My Goats

I was out taking some shots today of the boys.  "Merlin" and "Chivo", my half Cashmere half Angora goat bucks.  Merlin's the boss and the pig.  Chivo is his full brother one year younger. Supposed to be anyway. He's so much smaller than Merlin and wont get bigger.  I got them last October and since it was getting too cold to shave them down then, I'm waiting til it warms up to have it done.  After I shave them this final time I don't want to have to do it again, (although I think I may wind up getting in over my head with those coats) I want to just brush them and keep them brushed out and neat.  When I got them the guy who had them doesn't brush them. He just shaves them twice a year so they were already kind of matted up.  I'm hoping I can get them used to brushing and just after starting fresh and new with a clean shaved coat, keep control of it so it wont matt up so bad and I can keep them long haired and beautiful.  I always wanted pure Cashmere white goats but the last one I had (also named Chivo) died of an anererism(sp) and I couldn't find anymore.  So I was lucky to find the ad for half Cashmere and half Angoras, but the Angora part of them really does make them matt up like crazy. Really bad breed combo now that I think about it. I don't want to try and brush them now because they're not used to it and with all the matts in their fur now, it may just be too painful and actually drive them away from letting me do it later, so when it warms up, they're both getting shaved.  Hopefully for the last time. IDEA Maybe I can use the brushed out harvested hair for hairing horse models or something later on.  Cashmere goats produce cashmere yarn, but Angora goats produce Mohair which is what you see so often used in crafts like haring horse models. And these boys are white, so I can dye it any color if it works.  I do believe Chivo's got a bit more of his mom (Angora) in him than his Cashmere father.