NORWAY — Champing at the bit to bolt, Endo, a 6-year-old German short-haired pointer/Alaskan husky mix, is released and given free rein by teammate Marc Vanderwood of Oxford. The two explode out of the gate and onto the 5-kilometer course along a groomed track through the snowy woods of Roberts Farm Preserve.
In a different Norway more than a century earlier, the Norwegian military is credited as the originators of this sport, of dogs pulling a human partner on skis, known as skijoring. It was a means of transporting supplies across the snow, with a loaded sled between the dogs and the skier, according to Vanderwood, a veteran racer and promoter of the sport in Alaska and here in Maine. Before long, Marc adds, “It always happens, someone says, ‘my dog is faster than your dog, I can ski faster than you,’ and they started doing skijoring races.”
The group at Roberts Farm Preserve last month “was a good mix,” said Geoff Shallard, one of nine participants. “We have a few people that are top-of-the-line elite, and then there is the rest of us, stepping down, who are just out here to get around the course and enjoy it”.
Shallard, an Australian-born Yarmouth resident who grooms trails right from his front door and through neighbors’ properties to connect with the town’s Pratt’s Brook Park trails, speaks about the human-canine collaboration. “You’ve got to ski hard, take a load off your dogs; at the same time your dogs have to stay in front of you. They’ve got to work hard, so it’s a real team sport.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
-
Politics
How Maine’s members of Congress voted last week
-
Food
Morning in Maine
-
Letters
Letter to the editor: Article, headline on vaccine rollout sadly misleading
-
Schools and Education
School nurses on the front lines of fighting COVID-19 and keeping schools open
-
Outdoors
Riders anxious to get out on Maine’s snowmobile trails
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi {SUB NAME}, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have one? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login to participate in the conversation. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.