5 & 6 October 2013 was time for our symposium!

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We had the opportunity to meet competitive and successful names in our sport, mingle with other dog mushers and take part in all the news on a well provided fair.

 

Iditarod-champions Dallas and Mitch Seavey. Sometimes you need some luck and the Seaveys got contacted after Christmas and both Dallas and his dad Mitch wanted to come. And the fact that Mitch won the Iditarod and Dallas finished fourth did not make it less interesting. Dallas, by the way, won the Iditarod in 2012 as the youngest ever. In 2011 he won the world’s next longest race, the Yukon Quest between Fairbanks, Alaska and Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.  

 

Dallas is the third generation of sleddog mushers. Grandfather Dan Sr. began mushing in 1963 and is one of the founders of the Iditarod Trail Sleddog Race and he also attended the first race in 1973.

His son Mitch helped him training the dogs and continued the same trail. And so have Dallas and his brothers kept on. All of them have runned the Junior Iditarod and only the youngest, Conway is still too young for the Iditarod. But in 2012 he won the Junior Iditarod.

 

The Seaveys runs a tourist company in Seward, Idiaride Sleddog Tours.  They arrange sleddog tours all year around.

 

Dr. Arleigh Reynolds, King of Sprint. It’s not only Seaveys who have had a fantastic season. Arleigh Reynolds did have a super team and won both The Fur Rendez Vous World Championship Race and The Open North American Championship, the latter being the IFSS World Championship in open class sprint. He also shared the top position of Tok Race of Champions and won his first Triple Crown. 

 

Arleigh Reynolds is a veterinarian and specialist in nutrition and physiology for exercising dogs. He has a PhD in both topics and was a professor at Cornell University before moving to Alaska. Arleigh lives in Salcha, outside of Fairbanks, with wife Donna and daughter Mia. Here Arleigh has his kennel and his lab where he has continued his research in working dogs. He keeps an open class kennel and has been in the top of the result lists for several years. Arleigh is a popular and competitive speaker and this is the third time we have the opportunity to take part of his knowledge.

 

Dr. Jerry Vanek is a former president and charter board member of the ISDVMA. He has been a veterinarian on over 60 races including the Iditarod, Quest, Beargrease, CanAm, Race to the Sky, UP 200, Eagle Cap, IFSS World and Junior World Championships, and also Scandinavian races like Femundlöpet and Finnmarkslöpet.

He also has served as a race marshal and trail boss. A former sprint musher, he still drives dogs whenever he can.

In 1993, Dr. Vanek was the veterinarian on the Mount Vaughan Antarctic Expedition, and in 2007, he snow machined from Nenana to Nome, Alaska as a veterinarian on the Diphtheria Serum Run’25.

He is trained in canine physiotherapy and rehabilitation and he is completing certifications as both a canine rehabilitation practitioner (CCRP) and canine rehabilitation therapist (CCRT). His veterinary practice is limited exclusively to sled dogs and he splits his time between the trails of Alaska, his lake home in Bemidji, Minnesota, where he is an adjunct professor of cell biology and parasitology, and his 1881 family farm in the northern Red River Valley.

 

 

Lars Lindh, pro in Canada. Not all of our speakers need to come from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. We have several competitive mushers in our own club and it feels great to have them on stage in Nåjdens Sal.

Lars Lindh has been a dog musher since he was a teenager. He had a teacher with Greenland huskies who woke his interest for sled dogs. In those days everybody run everything, both short and long with the same dogs. Nordic Marathon Nome was the most important race, running from Abisko through Vistas valley to Nikkaluokta and back to Abisko by Kungsleden. Lars was 16 when he ran Nordic Marathon which was his first race.

In the beginning of the nighties he got his own dogs. He run mid distance races and was unbeatable during many years with a whole bunch of gold medals in Swedish championships. Later he turned to sprint in 8-dog and open class.

 

Last summer he decided to take timeout from dog mushing but sometimes life takes unexpected turns. Streeper Kennels, a successful sprint kennel in Canada needed a driver to their second team and Lars got ”an offer you can’t refuse”.

1st January he left Kiruna and the first challenge was International Pedigree Stage Stop Sled Dog Race. Lars finished third with Streepers second team after Buddy Streeper on second place.

Races every weekend followed in the racing circuit in USA and Canada.

Lars is a very good photographer and we look forward to a presentation with beautiful pictures and exciting stories.

 

Cari Rörström, doggy in many ways. We have the honor to present one more local musher in our excellent troop of speakers.

Cari Rörström is born and raised in the south of Norway and moved to Kiruna in 1997 to work as a dog handler. She got her own dogs and stayed. 

Cari is a two hundred percent dog person. She has a successful career as a mid-distance musher being a Swedish champion in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2013. 2003 and 2005 she won the European championship in mid distance.

The last two years she has focused on the new stage race Norway Trail.

 

Beside sled dogs Cari trains a bunch of Aussies, Australian shepherds, in obedience, agility and herding. Her Aussies are champions in all disciplines and also in dog shows.

The dogs are not only Caris hobby but also her job. Her company Topdog offers obedience classes for all kinds of dogs and also private classes for problem dogs.

Cari holds a diploma in massage and offers health care for your dogs.

Beside that she produces harnesses and other equipment for sled dogs and work as a tourist guide.

We all want healthy, happy and obedient dogs and Cari have the key.