By Tracy Thomas
A great time was had by all who attended the Scottish National Championship / IFSS World Cup Qualifying Race in November 2014.
Participants travelled from far and wide to race in the event, hosted by The Sled Dog Association of Scotland at Culbin Forest in Moray.
This is the second time SDAS has hosted this event, and the second time such an event has been held in Scotland. The event is open to both members and non members and it has received fantastic entries on both occasions.
The first port of call was the registration tent where paper work was finalised and race numbers allocated. Following this, every entrant received a lovely canvas CSJ bag for life packed with CSJ treats and goodies from all race sponsors.
It was an early start and a nice cool, rain free, morning, making for a very pleasant race.
Classes ranged from 8 dog teams, pulling a dry land mushing rig, to single dog teams of cani crossers to junior mushers and cani crossers, and in addition to the traditionally recognised sled dogs there were dogs of various breeds!
The trail was packed with interesting twists and turns to keep the dogs interested from start to finish and after the first day of racing everyone was invited to camp at nearby Brodie Castle, where a hog roast meal was served round a warm, welcoming camp fire. After a hearty meal everyone chatted round the fire for a while, before retiring to recharge the batteries for day 2.
Day 2 and everyone was buzzing with excitement, they now knew what the trail held in store and this chance to change who would take the winning places.
Another lovely day of racing with some fantastic race times being achieved, and before long it was all over. The directional signs were gathered in, race times were collated, dogs were tucked up in bed and equipment was cleaned and tidied into vans and everyone gathered at race HQ for the presentation.
Winners of each class received a 15kg bag of CSJ dog food, which many mushers feed their dogs and 1st to 3rd place in each class received CSJ Salmon Oil, CSJ Fish Cuits and CSJ herbs and all entrants received a bag of CSJ poppets.
SDAS and it’s members very much appreciated CSJ’s continued sponsorship and look forward to attending each race anticipating winning some tasty nutritious CSJ products.
