Uyaana was very happy to go visit the girls. He had been there before and they had let him help feed the dogs and the horses so he couldn't wait to go do that again. First he helped them give the dogs fresh bedding. All the dogs in Ed's kennel are nice so I don't have to worry about them trying to bite Uyaana. They like him and he like to pat them.
Next we watched at they used a table saw to cut frozen sheefish into pieces to feed to the Dogs. Feeding programs are carefully researched and closely guarded by each musher so I won't disclose the specifics of the dogs diet, but it is well known that mushers in this area utilize sheefish so I don't mind talking about that.
One cut while the other loaded the pieces of frozen fish into 5 gallon buckets.
Then we each took a bucket and made sure that all the dogs had their share. Uyaana helped with her bucket.
We also got to feed the horses. These are Icelandic Horses. It seems that Icelandic Horses will eat just about anything. Believe it or not they really like fish...
......but like regular horses they also enjoy hay.
The girls are from Norway. They came to Alaska last August and will be headed back home at the end of April. After all the hard work they have put in at Ed's kennel they are certainly hoping that he wins the Iditarod....but I know deep down they must secretly be rooting for Team Norway. That's OK...we forgive them.
2 comments:
Those are the coolest looking horses...I can see why your son was so tickled to get to help with feeding them.
I don't want to sound like I'm an overly gushy type, but this is a total 'slice of life' in Alaska, and is fun to read about. So different from my daily routine in suburbia, that's for sure.
I suppose the sled dogs have to have plenty of calorie laden foods to burn off on those long runs, huh? The sumo wrestler diet for dogs, lol.
Your posts just get better and better. Life there sounds so much more interesting than here. People from the lower 48 (unless they are Iditarod junkies, that is) simply have no idea all that goes on behind the scenes to prepare for these races.
But that's got to be expensive...70 dogs? How does a person afford to keep that many dogs fed? Wowza!
I seriously need to import some Norwegian handlers for my dog yard. Hmmmm... First I need a dog yard.
Sorry, I've got to steal that for my blog.
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