Is this a goat or a ram? I thought goat, but the animal looks unusual to me. This photo is marked on the back. The boy is Jim Van Liere, grandpa’s first cousin, born in 1912. How old do you think he is here?
The Van Lieres lived in the Burdick-Balch neighborhood of Kalamazoo, very near Grandpa (Adrian Zuidweg).
For more information on where Jim fits into the family, check out this post: The Van Lieres of Kalamazoo Redux
Do you think this was a photo taken at an amusement place or staged by a photographer?
The Family Kalamazoo 
I think it’s a goat with a shaggy coat. But I am a girl from the ‘burbs….
Jim appears to be about three. He looks smaller than my 4 year old grandson, who is himself small for four.
Oh, good, I thought I was confused. I was sure it was a goat and then all of a sudden I thought, but it could be a skinny ram haha. I am not used to long-horned goats though.
You have Jim pegged at younger than I had thought. You are probably right as I have no grandchildren to go by ;).
Not yet anyway. 🙂
I think definitely a goat with longer horns and the little boy looks like he was 6 0r 7 at the time to me. It’s a fabulous picture!
You should do an exhibit somewhere with all of these great pictures!!
I’m glad I got the goat right! So you think he’s older than Amy and Sharon do. I had thought 4-6. His body looks younger than his face does!
Hah, an exhibit. Now that would be something!
Truly, go for it. Your pictures capture An American Family history.
He looks about 3 years old to me Luanne. I think this could be possibly staged and the reason is looking at that front wheel, it just doesn’t seem to be at the right angle to me. Hope this helps ~ Sharon
So you are in agreement with Amy. I thought a touch older. As I just mentioned to Sheila, I think his face looks older, although his body looks very young. Yes, there is a strange angle, but it could be that they just stopped it that way to take the photo. Hard to say, but I can’t imagine that goat living in one of the small yards in their neighborhood hahahaha.
I’m going with goat; it looks like so many that we see grazing roadsides here. I’d put the little boy at around 4 — purely on the basis he looks like my son at around that age.
I think I like 4!!!! I have not seen goats that look like this before!
Yes, it’s a goat. That’s quite an elaborate harness set-up for a staged photo. I think someone was offering rides in the goat cart. I don’t have children or grandkids, but my initial impression was 4 years old.
I’d say 4 and I suspect staged
I think four also! Great minds haha! Maybe people paid for their kids to be photographed with a goat cart!
Cute photo. Funny how do many made little goat wagons back then
Very cute! I guess they fell out of favor for some reason. No goats?
Lovely photo, Luanne! I don’t think it’s staged. My grandfather had his own dog-cart and then a goat-cart when he was a young boy in the early 1900’s and he lived in the middle of London.
Oh, THAT is interesting! I wonder if maybe that was something the kids had. Jim had a lot of brothers, so there would have been a lot of kids to go for rides.
Could be!
That’s definitely a goat, Luanne. I live in country surrounded by sheep and they’re quite different. As for the breed, I had a look online and it looks closest to the North American Cashmere goat (also a bit like the Angora goat) so maybe your family also sheared them for spinning their hair? It’s used like sheep wool. This one in the photo’s probably been shorn so its hair wouldn’t get in the way of the cart.
A lot of people used goats to pull carts. Probably still do in some places. A ram wouldn’t be used as they can be very dangerous animals (unlike female sheep which have better temperaments.)
The child looks between 4 and 6 to me, but he’s sitting down so it’s difficult to tell how tall he might be.
I don’t think it’s staged – the cart is turning round. Whoever photographed this probably thought it looked cute and stopped it in mid-turn. 🙂 Lovely photo!
The more I think about it and hear from others, the more I think you are right that it’s not staged. I didn’t know that about rams being dangerous either. This goat looks so funny to me because it’s so different from what I am used to. Thank you for looking it up!!!
PS. When I say this one in the photo was probably shorn, it might have been clipped instead, or left for a while after shearing so its hair had grown a little. A shorn animal looks smooth.
Clipped sounds right!!!
What a fun picture! I also think that the boy looks about 4.
Thank you, Sheryl! More votes my way ;).