Ancient Web: Working Goats Taught the Internet to Give Goats Jobs

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.

What is a working goat? Marna Kazmaier has a direct answer: one that has a job. A goat can pack camping supplies, pull a cart, run an agility course, or visit people as a companion animal.

Visit Working Goats.

The website carries a copyright line beginning in 2004 and remains active with later material, but its structure preserves much of the Internet around its early years. The front page mixes personal photographs, training advice, technical equipment links, lists of goat breeds, and invitations to groups on Yahoo and MySpace. The latter services are now historical markers, whatever may remain of the original communities.

Kazmaier's central argument is that goats are not just creatures to feed behind a fence. They respond to attention, training, and constructive activity. The advice comes from personal experience rather than a formal veterinary or agricultural research publication.

A small animal with an impressive job description

The site index links subjects as specific as harness construction, goat carts versus wagons, packs and pack fittings, obstacle courses, hoof trimming, and using goats for vegetation control. It also records the owner's own animals, their photographs, and accounts of daily training.

One distinctive resource is the moonspot gallery, which tries to explain the varied colored patches sometimes found on goats' coats. Visitors contributed photographs with permission, and the webmaster compares patterns, their irregular placement, and their appearance among different breeds. The page explicitly asks readers not to take or republish the contributed images.

Other writing reminds people that goats do not simply consume any plant offered to them. On the homepage Kazmaier says the animals tend to select the vegetation they prefer. She also describes using scraps and ordinary objects to construct home agility obstacles rather than insisting that readers buy an elaborate equipment set.

The social history is tucked into the sidebars. Yahoo Groups invitations include goat carts, goat photographs, goat tricks, holistic goat care, and 4-H leaders. A prominent message also directs readers to an old MySpace Working Goats group. In the mid-2000s this kind of site often became both a reference bookshelf and a junction for scattered enthusiast communities.

These historical pages should not replace current animal-welfare or veterinary advice, especially on feeding and training. Their preservation value lies in the specific animals, practical experiments, photographs, and community connections an individual took the trouble to keep visible.

Browse the working-goat topics and owner photographs.

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.