Yes, again this week the weather had a major influence on what was happening here with our preparation for the race. First, we were subjected to winds that kept blowing in our trail on the lake causing us difficulties in getting in the necessary pre-race training runs. This is unusual to still have strong winds at this time of year. But, then the weather has been unusual all year. Secondly, on the Friday, when we were planning on travelling to the race the weather forecast was a "Freezing Rain Warning" covering the basically the whole route we would be taking. With this in mind, we cancelled our plans and chose to stay close to home. Racing is not that important too me when considering the welfare of my dogs & handlers.
We were able to get in a couple of runs during the week with one on the 4.5 mile trail. This gave me an opportunity to try Hurit at lead for the last half of the run. This was her first experience at the lead position and she did a great job. Hurit will definitely get more lead experience next year along with Merry & Frodo.
It is fun to try the young dogs at new positions in the team. Hurit started off the season at Wheel, then Team, then Point & now Lead. With each position you could see a transformation in her confidence & speed.
Well for now, I have decided to shut down the racing for the balance of the season to work more with the young dogs and season the young leaders more. 
This the real fun time of the year with no pressures of racing and just fun relaxed runs. We will be breaking the teams down to 6 dog units to give my handler/Trainees more time on the runners. 
Now is my time to handle for them!
Until next week....... 

It was a busy week here with making & remaking trails after the wind blew in all our previous work. Thankful, we still could find an outline of our original trail, thanks to pine boughs markers edging the trail. 
The dogs had a big week of training with back to back 8.7 mile training runs at the first of the week to simulate a race. Then another two 8.7 mile runs on Thursday & Saturday. Now for this week just a short run to keep them loose.
We also got the young dogs out for some training & they are really looking good. Thanks to Lila, Julia & Cecile the puppies got some fun play time on the lake.
Cecile & Cosmos continued their work on skijoring culminating in a 6 mile run on the lake on Saturday. Cosmos is really enjoying the one on one time.
Lila has been out running with Katie and found out the she is very fast and strong.
Life is good here at Miortuk.
Until next week........

Rest & relaxation for the Racing Team after their great performance last weekend.
We did run the team on Wednesday to just keep them loose. They ran with their usual exuberance & showed no sign of stress or physical difficulties.
Cecile had the opportunity to use her new skis to SkiJor with Cosmos over a 3.5 mile trail. Today both Julia & Cecile had their first experience running a 6 dog team. They both did great.
We spent a lot of time this week working on the lake trail battling with the wind & repairing the damage caused by snowmobillers. It never ceases to amaze me why people with snowmobiles have to drive on groomed/marked trails with a whole lake to run on!
The winds are supposed to decrease for the next 5 days allowing us to get the racing team trained.
Until next week........

We had a good week here training young dogs & preparing for the weekend race. The photos are of 3 young dogs on their second run in a team. There is a short video of their run on the Puppy Page. The two Wheel dogs are Yaluk & Tepeu the left Point is Halona. 
The race on the weekend was on 15 mile very technical coarse with a lot of switchback turns. Saturday the trail was very hard & fast making for a very wild/exciting ride especially around the switchbacks. Hopefully, I will be able to post some photos when available. We were having a good run until we got into a serious tangle when attempting a pass of a another team. There were no problems for the dogs, however it took me a long time to straighten everything out. Other than the tangle the dogs performed great. & we had a great run. 
Sunday the trail was slower due several inches of new snow & warm conditions. We had a good clean run on the Sunday and the dogs did a great job.
We decided to run Perle, first time a Lead in a race, with Max a 7 year old experienced leader. Perle did a great job showing speed & focus. Max was the steadying force giving Perle the security of running the lead position. Max gave me everything he had to stay in front of these younger dogs & lead us to the finish line both days. I am very proud of the team performance & especially of both of my leaders. 
Both Julia & Cecile did a great job of Handling on the weekend making my job that much easier. The handlers are the backbone of the team.
It is now two weeks that Lila Prat (from France) has been here joining the Miortuk Team.
Already, Lila has proved to be a big asset. 
There is a photo above of Lila with Katie & Max.
Now we will give the team some R & R. & then prepare for our next race.
Until next week......