DEL MAR -- Goat packing, for those few who don't know, is the art and science of using goats as pack animals to carry supplies. To celebrate the packing goat and its owners, the San Diego County Fair has held the "goat packing" competition for about six or seven years, according to Emily Richardson.

"Goats can be used as pack animals and we're trying to simulate the obstacles that the goat might encounter," Richardson said.

Led by their owners or friends, goats were required to step through or over various obstacles including a kiddie pool simulating a pond, a plywood platform representing a bridge, a series of trees, bales of hay representing umm, bales of hay, tires -- which grow wild in some parts of the county -- a cave and a teeter-totter.

For those who have never dealt with goats before, know this: goats rival mules and camels in stubbornness, which lent itself to some hilarious situations.

Just ask Robbie Roberts, a 48-year-old Poway man who filled in for a female friend to lead a goat though a series of obstacles.

"I'm substituting for a woman so that ought to tell you something from the start," Roberts said Sunday morning after dragging, coaxing, pleading, and apparently goosing the animal through almost every obstacle.

At the water obstacle -- a plastic kiddie pool -- the goat steadfastly refused to dip a hoof, despite Robertson's insistent tugging. He looked for a moment like he might simply pick the animal up and place it in the pool. "I thought about it but I just didn't want to pick her up right now," he said, adding that the old girl weighs in at about 140 pounds.

Instead he grabbed his goat firmly by the tail, inspiring her to a spirited leap.

The judges took points off for pulling and for an animal's refusal to complete an obstacle, but the score sheet including no penalty for the "pick-it-up-and-put-it-in-the-pool" strategy that Robertson contemplated -- which 12-year-old Emily Sears actually employed.

Emily, leading a 6-month-old pigmy goat named Tiffany that stood about a foot high, skipped the kiddie pool altogether, and lifted Tiffany on to the upended tub obstacle.

"She could have gone in the water, but I wasn't gonna dump her in there if she didn't want to go in," said Emily of the goat she's cared for since it was a month old.

And of the tub, Emily said Tiffany "was just too small -- she was like half its size, so I just put her on it."

Although Richardson, the competition's organizer, described herself as "a hog person" for whom all this goat business "is all new," she offered an opinion of the species based on Sunday's event.

"Judging from the competition, they're pretty stubborn," she said.

Goats make great pack animals, according to Mary Jane Midstokke of Fallbrook, mother on Danni Midstokke, the competition's winner.

A full-grown goat can carry 35 to 40 pounds for about 10 miles without problem, said Midstokke, who leads overnight goat-packing trips for the Fallbrook Future Farmers of American and the Bonsall 4-H Club.

Goats are herd animals, Midstokke said, who imprint on humans.

"You become their herd and they follow right along," she said.

Danni Midstokke, leading Sparky, a 5-year-old saanen goat, collected top honors. The 16-year-old Fallbrook High School junior said she will display her blue first-place ribbon on her wall with others she and Sparky have collected through the years.

"She's my favorite," Danni said of Sparky, one of three goats she cares for daily. "She's my old buddy and I love her."

The goat packing competition drew 17 entries in the juvenile category, and three in the open category for entrants over the age of 19.

Contact staff writer Philip K. Ireland at (760) 901-4043 or pireland@nctimes.com. To comment, go to nctimes.com.