Busy winter

The time flies when you’ve got lots to do. Now that there’s snow and real winter, it feels the dogs take all my time. Still, there’s always time to follow big races like Yukon Quest and Iditarod in Northern America and of course Finnmarksløpet 500 and 1000 in Norway.

Anyway, some old news. Of the 5 puppy boys we had 4 still lives with us, because Eko moved to Norway to kennel Huskyville’s on January. I’m hoping he’ll grow up to be as happy dog as he was as a puppy, and in future will run in Line Løw’s racing team.

Line spent a weekend with us, which was nice. We had time to drive the dogs with her, though it was only a quick run. I trained my team and Line followed with a team of 5 dogs, including Uule, who’s a Huskyville dog.

The first race of this season was held in Lieksa on January 27th to 29th. I was supposed to drive the long distance race, but I was able to train the dogs on sled only two weeks before the race, so no chance to train for long distance. All in all, we weren’t expecting the dogs run fast, because of so short “speed period”. With injuries in our pack (Kikka hurting her foot before race, and Uule taking her place in the team), we weren’t able to put together two equal teams for the race, so we decided that Suvi’ll drive the 3 x 31km Eastpoint Open race.

The first day 8 dogs started in our team: Mimmi and Bambi in lead, Pimu and Kajsa swing, Koff and Putte in team and Beck and Uule in wheel. The weather was cold, around -30c. The trail was partly a bit soft on the first day, but it got harder each day. Koff hurt her wrist on the first day, and though she didn’t show it at first, she couldn’t run properly the whole 31km.

On the first day our team had a companion dog along the whole trip. The person starting after Suvi lost his lead dog, because he was chewed free from his tugline by his leader friend. Luckily the free running dog didn’t mess in the team, he was just running alongside of the sled, like a well trained dog. Suvi enjoyed his company, but our dogs probably didn’t even notice him. Usually they don’t mind anything happening around them. Time for the first day was 1h 23min 35sec.

I’ve had interesting cases of interruptions on trainings. Once a Hovawart was free running in a forest where I train. His owner tried to call him away from my dogs, but he barked and tried to chase after the team. The whole thing ended up with the Hovawart on my sled, but my dogs just ran. None of them even turned their ear. After a couple of hundred metres the Hovawart jumped off the sled and looked like “what the hell did just happen”. Another time Suvi’s hunting dog the Nordic Spitz, Vili, was running free alongside with my team. He was just a youngster back then, and I thought he wouldn’t disappear anywhere, but all of a sudden he ran into the forest. I thought he’ll come back soon and continued with the training. Well, Vili did come back rather soon and he’d brought a friend with him: he chased a moose on the road where I was driving! Well, the moose and Vili ran back to forest soon enough. Again none of my dogs were interrupted with the incident. I really like dogs that do their job, and just run and run and run.

Anyway, on the second day of Eastpoint Open race, Koff couldn’t run because of the injury. We had a team of 7 dogs starting. This time it was Uule, who simply couldn’t run fast enough. It wasn’t surprise, because he hasn’t ran in my team for the whole season. After the first 10km he had given his all, and was really tired. He travelled back to finish in the sled and didn’t start on the last day. Time for the second day was 1h 26min 06sec.

So, more unfortunates: Pimu didn’t start on the last day. We harnessed her and she even ran to the start line, but her left shoulder was a little sore, so she didn’t run because no more passangers on the sled wanted. Suvi started with 5 dogs, but the dogs did a good run. Time for the last day was 1h 23min 52sec.

There are some videos from the race you can watch on the races’ official website on racinghusky.com. There’s also photogalleries from the race. And of course the results from the race. A big thank you for the voluntary workers who make the whole race happen! It’s always a pleasure to participate on races in Lieksa, because everything’s so well organized.

The second race for the winter was held in Ohkola. It’s a sprint race, and obviously we haven’t trained the dogs for sprint. We participated on the race with yearling team, as a race practice for them. At home all they see is familiar forests and passing horses, so we thought it’s time for them to see other dog teams. Kikka and Wilma were the leaders in our team, Iiris and Muru ran in team and Jojo and Hottis were the wheel boys.

Wilma giving birth to puppies only 3 months ago, she wasn’t in a real shape for running, although she’s been running in trainings since late December. She’s obviously not fast at the moment, so Suvi – who was our musher again – had to slow the team the whole way, so Wilma could show the way. Suvi’s opinion of the run was that the whole thing was a bit messy. Still we’re happy Muru, Iiris and Hottis got their first race start.

Unfortunately we couldn’t finish the race, because after the first day we had two limping dogs. Again! We need to do some thinking because of this matter. So anyway, we didn’t go back to Ohkola the second day.

Another race, Ruuhirod, was supposed to be held this weekend, but unfortunately they’ve had problems with trail. The race was cancelled, which is a shame, because it’s always been one of our favourites. On the race you’ve got 21h time to run a 20km trail 4 times. Hopefully it’ll be held again next year.

Next race for us is Äkry, a short sprint, where youngsters will train race behavior again. So, we’re participating only for training reasons, not so much for competition. After that there’s Metsäkartano Sprint. Even though the name is sprint, there’s also a middistance race held and that’s where we’ll participate. And then Ruunaa Race will be the last race for us this season in mid March. Really looking forward to all the upcoming two middistance races.

And then some photos of morning-dogs. They were just getting up when I surprised them with a camera this morning.

Enzo

Egil

Euro

Esko

Putte

Beck and Hottis

Simo and Benny

Keke

Jade and Dana

Pimu

Muru, Iiris and Kikka

Koff

Uule

Bambi

Kajsa

Mimmi

-Kati