# Which is recommended most?



## Maria (Jan 11, 2011)

I have two Billys, one a Boer, his name is Cowboy, the other is Nubien/Kiko, his name is Billy.

I am considering training one of them to pull a cart that will hold one child at a time. 

Cowboy used to be aggressive, had a butting problem, but has calmed down a lot over the past 6 months (has not butted a human in more than 4 months now). He's big, and his mama and daddy are impressive parents. He's going to be very big and sturdy in about 2 more years.

Billy is spoilt rotten, easy to train, he was a runt that had to be fed by hand, grew to a good size and now thinks he's one of the family (they all know they are family, but he REALLY believes he belongs indoors with us lol). 

He's growing spurt is over, he's not very big, whereas Cowboys horns will reach my shoulders when full-grown, if he's the same size as his daddy, Billys horns reach my waist, and I don't expect him to grow much more.

The two children to be pulled are 6 and 10, could Billy andle this? I would like to train him, since he is the most trustworthy, and easiest to train. He's never butted anyone, not me, not my children. Cowboy, he has butted me in the past, many many times. We wrestled back then, then Billy grew up and started butting him back when he'd lurch towards me, cowboy calmed down, but I don't know if I can trust him when Billy is not around. he doesn't lurch at me anymore, not even when it's just me and him going for a walk, but I don'tknow if he won't start doing that again, and won't trust him with the children.

Basically I trust Billy with even my 6 year old, he's not too big to harm her, and he has never been agressive, he's a big baby, but I never let my 6 year old around cowboy, even if I am in the pen with them, based on his past behavior.

But if cowboy is pulling a cart, could he be a danger? Since he's the strongest, should I train him?

Or should I go with the safer route, and train Billy? Billy weighs about 50 pounds, my daughters are 45 and 65 pounds, would this be too much weight for Billy to pull, not the girls together, a one seater cart, one child at a time?


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## DebMc (Dec 11, 2009)

Goats can safely pull 1.5X their weight, that's cart and load/passenger combined. For a 50 lb. goat, that translates to 75 lbs tops. Subtract from that the weight of the cart or wagon and the result will be the maximum load weight. For example, if your cart weighs 50 lbs, the load would be need to be 25 lbs or less. If your 45 lb daughter were the load, the cart/wagon would need to weigh 30 lbs or less. Hope this helps.

Deb Mc


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## Maria (Jan 11, 2011)

Thank you so much Deb. I may need to rethink this then, the children would be too much of a load for Billy to pull.


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## Paige (Oct 14, 2010)

How old is billy? keep in mind that if he is a nubian cros he will probably get bigger than 75 lbs...I would go with billy if you trust him. :thumbup:


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## Maria (Jan 11, 2011)

Thank you Paige, he's a nubian / kiko cross. He may grow bigger, I'm not sure, but he was a runt. The only reason I bought him is because I felt so bad for him, he was in the selling pen, but staying away from the other goats, the lady told me that he was not allowed to eat by the other goats. He's rather large now, but one only has to look at him and my 2 nubian / kiko does to see his stunted growth. He's 2 mths older than them, yet he's the smaller than them. He is bigger than Billy Jean, but she's full Lamancha.


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