The racedogs:

The 2012 season we have one main goal - Norway Trail in March. To get some valuable race training and speed in the dogs before this event, Bjørn wanted all of them to enter the Norwegian Championships the last weekend in January. But the problem was that there was no open class in part 1 of the Championships, and part 2 with open class is to close to the Norway Trail. So, the only way was to enter two teams in the 8-dog class, one team of seven dogs with the heaviest musher and one team of five dogs with the lightest musher ;-) With one dog injured and out for this season, that is all the dogs we have (except for the puppies of course). So, on the B-team, the dogs who have had injuries, the smallest dogs, the slowest dogs, and the musher with no race moral was scraped together, consisting of two dogs that both have had four weeks without training; Minnie and Irish, and then Cheetah, Dawn and Freia with Kamilla (coughing and sick with 38 degrees celsius) on the sled. Bjørns team was the rest of the dogs, Nora and Idun in lead, Indy and Rupi in point, Dollar, Pund and Yen.

After the first day, Bjørn was some nine minutes ahead of Terje Mathisen, with Lena Haugen another three or so minutes behind him, and then Kamilla was fourth, under 14 minutes behind Bjørn, 1.40 behind Lena H and almost four minutes behind Terje. The evening was spent with Terje and Elisabeth and their daughter Siri, and Børge and Kari -  very enjoyable! Celebrating Elisabeth's birthday, trying to get rid of Kamillas sore throath and trying to minimize competition ;-), we shared some beer, Jäger and wine and the evening was perfect.

New day, new possibilities, better and faster trails, but no better throath ;-) At all. The positions at the finish was slightly changed from day one, with Lena taking silver and Terje bronse, and Kamilla five minutes behind them (21 seconds separating silver and bronse medal!) into fourth place overall, with a tired but very well functioning team of five. Irish in lead both days, Cheetah in lead all of day one and 3/4 of day two, but was tired of all the passing and chasing in the group of four mushers mid-way of day two (Terje, Lena, Børge and Kamilla), so she was swapped with Dawn for the last kilometers. But she had up to that point taken four minutes and two minutes respectively to the second and third place mushers and done a very respectable race!

Full results here.

Hunting Prides Dawn 06 (Rulle X Ninni), 23 kg - Dawn is also from the super combination that has made so many leaddogs and she is no exception. She is extremely eager to start which makes it challenging to find a partner who is tough enough when she starts barking and screaming. NC 2009. Pedigree here.   

Hunting Prides Nora 08 (Fun Racing Brimi X Com), 23 kg - Nora has a wonderful athletic build for a sleddog, and is a good leaddog. Fast, hard puller and honest. Pedigree here. NC 2012.

Hunting Prides Idun 08 (Fun Racing Brimi X Com), 20 kg - Idun is just as nice as her siblings and we expect much from her! She ran both days at Hamar Hundekjørerfestival 2010 and is on the main team without doubt. Pulls hard, runs fast and no trouble with this girl! Pedigree here. NC 2012

Hunting Prides Freia 08 (Fun Racing Brimi X Com), 20 kg - Freia is the smallest one of our four dogs in this litter, but maybe also the most intense... She can hardly stand still and only want to run faster. Maybe the one that takes most after her mother so far. She ran in lead at her very first race at Hamar 2010, superfast! She does not accept being placed anywhere else than in front after just one race season ;-)  Pedigree here.

Minnie 08 (Lindh's Bubka X Speedo's Sara), 25 kg - Minnie was Bjørn's Christmas present, I stumbled upon her on finn.dot.no and just couldn't resist her pedigree... Full of great sleddogs some known to us and some only known by reputation. She lost her mother tragically at just over six weeks and she has been raised by Iza the Ridgeback (only seven months old!) since. She is a very strong and fast dog, a very good one. Leaddog potential. Pedigree here.

Hunting Prides Yen 10 (Fun Racing Brimi X Com) NC 2012

Hunting Prides Cheetah 07 (Hunting Prides Tiger x Twist), 25.5 kg - Cheetah is an extreme dog in every way, extremely well built, extremely hard puller and extremely sweet. Cheetah is a great leaddog, but due to her size and her strong will, she is used more as a teamdog. Kamillas favourite ;-) Pedigree here.

Fun Racing Indy 07 (Fun Run's Trigger x Chamsins Florens), 28 kg - As we were so impressed by Pluto, we couldn't resist this dog. He is a leaddog, but due to his size Bjørn prefers to use him in wheel. Strong, fast and gives everything! Pedigree here. NC 2012

Hunting Prides Toro 08 (Fun Racing Brimi X Com), 25 kg - Toro is a well built dog of good size, he shows great promise as a sleddog and we look forward to see him develop! He has one of the great characteristics of his mother - sweet talk to him in a tough hill and he will pull the team up himself! Pedigree here.

Hunting Prides Dollar 10 (Fun Racing Brimi X Com) NC 2012

Hunting Prides Pund 10 (Fun Racing Brimi X Com) NC 2012

Hunting Prides Rupi 10 (Fun Racing Brimi X Com) NC 2012

The others:

Hunting Prides Irish (Coffee) 09 (Hunting Prides Bruno X Hunting Prides Puma) - Irish and her littermates were made when Baileys tragically died with Kamillas new leaddog in her tummy. The legacy from Baileys means that Irish has large shoes to fill, Baileys being a supreme leaddog in any situation, any team and no matter if it was sled, cart, skies, bike or pulka. Luckily, the very first puppy that Puma gave birth to was a Baileys lookalike, and so far she has all it takes! She has run in lead from the start of her harnessbreaking, and during easter, (at only nine months!), with kind of bad weather, she did an immense job. Pedigree here.

Pics of Irish here

  Brood bitches:

Com 03 (Balder X Svanhild), 21 kg - Com may be small but she compensates for her lack in size by beeing a hardworking maniac! She's a very good leaddog, doesn't ever question a command as some of our other leaders might do ;-) She was bought from O.J. Dokken as a youngster. NC 2005+2009. Pedigree here. Now living with Bjørns father!

Twist 02 (Speedos Lob X Aurora 3) - Twist was bought as a youngster from Edland/Gausereide. She is an amazing dog, hardworking, fast and with lots of stamina. Twist had two pups at Edland/Gausereide before we bought her, of which one male is a very promising dog. Now we have three youngsters from her and our own great leaddog Tiger, who all show great potential with remarkable intensity. NC 2005+2009. Twist is now leased out, but we may breed from her one more time. Pedigree here.

Deeply missed:

Hunting Prides Baileys 00 (Mike E.Ellis X Whisky) - Baileys was a good leaddog who raced both middistance and Femundløpet (leased out to Terje Mathisen one season). She was out of a litter of seven, where five were leaddogs, six dogs have been Norwegian champions on different teams, three dogs have both raced mid distance and Femundsløpet and all seven were very good sleddogs, all of them racedogs on winning teams. All in all a highly succesful litter and even further offspring shows great potential. Four of these dogs have been used in breeding. Baileys was injured in January 06 and had her first litter later this year. She was supposed to have her second litter first half of 2009 and we bred her to Brille (Heilemann/Varhaugvik) but only a week later she passed away. Pedigree here.

Thanks for all our great trips together, all your devotion, love and hard work, your loyal and friendly character and peaceful nature. I will forever miss you and I really dont know how I'll manage without you as my leaddog - I could always trust you to lead us safely wherever we went.

With love,

Kamilla.