Carmel Valley Goats & Yoga mixes up the standard practice with cute farm animals.

Carolyn Gray was unhappy and frustrated with life. Until she got goats.

In August 2017, Gray, a retired nurse and cardiovascular disease researcher and two-time cancer survivor, was feeling downtrodden.

“I couldn’t tolerate the anger and the hate anymore, so I told my husband I wasn’t going to turn on the television, read the newspaper or talk about politics. And then a bunch of kids got shot in a high school and everything felt so negative,” she says.

One picture changed her outlook.

“A friend showed me a photo of her with a goat standing on her stomach and she was so happy,” Gray recalls. “I told my husband, ‘That’s it – I’ve got to have goats!’”

Gray already had dogs on her five-acre property in Carmel Valley, and she had the roaming space for more animals. After researching goat breeds and how to take care of them, Gray bought seven dwarf Nigerian and pygmy goats from a local farmer.

“The farmer doesn’t want to take care of a girl goat for a year for mating purposes, so I raise them and give them back to the farmer a year later and then get the next round of babies to raise,” Gray explains.

With both the goats and the space, Gray had everything she needed for a business plan and Carmel Valley Goats & Yoga was born.

All she was missing was a license to teach yoga classes. She cold-called Carmel Yoga Center, where she was introduced to yoga teacher Shauna Sullivan, who had a background with horses, and the concept was ready to launch.

“It’s not a normal practice and it’s not for everyone,” Sullivan says. “But the main focus is the emotional wellness and the joy of having fun.”

Gray and Sullivan both saw the potential for combining the practice of yoga with an outdoor environment and the added happiness bonus of cute animals.

“The best is to see people happy and enjoying the moment and the goats are the ones who bring it,” Gray says. “It’s the goofiest thing. I cannot get in there to clean their housing without one of them being on my back; they just want to follow me everywhere.”

Unlike a traditional yoga class indoors in a studio, a number of elements must be taken into consideration, like wearing a long-sleeved shirt so participants don’t get scratched by goat hooves, and weather, to avoid classes when it’s too wet and muddy.

Like any yoga class, Sullivan starts with basic stretches. Then come balancing acts, starting with smaller goats climbing on top of participants. “Some of the bigger goats are more stable and it can be like a really strong massage,” Sullivan says.

Outside of regular classes, Gray hosts private groups, like birthday and bridal parties.

“I have a lot of people who aren’t animal people and are surprised by how much they like it,” she says. (Some people, she adds, don’t do yoga but still get an emotional boost from time spent with goats.)

The joy derives from a simple place of being outdoors, surrounded by fun, cute animals.

“People put their phone down and suddenly they’re in the present,” she says. “Out here, your mind, heart and breath are looking at a goat and the laughter is incredible.”

To Gray, wellness is not only about the physical, but also mental and emotional.

Gray says one woman who has stage 4 cancer comes to goat yoga classes regularly before chemotherapy treatments so she’ll have a positive image in her mind.

“It’s important to be on the happy side of the world,” Gray says. “You’ve just got to find the joy in everything you’re doing.”

CLASS SCHEDULES and more information are available at 659-1469 or cvgoatsyoga.com