This week on Arizona Illustrated, we revisit a traditional Chinese celebration of the Lunar New Year We celebrate Thanksgiving, we celebrate Christmas, we celebrate New Year's.

And then we celebrate Chinese New Year's Spin with the stretches.

All right.

Shall we roll it?

Ooh.

Stretching, relaxing and cuddling your way to better mental health with goat yoga.

You can do as much.

Goat yoga more Yoga or more goats, depending on what you're in the mood for today.

Goat at your own pace.

And the steep cliffs and peaceful waters of Sabino Canyon.

Just the sound of it.

When we started walking up to it was enough to draw us in Welcome to Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara, and we're here at Tucson's beloved Reid Park, home, of course, to the Reid Park Zoo.

There's Hi Corbett Field, home of the Arizona Wildcat baseball team and the Randolph Dell Urich golf course.

And along with all those attractions, it's about 150 acres where you can come here to stroll and walk your dog or as in our case, find a little bit of shade.

In our first story now we're going to show you some things that you may never have seen or at least haven't seen in a while, like loquats, a lion dance and people wearing coats You see, back in February, we spent the day at Mission Garden.

The Garden and the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center teamed up to allow Arizonans a chance to experience the sights and sound and foods and celebration of the Lunar New Year.

[Music] My name is Fe Tom, and we're at the Mission Garden in Tucson at the base of “A ” mountain.

We're celebrating the Lunar New Year with the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center in the Mission Garden.

The Chinese New Year based on the Moon, the Lunar New Year.

So that's what's called Lunar New Year, and it goes from a new moon to the full moon.

And this whole occasion is just to get people to understand how to be healthy and wealthy and and how to promote the growing of their crops and be prosperous doing that.

So as you know, Chinese-American we celebrate Thanksgiving, We celebrate Christmas, we celebrate New Year's and then we celebrate Chinese New Year.

By the time you get to Chinese New Year, it's like, you know, a little bit worn out from the other, but it's still something that we practice.

I think there's probably just as many cultures and celebrate the Lunar New Year as they do the Solar New Year.

[Music] We as Chinese came here in about the 1880s with the building of the railroad and some people stayed and then they started to farm in this area.

They would take these vegetables that they they grew and sell it to the people that were in this area.

(Nancy) Mission Gardens is an agricultural history museum.

What we have done is gathered the seeds from the early Chinese families that reflect the vegetables that they would have grown.

So a lot of these came from China and have been handed down through the generations of the Chinese families here.

[Music] So my great great grandfather came over to work in Mexico, in the farms in Mexico when they had the Exclusion Act, that the Chinese weren't allowed in Arizona, but so Mexico kind of picked up on that and they had a lot of the Chinese go down into Mexico to do the farming for them down there.

I used to with my grandmother, we would grow the bok choy and then we'd actually blanch it and then hang it up on the clothesline with clothes pins and let it dry.

And the bok choy would keep for years preserved.

And it makes a wonderful soup (Nancy) Almost every Chinese family that had a grocery story or even a restaurant or a laundry if they had a little patch of land available in their backyard, they would grow vegetables.

My grandmother grew vegetables and we had the different kinds of fruit trees of things that were originally from China [Music] (Speaker) You will not be able to do this in one sitting.

It takes them two weeks, just as it's been the damn thing.

Well, because it's Chinese New Year or it's Lunar New Year one of the there's a couple of fruits that a lot of people use and will have available, and that's the pomelo, which is a large grapefruit and that kind of signifies family unity.

And they have oranges, tangerines and those kind of represent wealth.

They're kind of like gold in their round.

So I, you know, all these things that are associated with Lunar New Year typically are pretty auspicious kinds of symbols and representations.

[Music] (Fe) We had a little loquat tree that we planted in the Chinese garden today with the Liu family to honor our ancestors.

You honor, you know, those people that have passed.

But you also honor your future.

You know, a family that when you're gone, you still able to produce and have some fruit for them.

[Drumming] So there's the lion dance that's coming pretty soon.

[Drumming] In Cantonese, it's gung hay fat choy, people say the same thing back to you.

And usually you hold your hand like like this.

So you're both wishing each other health and wealth.

[Drumming Ends] [Applause] What does it take to be a professional female endurance athlete?

Well, it takes time, training and self-care, all of which require funds that are hard to come by when you spend most of your time training.

Well, there's an organization here in Tucson providing housing support and mentorship to elite female athletes, such as cyclist, allowing them to thrive.

This is the Home Stretch Foundation.

