to be healthy & fit  
We opted not to do a full body workout, because I'd heard stories of goats tripping, falling, or throwing themselves down and hurting themselves - that would definitely be our luck!
I feel the boys are doing very well with this, and I still want my kids hand exercising them  
Once school is out they will have more time to spend with their boys.


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