It gets my goat

[dogfrank]

Why? What have goats got to do with anything?

[JohnPPotts]

It could be something to do with goats being seen as evil (eg. God separating the sheep - good - from the goats - bad & Satan having goat horns and legs). Something that "Gets your goat" brings out your evil side in a desire to thump them!

[allen ives]

The books are a bit sketchy on this one. One says that it comes from the practice of keeping a goat as a stable-companion to a highly-strung racehorse, as it kept the horse calm, thus taking (getting) the goat would upset the horse and it would lose the race. But (the book unhelpfully continues) there is no evidence of this.

It was first recorded in literature in 1912 in a book by Jack London. London was notorious for his individual phraseology, particularly in the reported speech of American pioneers, so it is vaguely possible that it is goad rather than goat.

Hopefully old Inkie will put as straight soon.