[music] (Rebecca) There's nothing more that I like than riding my bike and racing.

I love the adrenaline and I like to fly down mountains.

(Heidi) Being here really gives me a chance to just focus really hard on getting high quality training.

(Flo) Sometimes you don't want to train, it's hard like you don't feel as good as you want to.

It's hard to train, it's hard to race.

Also, it's kind of an unsure career, like, what am I going to do after?

Will I get there?

Will I be able to win money with my bike racing?

So being here, being like with other girls, that feel the same thing makes you feel like you you belong somewhere.

(Celine) Everyone has their own goals but they also, like genuinely want to see you reach your goals.

I got a flat.

The tiniest little thorn.

I got a flat there's a lot of thorns here in Tucson, so it's pretty prevalent occurrence.

I think it's good for everyone to know how to fix their own flats, because when you're training, sometimes you have to go alone and it's good to be self-reliant, self-sufficient.

I love doing my tempo intervals up Lemmon because it's just such a steady gradient.

And you can really just get in the zone and listen to your music and hammer it out.

And then the better you do your interval, the more you get to descend.

So it's rewarding.

(Kathryn) The Home Stretch Foundation came into being when I was a pro cyclist and I was really struggling to make ends meet.

I'd made it to the world tour level and had I been a man at the World Tour level, I would have had a minimum base salary.

But the women were deemed, quote unquote, not to deserve one.

And that made no sense to me, and I remember thinking, we need to fight this.

And at the same time, I was like, If I'm at this level and there is no minimum base salary, then I might have to quit the sport.

But I wouldn't have to if I were a man at this level.

So that was difficult for me to, you know, to handle.

When we started Homestretch Foundation, you know, the base salary for men was about 35,000 euro, which is roughly equivalent to 40 K U.S. dollars.

I saw women leave the sport because they couldn't make ends meet.

[music] Athletes can apply for a two to six month residency.

And for them, being able to live here and not have to pay rent and utilities is huge when their paychecks are that small that it makes a big difference.

(Flo) I waitress so I just stand up for twelve hours straight.

So on my bike after, even if I don't feel it, I know that I have less energy to train.

So being here, I have more energy to focus in my training (Rebecca) Really struggled back home, resting enough because I worked part time job and if I wasn't working, then I was I was cycling.

So it's been really nice to be able to to rest properly and stretch, and it just keeps all of the niggles and injuries prevented.

(Kathryn) By 2023 the women of the World Tour will have the same base salary of the men at the Pro Continental level of professional cycling, which is the minor league equivalent to the major league of the World Tour.

We will still have to continue to fight and say, no, it's not enough that we just have the same base salary as the Pro Continental men.

We need the same salary as a world torment.

We're seeing change happen, but we still have to continue to lobby for this inclusion.

[indistinct television audio] (Jo) Being a woman in cycling, gender equality is like pretty much all you think about.

I feel like the gender equality fight is moving, but moving slowly.

I'm not sure if it's going to be fully equal when I end my career, but there's big steps that are being made.

(TV announcer) we are ready for faceoff.

(Caileigh) This is the medal that I won in Tokyo.

On the side here you can see it, says rowing and women's pair.

It's very heavy, [laughter] previous to cycling, I rowed when the pandemic hit, we couldn't train in boats.

I bought my first carbon road bike and then that was primarily what I did for most of my training.

And then I guess I just fell in love with cycling to the point that I was like, OK, I could see myself switching over once the Tokyo Olympics were done.

[music] (Kathryn) Welcome to the Homestretch Spin with the Stretchies.

We encourage you to ride next to someone you don't know.

And that's one of our things for our athletes will find their way next to someone they have not yet met and it's a nice, easy chill chat ride.

All right.

Shall we roll it?

Whoo.

All right.

On Fridays, we have an event called Spin with the Stretchies, the Stretchies being the nickname for the Homestretch athletes.

Term of endearment.

So on Fridays, we have a ride that leaves from Le Buzz on Tanque Verde and just lasts for an hour.

It's 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and we go out at a very slow pace, you know, tops 15 miles an hour.

And we ride so athletes can talk to members of our Tucson community who might not be professional bike racers, but they just want to get to know, you know, what's it like being at Homestretch?

And you know, what's it like being an Olympian?

What's it like being an aspiring pro?

(Cyclist) Well, it was fun riding with you.

(Flo) Yeah, it was really nice.

No problem.

Well, have a good rest of your ride.

(Cyclist) Thank you.

You too.

Yeah, you're racing, too.

Yeah, I've come watch.

(Jo) Oh perfect.

