The game, not the book has Goat mounts, which causes unending moans amongst the book purists.

Though Middle Earth may not have had goat-mounts, I have seen pictures on this forum of them.

"The Billy Goat curse was supposedly placed on the Cubs in 1945 when Billy Goat Tavern owner Billy Sianis was asked to leave a World Series game at the Cubs' home ground of Wrigley Field[1] because his pet goat's odor was bothering other fans. He was outraged and declared, "Them Cubs, they aren't gonna win no more," which has been interpreted to mean that there would never be another World Series game won at Wrigley Field.[2] "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_the_Billy_Goat