A goat anchor

We didn't get our goat, Jorgie, with the intention of tethering her. I've read some horror stories of goats hanging themselves from their tether, of getting themselves tangled, spilling their water etc. It is just not an ideal way to keep a goat - or any animal for that matter.

So when we decided to buy ourselves a miniature goat, we built a suitable enclosure and shelter for her, and that is where she spends most of her time. 

Her enclosure is small though - big enough for moving around, sleeping and playing for a couple of goats, but not big enough for her to browse. 

We often take Jorgie for a walk to browse along the way, but you can only spend a certain amount of time doing that, and we have a few areas of our garden that grow beautiful browse that she could eat (that is, our lawns). We could let her free range in those areas, but as she is partial to roses, apple trees herbs and vegetable plants, I'm not sure she'd spend her time eating the grass and weeds!

So I did some research and some thinking and came up with a method of tethering her in those areas of the garden that I would normally have to mow. My tethering system reduces tangling risk, allows her to always access water, is portable and adaptable so that I can control where she has access to. 

And here it is:

It's an old car tyre (free from any tyre shop) that we have half filled with rapid set concrete. We lined the bottom of the tyre with a feed bag first, then poured in the concrete (and a few scraps of old concrete to make up more volume). While the concrete was wet, we inserted an eye bolt with a long stem and the washer and nut attached (they help to anchor the eye bolt so the goat can't pull it out of the concrete). We also pushed the base of a bucket into the concrete to make an indentation to support a bowl (or half bucket) of water. 

To tether the goat, we put the tyre on the middle of the area we want her to browse in (using a trolley or two people to move it because its really heavy!) then add a bowl of water (it needs to sit in the indentation and be shorter than the top of the tyre so it doesn't catch the chain) and attach the goat to the eyebolt using a d-shackle and a chain. You can adjust the length of the chain to meet your needs - that is, make it long for a big area, or short for a small area. 

The anchor has a really low centre of gravity, so the goat can't knock/pull it over. The water can't be knocked over as it is secure inside the tyre and in the unlikely event that the goats chain gets tangled on the anchor, she'll always have access to the water. 

It's a good system, but to be safe, always use it carefully. Make sure there aren't obstacles your goat can get tangled on; Check for plants you don't want your goat to eat within the goat's reach (plants you want or poisonous plants); make sure your goat has some shade, especially on hot days; make sure dogs or other animals (strange people?) can't get at your goat; And check your goat is ok regularly - ie. don't tether her when you're not home!

This isn't a long term tethering system, but is a great way to mow the lawns without using petrol and give our goat lovely fresh (and free!) browse. And the anchor cost less than $15 to build - bargain!

Goat people - if you see any problems with my design, please let me know, I'm hoping I've covered everything, but am open to suggestions!