Miniature
Silky Fainting Goat
Association LLC History
 

A Visual Standard
What Should A Mini Silky Look Like?
By Renee Orr

          The Mini Silky is a new breed of goat and many people are curious about what a really good Mini Silky should look like. Also, because we are a breed in  development, some folks are confused about the different looks in Mini Silkies all together. On this page I am going to attempt to show you the difference between the "Ideal" or "Extreme", the most desirable look in Mini Silkies, which is rare and hard to find, and the other looks, the "Promising" and the "Acceptable"  that you may see in the foundation animals that we are using to broaden our gene pool. These other looks are working toward the Ideal and Extreme look that sets the Mini Silky apart from other goat breeds. It is my hope to educate you on what the Miniature Silky Fainting Goat Association is striving to produce and promote.
        This is a breed that is all about the "LOOK".  It's not the fainting that makes us unique, there are many goats that faint, but very few fainters have the look of an extreme Mini Silky. Mini Silkies are not required to faint, although a big percentage of them do and eventually we expect that all of them will faint, but fainting is not our goal, it's just something that many of our beautiful Mini Silkies happen to do.  We hope that, by careful,  selective breeding,  one day all of our Mini Silkies will LOOK  alike and our goats will breed true and be predictable in size and type when mature.

For those of you who have goats that you are thinking about sending in for committee approval for foundation status, you should read this very carefully, as these are the guidelines that the committee will be using while assessing your goats submitted to them for foundation consideration. To move the breed forward to achieve the ideal type, please be advised that we will no longer be approving Bucks without long coats…They have to have more than leg skirting to be approved by the committee. We will be a little more lenient with the Does, but we still want to see skirting and evidence of some long coat genes. Those Bucks that have been approved prior to the Visual Standard coming out will retain their foundation status.

The Mini Silky Buck

        The Bucks in the pictures above are all "Extreme" coated Mini Silkies. They not only have long, straight, draping body coats but all of them have long bangs, muffs on their cheeks, beards and abundant neck and chest hair that blends in with the body coat. Also notice the ear set on these goats, their bangs and all of their gorgeous hair and you can begin to see the Silky Terrier Look that we are striving to achieve. Ideal size for a Buck is 23.5 inches or under at the withers, but they may be as tall as 25 inches at the withers. Mini Silkies should appear physically balanced and well proportioned.
        The coats should be long, straight and flowing. The length of the coat should be nearly to the ground and the hair should be consistently long over the entire body. The coat should drape and, when touching the coat, it should have a silky texture to it along with a high luster causing it to shine and catch the light. Fuzzy coats, uneven coats or coats with cashmere in them are not desirable.
        Mini Silkies are not required to be dehorned or polled, but the ones who are are going to have a more terrier-like appearance than those goats that are horned. Also careful attention should be paid to the ear set. Goats that have ears that are pendulous or are folded or set too low on the head, will not have the terrier-like appearance that is so desirable.

This picture is of a Senior Buck Class at a show. All of these bucks are 2 years old or older. Taking in to consideration all of the points we mentioned above; if you were the judge and placing these goats in order of Extreme coats, good type and conformation, how would you place them?

The Mini Silky Doe

        The Does in the pictures above are also all "Extreme" coated Mini Silkies. It is much harder to get the bangs, cheek muffs, beard and abundant neck and chest hair on Does. These goats above are rare and very hard to come by. But this is the look that we are striving to get and these breeders have worked very hard to produce these girls. The longer and more consistent the coat is over a goat's body, the more correct and valuable the goat  is. Ideal size for a Doe is 22.5 inches or under at the withers, but may be as tall as 23.5 inches.
        The Mini Silky elegance can best be seen in our Does. Maybe it's because the hair isn't as profuse and as extreme as it is in the Bucks. All Mini Silkies should exhibit elegance and should have good length of body as well as a moderately long neck tapering smoothly into the withers and shoulders for all of that long silky hair to drape over. Although the Mini Silky is a myotonic goat, we are not breeding for a heavy, meaty body style.
        The topline is level with a slightly sloping rump. The chest should show good width and a smooth attachment of forelegs. The front legs should be strong, straight and set with good width apart. The hind legs should be well angulated, not posty or straight. When viewed from behind they should be set well apart. They may have a slight tendency toward cow hocks. The pasterns should be straight and strong. The feet should be strong, well-shaped and even with the hooves symmetrical and having good heel depth.

This is a picture of a Senior Doe class at a show. All of these Does are 2 years old or older. If you were the judge and placing these goats in order of Extreme coats, good type and good conformation, how would you place them?

