Phoebe's debut as race leader...

Last weekend, Priscila and I loaded up the car with the sled, Phoebe and 3 excellent sled dogs from Hans Christian Ørjestad (aka. "The King"). We are eternally grateful that he would lend us Kaisa, Foxy and Krølløre - three of his top-class and experienced Siberians. THANK YOU! After a looooong drive through minor blizzard conditions and slippery roads, we arrived at Grimsbu Camping in Folldalen, an eldorado for dog sledding where the Norwegian Siberian Husky Cllub had their annual winter meeting.... Setting out our stake-out chain (made that same day), the dogs were given a well-deserved meal :-) Typical of a lone house dog, Phoebe is a relatively picky eater at home - on the stake-out however, she eats...well, like a dog?! No problem with her appetite, an essential trait in a working dog. See a video of the dogs here: http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/79/Siberian_huskies_eating_at_stake-out

On Friday, after the end of the official races, Priscila and I teamed up our 4 dogs, running Phoebe with Krølløre as wheel dogs, and Kaisa+Foxy up front. We did a practice run of the 10 km sprint circuit that I would race the next day - halfway through we switched places - Priscila and I - and Krølløre and Phoebe - so....for the last couple of kilometers Phoebe ran in lead for the first time in her life...! No problem :-) Seeing that Kaisa is a grand old lady of 11 yrs, I borrowed another dog (Hera) from fellow Siberian musher Lars - teaming up Hera and Phoebe in front with Krølløre and Foxy as wheel dogs, we set out on Saturday to compete in the informal recruitment race - 10kms sprint with up to 6 dogs. Apart from losing 1 min or so to Phoebe's desire to play with Hera, she performed really, really well for being in lead! 10 kms went by in a respectable time (37 mins or so) and we arrived in goal without any mishaps - gooooooood dogs... A really good learning experience for all of us! :-)