Читать книгу Know Your Goats - Jack Byard - Страница 7

Characteristics

Weight: male 180–225 lb (82–102 kg), female 100–110 lb (45–50 kg).

Height: male 48 in (122 cm), female 36 in (92 cm).

Both have gently curving horns.

Goat hair or fibre has been used to make clothing for over three thousand years. Mohair is the silky, lustrous and hard-wearing fibre from the Angora goat, which is shorn twice a year, producing 9–11 lb (4–5 kg). Originally coming from the Himalayas, the goats were herded to Ankara by Suleiman Shah while fleeing from the legendary Genghis Khan. “Angora” derives from Ankara, and “mohair” from the Arabic mukhayua.

The finest mohair comes from the six-month-old kid, coarsening as the animal gets older. The main colour is white, but black to grey and silver are being bred, plus reds and brown. Mohair is an all-season fibre, cosy in winter and cool in summer. Hats, scarves, socks, fleeces and suits – and I must not forget the cuddly teddy bear. Records show that the Angora, with its long droopy ears, first reached British shores in the 1500s, but did not survive, and that the Angora owned by Queen Victoria suffered the same fate.

They set foot in Australia in the 1830s, and arrived in the United States in 1849. It was not until the 1980s that they were truly established in the British Isles.