Cool.

(Flo) I think we have time to grab coffee before we leave.

(Kathryn) Community group ride that's open to anybody that wants to come out and join us, and it's pretty awesome to see the connections and the kindness that comes from that.

(Heidi) Together we're unstoppable!

(Kathryn) So far, we've been able to help 75 athletes from 17 different countries and we've just started our sixth year.

And you know, we're we're growing and it's a beautiful thing to see how this effect has helped so many.

For more information about the Home Stretch Foundation at its mission Visit HomeStretchFoundation.org We've all been through a lot these past several years.

So anything we can do to relieve stress and support our physical and emotional well-being is welcome.

You know, a lot of people turn to yoga and some who do find it even more restorative when while they're stretching and relaxing, they're being massaged by tiny little goat hooves.

You see, Emily Hadden raises dwarf goats for therapy, and she and her goat can help you to stretch and cuddle and relax with goat yoga.

(Emily) When COVID came out, we took a six month break, and then we've been back now and kind of getting in full swing The ground here, is so rock hard does not like me.

My personal experience is what brought me to this.

I grew up with a lot of health issues growing up.

I have an immune deficiency, so I actually have to have infusions done every other week, very time consuming.

And so it's been really nice to have the animals to keep me motivated and I've done horse therapy in the past.

And the reason why I started goat yoga is actually my best friend.

She tried to convince me for about two years and I was like, You're crazy, I don't even have goats.

She's like, You really need to look into it.

And I was like, OK, and I had no idea how much I would love it.

Sharing the animals and people that don't have access to animals can just come to my class and spend an hour with them and go home happy.

This is a very beginner friendly class.

Don't choose today to do the splits for the first time.

We want you guys to have a fun experience to be able to walk out of here.

So I'm going to go get the goats and I will be right back.

The goats are very intelligent.

They can be really challenging.

I make a joke and I say it's like herding cats.

[upbeat music] (instructor) Good morning, welcome.

We're going to start you can do as much goat yoga, more yoga or more goats, depending on what you're in the mood for today.

Goat at your own pace.

Breathe in through your nose, a nice full inhale and exhale out your nose.

Nice and slow.

(Emily) They've done a scientific study where goats recognize a smile.

So it's kind of like an interaction that just keeps building and building.

And if you notice during the class, it kind of starts out quiet.

And as it goes along, people are getting more and more excited.

The goats are getting more excited.

You could see them running around and everybody kind of feeds off that positive energy when they don't have goat yoga during COVID.

It was really hard.

When we brought them back, they were almost too excited because they were wanting to jump on them that they were like they didn't care where they were standing.

It was on top of the head or the face or whatever.

And as you can see, they're pretty careful.

So they were pretty desperate to be interacting with people.

They really enjoy it.

They definitely have a pecking order there is like a boss goat and they were head butting, that's them just challenging who gets to be the boss for the day and then they kind of have the lowest goat on the totem pole, so to speak.

And that one will kind of be the last goat that gets to choose which people to jump on while they're the goats that are the bosses get the prime choice of who they want to stand on first.

I mean, for most people, I don't know if they even have as much patience as I have.

I was fortunate enough to have help today, but Gertie, sometimes... [music] Gertie likes to escape.

she'll just be like out of the fence, out of the fence, out of the fence and she'll lift it up for everybody else and they'll all be out of the fence, you know?

And I'm like, Oh my gosh, they're all out of the fence.

I'm in the fence.

How is this going to, you know?

And I'm like trying to, like, be professional.

You know, like some people don't like the serious side of of some types of yoga, and some people are all about the serious side of yoga.

So it's fun to have something different.

Oh, the funniest story I have is the goats make a fart sound.

So sometimes when they see a dog, it's one of their alert sounds and they'll like, use their lip and it'll be like a fart sound.

And it literally sounded like somebody in the class farted.

And it was so funny.

I was like, Excuse you, don't worry, that was the goat.

And then everybody was laughing.

That's pretty funny when that happens.

(Kelly) Whoa there's a butt!

[laughter] (Emily) Boyfriends get drug along with their girlfriends.

This is my favorite, and they're kind of irritated and are like, We're going to yoga.

Yeah, and they get drug along, and they're just not real excited about it.

And pretty soon I see them, and they're starting to have just as much fun, if not more than their girlfriend next to them.

All right, here we go.

(Mike) To be honest, I was probably a little apprehensive or intimidated.

I don't know.

Like, I've never done a yoga class before.

This is my first one.

And yeah, it was nice.

