How trendy goat yoga helps fix Detroit's blight problem

Ashley Zlatopolsky | Special to the Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Goat yoga: It's a real thing and you can try it in Detroit Things are a bit wild at Pingree Farms’ Goat Yoga, where every Saturday four-to-five classes meet to do yoga with goats and lambs.

Na-a-a-m-a-a-aste.

Things are a bit wild at Pingree Farms’ Goat Yoga in Highland Park, where, every Saturday, four to five classes meet to do yoga with goats and lambs.

Each class of 22 rolls out yoga mats on top of straw in an urban farm building across the street from a 12-acre garden, where anyone can come pick produce for free. Here, seven goats and two sheep walk among guests as they do an hour of yoga, the sounds of bleating and baa-ing mixing in with yoga instructions. Often, the animals crawl over the yogis or try to cuddle mid-pose.

“People come in with a straight face and leave grinning ear-to-ear,” says Pingree Farms manager Holly Glomski of Detroit. “What’s really interesting is the therapeutic benefit of the animals.”

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Goat yoga can help alleviate stress and anxiety and lower blood pressure as well, according to studies. Originated in Albany, Ore., last year, the wellness concept caught on like wildfire around the country.

“We had a few people request (goat yoga) because we had goats,” Glomski explains.

When Pingree Farms first announced two days of goat yoga classes in March, the 80 spots they had available were filled in less than 36 hours.

“People have been begging for more classes,” she said.

All scheduled sessions through June are sold out, but Glomski is planning on scheduling more to keep up with demand.

In Detroit, though, goat yoga is not only a hilariously good time, but a way to improve the surrounding community. All proceeds from goat yoga classes go toward efforts such as turning blighted or vacant land into urban food oases. Pingree Farms, which is a nonprofit group, aims to revitalize or impact neighborhoods and educate youths through urban agriculture.

Each class, which costs $25, is everything you’ll get in a traditional yoga session, except for the fact that everyone is laughing instead of posing silently. During a recent Saturday afternoon, 26-year-old yoga instructor Theresa Thom of Clinton Township told her class, “You deserve this moment to have fun, to focus on something as silly as a goat running around the room.”

“When you exhale, say baaaa,” she added with a laugh.

Claire Dossin of Kalazmoo, 26, who was attending goat yoga with her mother, Diane, while visiting her parents, had a pair of month-and-a-half-old baby goats — Butterscotch and Copper — glued to her side, along with their mother, Bree.

“I like farm animals, so here I am,” she said. “It made posing more fun, to move around the goats.”

Glomski said goats and sheep have a herd mentality, and therefore don’t like to be left alone. All day long, they just want to cuddle and be petted. Once each class wraps up, guests are given a chance to take selfies and pictures with the baby animals before they leave.

“It’s fun, it’s fitness, it’s play,” Glomski said. “What’s better than hanging out with a playful, baby goat?”