Goatchella at Haute Goat Farm, ON

For a second year, Goatchella returned to Haute Goat Farm to celebrate local produce, local farms and of course goats!

The Haute Goat Farm can be found amoungst the beautiful, green rolling hills of Newtonville, Ontario. It was founded by Debbie and Shain in 2009 who were in search of a more peaceful life and have a passion for goats. The farm spans over 200 acres and is little piece of heaven for goat lovers alike.

With our shoes freshly dipped in iodine, we made a bee line for the alpacas hosting a meet and greet. Jerrica and Bella were both so sweet and well mannered, they can really attract a crowd too!

After some alpaca appreciation, we then wandered around the stalls and I bought myself a really cool t-shirt, which supports a great cause. The Canine Rescue Haven partnered up with a local tattoo artist to create this wonderful t-shirt design which features three of their rescue dogs.

The CHR is a non-profit organisation whos mission is to “Save lives, one dog at a time”. If you are able to donate, even if it’s just a few coins, every little bit really does help. You can check out their website here, where you will find the link to donate and read more about their story.

Not only home to goats and alpacas, we also met chickens, ponies, a Shetland pony, a couple of dogs and special guest, Raspberry the Donkey.

Another brilliant organisation is the PrimRose Donkey Sanctuary, which Raspberry had come to Goatchella to tell everyone what’s hee-haws about… (Oh come on that was a good one!) The PrimRose Sanctuary is dedicated to the rescue, protection, and rehabilitation of abused, neglected and unwanted donkeys, mules and hinnies. You can find their website here and again, any donations are gratefully welcomed.

We had lunch in the Screaming Goat Café and gave ourselves a break from the sun, as you can see from the photos there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. They made a delicious pulled pork sandwich for Mitch and a pesto veggie sandwich for me which we happily washed down with a crisp, cold, ginger ale. A ginger ale in the sun cannot be beaten… Well… perhaps by Fanta lemon…

After bopping our heads to a lively performance by The Spirits, it was time for the event we’d been waiting for… The goat race.

The previous year Eddie the Nigerian Dwarf Goat, won the race and this year with his head held high and pink collar flowing in the breeze, he proudly claimed the title for a second year.

Congratulations Eddie!

We were so lucky to attend Goatchella not only because it was such a fun event, but also because Bella Chella was born just the night before. She was so adorable I just wanted to hop the fence and give her the biggest cuddle. Of course I only admired quietly from afar but look how cute she is!

Thank you Haute Goat Farm for such a great day, if I’m still in Ontario, I’ll see you next year!

If you’re leaving this post with a need for more goats, you can check out the Haute Goat Farm’s live feed here.