One of the newest and most popular trends in fitness and exercise involves an activity for people along with the assistance of some smaller four-legged friends.

In recent classes at Fine Farms just across the line in Davidson County, it was a case of kids helping kids.

Goat yoga is the practice of doing the ancient art of yoga while goats of various sizes crawl onto and sometimes under practitioners.

Cindy Purser of Yoga Pilates Barre in Albemarle conducted classes with young goats, or kids, while giving classes to children as part of Fine Farms’ Kids Day.

Children up to middle school age got the chance to learn more about yoga while a small herd of goats mingled with them.

Missy Fine, owner of Fine Farms with her husband, Adam, said goats add to the yoga experience by making it fun and “a neat way to relax and enjoy.”

The goats, Fine said, “are very sweet. They’re a lot like dogs. They will follow all of us around. When people come in, (the goats) greet them.”

Fine Farms’ event was not the first time the goats have stretched their legs out being around yogi. Fine has hosted adults classes as well.

Purser said the goats enhance the experience of yoga because “they really put you in the present.” Often, when people take classes at home or in a studio, students’ minds “are thinking about all the things that we may have already done that day or have to do later,” she said.

“When there is a goat crawling underneath your downward dog, you can’t think (about other things),” she added.

Goats also make students young and old happy, Purser said.

“You find that you can’t not smile, you can’t not laugh. Whenever you smile and laugh, you’re automatically at ease,” Purser said.

Conducting the classes at Fine Farms is “like a gym that I want everybody to know is here. This place is beautiful…Every time I come here, there is something new. They are constantly improving and adding. It couldn’t be more beautiful.”

During the childrens’ event last Wednesday, kids got the chance to dig for arrowheads, feed the goats and the Fine Farms’ horse, Cola. Kids also took a break in the house on the property, formerly the residence of Leola Fine, grandmother of Adam Fine.

Adam said a recent visit to an agri-tourism conference garnered some ideas to have events at the farm.

Much of the work recently at Fine Farms has been toward opening the farm to the public more. Fine Farms has hosted events such as a wedding, graduation party and a baby shower. The Fines have worked on remodeling his grandmother’s house on the premises into a site for the lodging website AirBnB.

Note: More images from the Kids Day at Fine Farms can be found at the following link: https://photos.thesnaponline.com/Goat-Yoga-at-Fine-Farms/.

Sports Editor Charles Curcio can be reached via email at charles.curcio@stanlynewspress.com, 704-983-1361 or via Twitter (@charles_curcio).