10/06/2026
This was a year of remembering our “why.”
We lost a couple of heart goats this year—one to old age and another after a traumatic birth. And somewhere in the middle of those losses, we got quiet.
We stopped chasing shows. We stopped feeling like we needed to be everywhere, prove something, or keep up. We just spent time with our goats and tried to remember why we started doing this in the first place.
It’s not for the ribbons.
It’s not for the exposure.
It’s not for the recognition.
It’s because I love them.
I’ve considered selling the herd more times than I’d like to admit this year. I’ve written the posts in my head. I’ve looked through pictures and thought about who would go where. But every single time, I could never bring myself to hit “post.”
And I think that told me everything I needed to know.
At some point, showing had started to feel like the measure of whether we were doing things “right.” This year reminded me that it isn’t.
There are so many beautiful goats out there, bred by talented people, representing different styles and different visions of what each breeder is trying to accomplish. I don’t feel the need to run from show to show anymore looking for someone else to validate mine.
I have enough confidence in myself at this point to know what I like.
I know what I want to breed toward.
I know the things I want to improve.
I know the things in my herd that I refuse to lose.
And most importantly, I know that a ribbon has never been the reason I walked outside late at night to check a doe one more time, sat in the barn waiting on babies, fought for one that was struggling, or cried over one we couldn’t save.
Those are the moments that define this for me.
Maybe stepping back this year was exactly what we needed. Not quitting. Not giving up. Just stripping away some of the noise and finding the joy in our little herd again.
So, we’re still here.
Maybe a little quieter. A little more selective with where we spend our time. A lot less worried about proving ourselves.
But still breeding goats we love, still learning, still trying to make the next generation better than the last—and still very much remembering our why. ❤️
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