Skijoring Sunday

First off, I'd like to admit: I'm COMPLETELY addicted to this skijoring thing.

For those who don't know, skijoring is basically strapping some skis on and attaching yourself to some dogs in front of you. It can be one dog... or for those insane enough, 10 dogs! Most people skijor with between 1 & 4 dogs though. And people use all types of dogs for this. At one race last year, there was some guy who came to the finish line with his little scruffy lapdog, running between his legs, almost behind him! Very funny to see. Well, he apparently had a bet with a friend who was making fun of said lapdog, that he would beat him in a skijoring race. I guess the guy with the lapdog was such a great skier, that he kicked his friends butt in the race, dogs or no dogs. I'm sure he threw that little thing in his jacket and skied his arse off for most of the race! At any rate, I'm sure the loser friend shut his yap about the little dog.

So the deal is, is that the dog is supposed to PULL you. And you ski to help out and go... yes, even faster! I went out to some friends with the intent on bringing out the sled and 6 dogs to run with them and their own team. Well, thanks to my, ahem...uh, late evening the previous night... I decided to cut it down, bring the skis and a couple dogs. It's a bit of work and logistics loading up sleds and dogs and harnesses, treats (which I often forget), water, my stuff, etc, etc!! Skis, poles, boots and 2 dogs is much quicker. I can only really trust Jack & Harris skijoring right now, so they came out for the 45 min. drive south. As we were out in the friends dog yard, I asked about the trails, hoping for some not so windy trails. I'm not great on corners yet (or, at least I didn't think so...), and they assured me they are pretty good with *sorta rounded* corners. Add these *rounded* (and narrow!) corners to the incentive of 2 in-heat females in their team.... let's just say Jack & Harris MUST have broken some kind of speed record!!! Holy Jesus, I saw my life flash before me a few times during that run. I gave the team ahead a head start, since the chasing dogs usually go faster... must be that thrill of the chase thing at the beginning. Then when they shot off at the beginning, I tried to snowplow to slow them, but alas! The trail wasn't wide enough to get a good snowplow going! And another thing! I really thought these guys knew the meaning of "whoa!" And "Easy!!" No. They don't. Or, they didn't care! A few times I had to throw myself in the deeper snow to stop. Or throw a ski in the deep snow off to the side (there was TONS of snow out that way!). At one point I had stopped to do something, and they lunged forward, my feet went flying out from under me, and I was flat on my back before I knew what happened. That was when we had a little *discussion* on the importance of taking it easy! They were so eager to get going, they were lunging and anxious to go. They are sort of like this during the sled runs, but took it to a whole new level this day. Once they finally calmed down a wee bit, it was a nice run, I was able to actually ski and use my poles - which had been clenched in my one hand from the beginning. The other hand on the line trying to control these freakin' maniacs. We then hit the lake, which was so windblown that it took a bit of slogging through to get across it. That however, was great for taking a bit of steam out of my guys. We had a couple road crossings that went fairly well, and Jack & Harris were amazing for knowing which trails and turns the team ahead was taking when they were out of sight. I just seemed to be along for the ride....

Altogether it was a blast, and I'll keep doing it to improve our commands and skiing, and perhaps to put other dogs in and see how they do. I did surprisingly well on those corners. My skis/boot setup is brilliant and super for control - thanks to the people on www.telemarktips.com!

Now, I'm considering entering a few skijoring races this season to see what these guys can really do!