Goats, yoga and wine: Why Stratham farm's Wine-yasa session is a baa-rilliant idea

STRATHAM — As Astrild Brown went into a tabletop yoga pose, Blaze, a Nigerian dwarf baby goat, hopped on her back. She managed to keep her balance and continued her stretch, all while sipping a glass of cabernet sauvignon.

Goat yoga has been one of the hottest fitness trends in recent years, and Legacy Lane Farm was quick to jump on it, offering a session every Sunday at 10 a.m. since 2018. However, Legacy Lane has decided to add a twist, one that brings a whole new meaning to the term “a relaxed body, mind and soul.”

Located at 217 Portsmouth Ave., Legacy Lane invites all yoga enthusiasts, goat lovers, and, most importantly, wine drinkers, to its monthly after-hours called Wine-yasa Goat Yoga. The bring-your-own booze affair is 20% wine, 20% yoga and 60% goats.

Brown, who went to the event with her friends for the first time, said her experience was “amazing.” She's already planning a goat yoga retreat for her daughter’s birthday party, without the wine, of course.

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Why goat yoga is ‘the most therapeutic of all’

Leading the Wine-yasa Goat Yoga is Jessica Lescrinier of Jessica Sunshine Yoga. She has been a yoga instructor since 2018 and was brought to Legacy Lane Farm two years ago by its owner Dotty Thompson.

Lescrinier, who also teaches vinyasa yoga and yoga beats (the combination of power yoga and contemporary music), said goat yoga is an experience unlike any other.

“It’s a more of an invitational type setting where we had people who want to do yoga, sure, but it’s not a hardcore vinyasa class,” she said. “It’s a lot of snuggling, a lot of petting, a lot of playing.”

Over the 1,000 yoga classes she has taught, Lescrinier said goat yoga is “the most therapeutic of all.”

“The art of yoga is not being able to stand on your head or stand on your hands or do anything cool,” she said. “It’s about calming your mind enough to feel in the moment and present … and when you’re petting a baby goat, or you have a baby goat on your back, you’re with your best friend and laughing up a storm. You’re in the moment — that’s the whole experience.”

Why goats instead of other animals you ask?

Lescrinier said it's because “they’re incredibly smart and they’re incredibly affectionate.”

“They’ve been hand-raised and loved and snuggled since they were born, which is one of the reasons why we do goat yoga, which is to snuggle them,” she said. “They are so happy to interact with people — they sit on people’s towels, they sit on people’s yoga mats, they will sit on top of you.”

But just because it’s 20% yoga, doesn’t mean it’s not difficult, added Lescrinier.

“The goats make it harder — they want to knock you over, they want to chew your clothes, and they want all of your attention,” she joked. “The second you take your attention off of them, they are infuriated, and they will do everything in their power to get it back, which is what makes goat yoga so silly.”

The goats are also not afraid to pee or poop.

But don’t fret, goat waste is odorless, organic and biodegradable.

“All animals are going to poop and pee, we tell them that during yoga class,” she said. “Because it’s odorless, that’s a huge plus.”

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Why combine wine and goat yoga? Why not?

Lescrinier said there have been many requests for an alcohol and goat yoga pairing following a New Year’s Day event that Legacy Lane hosted called Bendy Bubbly Brunch with Baby Goats.

The problem was timing and that not everybody is committed to a Sunday morning workout — that’s when Wine-yasa Goat Yoga was created.

If you’re an early bird instead of a night owl, Lescrinier said you can still join the Bendy Bubbly Brunch with Baby Goats, which is on the third Sunday of each month at 10 a.m. On the other hand, Wine-yasa Goat Yoga varies on either the second or third Saturday of every month.

The next Wine-yasa Goat Yoga will be on Saturday, Feb. 17, from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

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Downward goat, mingle and sip

Wine-yasa Goat Yoga didn’t just attract first-timers that night, as Patrice Morrison, another yoga instructor, was also among the attendees.

“I was really into the idea of just hanging out with the goats,” she said. “I think it’s an awesome way to meet and mingle with other people who are interested in similar things.”

Once towels were on the floor, and the wine bottles were half empty, Lescrinier opened the door to the barn with around 20 baby goats waiting to climb and be petted.

Saturday’s hour-long yoga session mainly consisted of petting, snuggling, sipping and snapping pictures, and a little yoga.

“If you didn’t have a picture at goat yoga, did you even go to goat yoga?” joked Lescrinier.

And the final yoga pose? It was a single-leg chair pose, which involves sitting like you're about to fall seated into a chair and twisting one leg with one foot resting on the thigh. The pose was the most difficult as it required extreme balance and flexibility.

“Did I ask you to drink wine, then asked you to balance?” Lescrinier joked, “Yes I did.”

After the session ended, Brown and her friend, Valerie Burgess, stayed for a couple more minutes for extra cuddle time with the goats.

“I know we’re covered in poop and smell like goats, but do you want to get dinner?” Burgess said, laughing, to her friend.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Stratham Legacy Lane Farm offers goat yoga with cabernet sauvignon