I was born into ADGA.  My mother, Joan Bowen, already owned a herd of Saanens and had been working with dairy goats as a veterinarian for twenty years when I was born.  My life has never been goat-less.  When I was three I got the first goat of my own, Cookie (her sister’s name was Bookie– yes, I was a goat-naming genius at an early age).  Cookie gave birth to Cream, Cream gave birth to Créme de la Cream and Cream Puff, they gave birth to Cheese Puff, and so on.  My line of C-named goats still thrives twenty years later at the Bowen farm with Chamrock (born on St. Patrick’s Day), Cream Puff (nicknamed “Puff”, who is now very old) and Cameo (a yearling).  While the remaining C’s are more like pets than hard-working show goats, I will never forget the joy goat showing brought me as a child.  In fact, the very first time I won Best in Show (with Cookie, of course) it was the late ADGA judge Karen Senn who took a chance on me and my favorite doe.  For 16 years I showed goats every summer, and the last show I participated in brought me full circle.  Cream, a permanent champion and aged doe at the time, came along to shows with us for company but not to participate.  At the last show of the summer, not very many people showed up and there were not enough Saanens to sanction the breed.  I entered Cream to boost the numbers, and to everyone’s surprised, my beloved aged doe and I were in the Best in Show line-up by the end of the day.  I will never forget this moment and look back on it as the highlight of my showing years.  Cream and I didn’t win that day, but it was great to see my favorite goat back at the top at the end of her career.

This is one of the many reasons I am working daily on producing this goat-showing documentary.  Most Americans have never even heard of goat showing– but it is so fun and so important to those involved!  Please subscribe to this blog, our facebook, and our twitter!  Spread the word to your friends!  There is a lot of hard work ahead of us, but I know in the end this documentary will be the pride and joy of the American goat-showing community.