South Colton
Sled Dog Races
This part of my site is designed to show the students some of the items used in The Iditarod sled dog race. The pictures also show you how excited the dogs are to race, and a close-up view of mushers preparing for the big day. While this race, in South Colton, is a much shorter and faster race than The Iditarod much of the equipment is very similar, if not the same.
This is an aluminum sled used by sprint mushers. The sleds used in the Iditarod would be bigger and more solid looking than this. Notice the rails stick out the back so that a musher can put his/her feet on the sled and ride behind the dogs.
Notice that this sled is made out of wood. This musher is attaching the gang line to the sled. The gang line is the rope used to attach the dogs to the sled. See below for a close up view of this specialized rope.
This wooden sled has a bag of booties sitting on it. The musher and his helpers will put the booties on the dog's feet just before the beginning of the race. Sitting next to the sled are some ropes used to attach the dogs to the gangline.
This dog carrier attaches to the back of any truck. As you can see each dog goes into its own section of the carrier. They are then closed into their own apartment using the doors provided. The apartments are filled with hay to make the ride as comfortable as possible for the dogs. Each carrier can hold at least 10 dogs.
These two dogs are suited up. They each wear a padded harness that does not hurt them. The harness is then attached to the gangline. The gangline attaches all of the dogs to musher's sled. These two dogs are still attached to the musher's truck and are waiting to be put on the gangline.
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