by Fran Jurga | 19 March 2010 | The Jurga Report at Equisearch.com

Ah, life on the farm. The joy of foaling, the angst of weaning. But what if your nervous weanling isn’t acting like a foal at all…but more like a goat? Could it be because he was raised by surrogate moms with baaaaaad attitudes?

This news clip from New England Cable News (www.necn.com) definitely should put a smile on your face. I’d love to see this horse a few years from now. I bet he has a mean head-butt…imagine trying to train that out of a horse!

This clip gives new meaning to the expression “got our goat”. That term began in the racetrack of yore. Many nervous racehorses were given a goat to keep them calm (or a chicken or whatever worked). To sabotage a fast but nervous horse, you could sneak into the barn and take the goat out of the horse’s stall the night before a big race. The horse would react with an attack of separation anxiety that would keep him up all night…and possible destroy his chances in the race. Hence “got your goat” means to annoy or aggravate someone. One more horse euphemism that has survived into our modern language!