These fainting goat videos are funny no matter how many times you watch them.
As these fainting goat videos show, fainting goats have a muscular condition known as myotonia congenita that causes them to stiffen up and often fall over when they're scared, or even just really excited. From baby goats to younger goats, to older goats, all fainting goats suffer from this genetic disorder of muscle tensing.
What is Myotonia Congenita?
Silly nicknames for this condition include wooden-leg goats, stiff-leg goats, and scare goats.
Kidsdiscover.com tells us:
"Myotonic goats first appeared in the U.S. in the 1880s, but no one is sure how the breed got started. One explanation is that a natural mutation in a Tennessee goat herd created the gene that causes the stiffness. Another is that a farm worker named John Tinsley brought four of the goats to Marshall County, Tennessee, from Nova Scotia, Canada. About a year later, a Dr. H.H. Mayberry bought them and raised a bigger herd. He sold the kids to nearby farmers, and after a while "Tennessee fainting goats" spread across the South. Bigger fainting goats were bred in Texas starting in the 1930s."
There is an actual scale for these nervous goats. A goat with a "1" rating typically never locks up, while goats rated "6" are always a little stiff and can easily topple over.
Neither the condition nor the fainting is harmful since it is a hereditary genetic disorder, but it does offer a lot of hilarity for goat owners. Here are ten side-splitting myotonic goat videos that show different things fainting goats found faint-worthy.
The step down from the gazebo.
The exercise ball.
The slide.
The swing.
The car horn.
The swimming pool (don't worry he's okay!)
The dog.
The electric fence.
The human.
Just breakfast.
Clearly, there is no limit to what a fainting domestic goat might faint over, as these YouTube videos show. How lucky are we for that?
These wooden-leg goats, or stiff-leg goats who do the stiff-legged shuffle, are funny animals with hereditary genetic disorders and have a special place in our hearts.
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This article was originally published November 8, 2019.
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