Herd panic is physics
A single startled goat is a problem; a herd startled together is a force. Goats bunch under threat and push in the direction the first animal bolts, and their combined weight arrives at the weakest point of the pen — the gate, the sagging corner — all at once. Kids and smaller animals get carried along with the press and can be hurt against fencing or in a corner pile, and a goat that gets through rarely stops at the garden hedge: an animal running scared in the dark covers ground. Preparing for fireworks with goats means planning for the physics, not hoping the herd stays philosophical.
Put them on their strongest ground
Before dark, bring the herd into whichever space is genuinely strongest — the barn, or the pen with solid lower fencing and a gate that closes against weight — and keep them there for the night. Fill hay racks generously: a herd with its heads in hay is a herd whose minds are occupied. Put water and minerals inside with them, spread bedding deep in the barn so lying down is inviting, and accept that tonight the routine bends toward containment; the herd reads safety from being together in a known place, not from keeping the usual turnout pattern.
Close the known weak points
You already know where your pen is weakest — the gate that needs a lift to latch, the corner the dominant doe rubs, the stretch that sags. Fireworks preparation is fixing those before a herd tests them at speed. Chain gates as well as latching them, tighten or board the sagging stretch, and move anything climbable or shiftable away from the fence line, since a knocked-over feeder against the wire becomes a ramp. If kids are in the herd, check the barn corners where a pile-up would form and give the group room to spread rather than penning them into a tight stall.
Be present, and be boring
Your job during displays is to be the least interesting thing in the county. Stay within earshot, move slowly, talk in your ordinary voice, and do not go in among a surging herd to catch or comfort individuals — you will not win against the physics, and a frightened goat's horns and hooves are not aimed but are dangerous all the same. Check through the gate or over the fence in the lulls: you are looking for an animal down, trapped, or separated and calling, which are the situations that justify going in once the bunch has settled.
The morning after
Before normal turnout, walk the pen and the grazing for firework debris — sticks and casing fragments are sharp, chewable, and exactly what goats will mouth first. Then read the herd: everyone up, eating, cudding, moving freely. Lameness after a night of surging, a goat that will not bear weight, or one standing apart off its feed points to an injury from the panic rather than the stress of it, and earns a vet visit that day. Fix the fence damage the herd found for you before the next display night, because they have now mapped it precisely.
If the herd does get through and scatters in the dark, word travels faster than a goat when the neighborhood is listening, and KinsLe's Lost Pet Alert System notifies nearby members at once so sightings come back to you quickly.