Mini SilkyHeads

All of the youngsters above have good heads and ear sets. The head should be short to medium in length and should have a slight to moderate dished profile. The nose should be medium in length, wide and flat. Muzzle broad and slightly rounded, not snippy. Jaws should be full and well formed with an even bite. The ears are erect or may be held horizontally from the side of the head, but should not be pendulous or folded. Disbudded, horned or naturally polled animals are acceptable. Note: leaving the horns on your Mini Silkies may interfere with the bang growth and also detracts from the terrier-like appearance.

All of the adults above also have excellent heads. The ear sets are all good and all have the profuse bangs and all the furnishings that make this breed so endearing and desirable. Have you picked which one you want to take home with you yet?

Not All of Our Mini Silkies are the Extreme Type...Yet

Promising Mini Silkies

We are calling this next category of Mini Silkies, the "Promising" ones. In this category we will explore the looks of the Mini Silkies that are close to what we aspire to achieve, but are just a few traits away from the Ideal, Extreme Mini Silky.

        In the top, left picture we have a Doe that is very elegant and her coat is quite impressive. However, if you look closely, you will see that her coat is not consistently long, it is shorter over the mid portion of her body. She also lacks the much sought after bangs, but still, she is a very promising Doe and would make a great addition to any serious Mini Silky breeding program. The top, middle picture is another Doe that has a lot of promise. She doesn't have the head furnishings and long  neck hair that we would like to see, but she does have a very consistent length to her body coat, even though it is not extremely long and to the ground. The top, right picture is a border line "Promising, Acceptable" Doe. I put her in the promising group because she is showing skirting in the rear, front and on her belly. Although her coat is not consistent in length over her body, she still shows a lot of promise and if bred to an Extreme Buck, I believe that this Doe has a lot potential to produce long coated Mini Silky offspring.
        The bottom two pictures are of "Promising" Bucks. The one on the left is young and there is not a lot of length to the coat, but if you look at it, you can see that the coat is very consistent in length and probably when he is mature he would move to the Ideal, Extreme category. The Buck on the right also has a very consistent length to his body coat but at the time that this picture was taken, he lacks the long neck and chest hair that we would like to see blending into his body coat. He may very well develop this as he matures, but I wanted to show you the difference between a well blended, consistently long, well furnished Mini Silky to one that doesn't exhibit those traits.

Acceptable Mini Silkies

        This category of Mini Silkies we are going to call "Acceptable" ones. We are grateful to have these animals in our breeding programs and in the Mini Silky gene pool. You will find mostly Does in this category, "Acceptable Bucks" need to exhibit much more coat than this. You should choose a Buck from the "Promising", or even better yet, the "Ideal, Extreme" category. Your Buck should have the look that you want your whole herd to have, don't settle for less in your Bucks.
        Though many of these Does don't exhibit the long flowing coats or perfect ear sets, (Note the 2nd and 5th goats' ears), that our Ideal, Extreme Mini Silkies do, they still have a lot to contribute to the breed. Many of the Acceptable Mini Silkies have long coated ancestors and when bred to Ideal, Extreme Bucks, they will produce "Promising" and sometimes, "Ideal, Extreme" Mini Silky offspring.
        The Acceptable Mini Silkies, don't carry the value that the other two categories do, but they are still important to the development of this breed in order to add genetic diversity. To successfully use "Acceptable" animals in your breeding programs, you MUST have Ideal, Extreme Bucks to breed offspring back and forth to. If you are using "Acceptable" Does and "Acceptable" Bucks, then all you can expect to produce in your breeding program is more of the same. "Acceptable" Mini Silkies are not the animals that you want to take to shows and exhibit as good specimens of the breed. Their place is at home in the breeding program, hopefully making you some show quality animals to take to the shows. As the breed progresses and the Mini Silkies become more consistently Extreme and we start getting higher percentages of the Ideal category, we expect that this category will decrease in size and eventually become unnecessary.

**********************************************************************************************
        It is our hope that, after reading and seeing the different categories of Mini Silkies, many of you will begin to understand and join us in the fun of developing the "Excellent" and "Extreme" examples of the Miniature Silky Fainting Goats.
        If you do decide to join in the fun, don't pass up the opportunity to take your beautiful Mini Silkies out and show them at the MSFGA Sanctioned shows around the country. It's very rewarding and a great deal of fun, but it's also an excellent opportunity to show off your breeding program, like the exhibitors are doing below.