(Kelly) It was fun to just be silly, you know, on a Saturday morning surprised him and he was like, I don't know.

And then it ended up being really fun.

(Instructor) and center.

And then we're going to open out to the diagonals and center and knee and elbow touch.

(Cara) I think that the instructor is amazing, too, and the people who are the goat wranglers over there, and they did a good job keeping them inside.

And I feel like when you're done with yoga, sometimes you feel relaxed and you need to go eat and drink water.

But right now I feel like I'm going to go do Sabino Canyon.

(Emily) And it's funny.

Sometimes they'll be people lined up.

They're having almost as much fun as the people in the class, or they'll drive by and they'll just like, you're like, I hope they don't hit anything as they're driving by they're all rubber necking as they go past us.

We probably cause a couple of accidents.

(Arian) Maybe you could tell a story about the one goat that got away.

Remember?

What happened?

He did.

(Lola) He jumped over and get in the car, buddy.

[Arian laughs] [music] (Emily) I really want to make my farm available to do personal tours or personal time at the farm, to spend time with the animals, whether it's sitting in a park bench next to the horses, watching them eat, reading a book, enjoying your coffee.

I also want to start some homestead type workshops, making goat soap canning things.

I also offer goat-o-gram So if you know somebody is having a hard time, especially now that we have baby goats all dressed up one or two baby goats and come in somebody's workplace and cheer them up for 20 minutes with baby goats.

We're lucky to have a place that we can rent at the moment, and we're really happy there, but eventually we would like to purchase a place.

But it's hard to compete with people that are coming in and paying cash for these properties, and it's really hard to get loans.

So when you go into the bank and you're like, I have a goat yoga business, I'm pretty sure they probably laugh at me.

I don't know, but maybe there's somebody out there that would have land that they would want to sell to somebody like us, that, you know, it's myself and my daughter, and we run this goat yoga business to try to push animal therapy to people and share it with others (Instructor) May you be happy, healthy, full of peace and love.

Always.

(goat sound) Na-a-a-a-a-maste Yay goat yoga!

[clapping] For more information about goat yoga classes, visit goatsoftucsonyoga.org It's one of the first places we take our visitors to Southern Arizona, a place that we rediscover with off from time to time, a place of wonder and water and wildlife.

Sabino Canyon.

[water flowing] [upbeat music] (David) I come to Sabino Canyon area because it's just one of the nicest places, I think in the United States.

[music] I was visiting Tucson since the late eighties, where I have an aunt who's passed away, but I would come every winter and she lived just about a mile from here.

And I'd walk here almost every day and do Seven Falls and just go up the trail, and it's just there's so many different spots with so many different kinds of terrain and environment, and it's so peaceful.

It's just a remarkable, remarkable place.

[soft music] (Chris) We live in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and we love Tucson because it's a beautiful area.

So we're always trying to explore and find new places in Tucson.

And then we discovered the trail.

They said to go out to the dam and here we are, and it is spectacular.

[music, water flowing] (Sara) I've been coming here since before I was literally like before off the womb.

My dad used to always take us when we were little.

And so I just always came here.

So like now they know the trail by myself.

I can take myself.

So it's kind of nice, but I always love this place I like.

I was just, I love the water.

(Chrys) I think everybody should check this place out.

It's worth the experience coming out of anywhere in Arizona, and it's something different for sure.

And I will remember this moment with you guys and with her ten out of ten experience.

(Sara) This is my boyfriend and he lives in California, and I just sold him on hiking.

We're going to take him here, so now he's here, he's with me, I took him.

[soft music] (Chrys) A lot of stuff, a lot of trails to go to, a lot of people always in a good mood and just a lot of stuff to like, look at and everything to really good experience, pretty cool, something we don't have out there.

And it's a really good.

It's really different.

(Chris) We do have the Rio Grande but I'm sorry to say that this spends a large portion of the year actually dry.

So we're south of where the control of the water flow is up in northern New Mexico, so we don't really get a lot of water down there.

So this is a great pleasure to see this flowing water.

It was just the sound of it when we started walking up to it was enough to draw us in.

(flowing water) (David) It's just such a unique environment in the Sonoran Desert is just so beautiful.

There's something so powerful about the saguaro cactus that you just don't see anywhere else in the Midwest or something.

You got lots of trees and you can't see the distances.

Here is just you can just see forever.

Birds and, of course, the many different species of cactus and the people are very friendly here too, I should mention that I never met unfriendly people here, so another reason I keep coming back.

(music fades to flowing water) Thank you for joining us here on Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara.

We'll see you next week.