Our two boys Fignon and Miguel are sold!

What did you do under christmas? We drove our dogs :)
Here it was Jörgs part...

...and here mine.

And we have two dogs for sale. Two brothers out of Öre - Cruella (R.Johannessen, IM Haaland), born july 2010. Both are about 28 kg, very nice, happy and friendly dogs. They did all the training in our team from fall until now. (this you find also at our webside www.flandriens-husky-kennel.com, even the link to stamtavla.no)

Miguel:

Fignon:

We wish our family, friends, sponsors and supporters Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Team Flandriens, Katy and Jörg

Puppytraining

Our adult dogs had a day off today so I took the chance to train our puppies. It´s a lot of fun with them, they run very nice and are very eager. They really became sleddogs the last few weeks and even little Tyler is now a sleddog. She is 5 weeks younger then the others and got her first time in harness last week.

Before the start. Jaja and Coppi as leaddogs. Jaja shows her kids how crazy they have to be...and they really get it very fast.
After the run it is easier to take a picture. Here José on the left and Giovanni on the right.

Sivtsov left, Gira right

With the other five it´s not much better. Here Stijn and again Jaja in lead, Coppi besides Tyler to fill up the team.

They run so fast that the image is blurred ;)))

Bartali left, Andrew right

Tyler, the little sleddog :)

Fausto left, Felice right. This two are the only crocodiles in the puppyteam, they try to bite in the lines during the start. But we are on a good way to teach them that we don´t like that.

New sleds!

Today we received two christmas presents :))) We got two new sleds from Danler-dogsleds plus 4 new pairs of plastics for the runners.

Do you think they look small?
Hm, maybe nothing for Finnmarkslopet ;))) This sleds we ordered for tourist-driving. They are perfect for 2-4 dogs and are named "Husky-buggy". They look really cute. Btw, the runnerplastic is for our "real" sled for the competitions.

Trailbreaker

After no snow in november until the beginning of december we got now enough snow. Now I´m thinking that it could stop snowing...The dogs had a hard job the last days, every time when we were out they had to break the trail. The good thing is that they learned a lot and plow now safe through the snow and find the trail. But now it should snow less and so they can relax on better trails. It´s also enough snow to train big teams so that we have to drive out only with one team. To hook up 16 dogs is no problem anymore :)))
I have no pics from today because it was so bad snowy and windy weather. But during the christmas holidays we will raise the distance and hopefully I get better weather to make some nice pics.
And by the way, only two days left for the shortest day of the year, then we can look foreward to longer days! Ok, only minute by minute in the beginning but then the daylight comes back with big steps ;)))

Today Susan and I trained one 10 dog team. It was very windy with a bit snow. I really like that kind of weather and it seems that our dogs liked it, too. The trail was of course blown away, but for Luis and Jaja in lead it was no problem.

From this 10 dogs I have to choose 8 for the Finnmarkslopet-team. But I have 3 month left...
Susan has full control over everything ;))) She runs long parts of the trail by her self, but sometimes she ask for a ride in the sled. There she gets soon bored and climb on the sled forth and back :)

I was thinking about the song "Sunshine reggae" for this film...

The real training is started

Last weekend we could finally start the real training. We got enough snow on sunday but decided to take the ATV from saturday to monday to train a block of longer rounds. But today even we came onto the sled and we opened the trail with our dogs. Jörg on the runners and I in the sled to help the dogs if necessary. But we were really impressed about our 2 year old dogs. Jaja and Didi found the way through the svamps nearly without any comment and take every corner and swing we did last year. It was really unbelieveable how sure and save the two girls plow through the snow and found the way that they run in december 2010 the last time! I have it always hard to take the right turns (luckily Jörg knows it much better :)))) and that after 10 years on our trails...

It was fun to be on the sled again :))))))))))

Finnmarkslopet have a newspaper where is a nice article about me. You can read it here http://www.finnmarkslopet.no/media/dokument/2011-11/Ciiko-01-11.pdf scroll down to side 9. It´s only in norwegian, so here is the english translation (but anyway you should have a look at the norwegian version) :

Back on Track

In 2008, Katy Meier was leading the Finnmarkslopet 500 race as she headed out of the last checkpoint towards the finish line. With two previous second place finishes in prior years, she thought it was now or never. Unfortunately, the weather came to bare as a force, and being the lead driver, she had to break trail while the other competitors closed ground. With only 40 kilometers left in the race, a strong driver from the eastern Finnmark region caught up to her. He paused to give her a hug and apologized for passing her as he drove on to the finish line, leaving Katy to yet another second place.

After the race, she was interviewed at the finish line. Her team looked well and she was impressed with her dogs, especially after such hard trailbreaking work to finish so strong. Yet, it was a bittersweet taste, since it was to be her last Finnmarkslopet, the dogs were being sold off, and it was not the victory she hoped to end her racing career on.

Things don’t always go as planned, both good and bad. A year later Katy was back at the race as a spectator. After following the race from the sidelines, she came to the only logical conclusion possible, that she had to rebuild her kennel and race again! Together with her partner, Jorg Bungard, they created a long term plan, and started to put it in motion. Later that spring, the kennel in Slagnas, Sweden was refurbished, and 24 puppies were brought in to call it home, of which 14 were kept for her team. This would truly be from scratch, as there were no yearlings, no leaders, and none of the pups were from her own bloodlines. This was an interesting development, and gave Katy the chance to truly start from zero.

The Comeback! Katy drove Troms Quest 2011 with her team. No longer puppies, but young dogs, they responded to the competition with a satisfying 5th place. During the same season, her partner Jorg, drove his team to an impressive 3rd place finish at the Pasvik Trail. All of this work, the training, and the team building, combined with the race experience point towards one moment, 10 March 2012. This is the moment she awaits, when the seemingly eternal last second before starting in downtown Alta arrives, and she begins the quest to fulfill her Finnmarkslopet dreams. When asked about her ambitions, she is quite clear, stating “ I’m not coming for a camping trip, I will compete and I believe that my team can compete. It will be exciting to see if they can handle the mental challenges of a 500km race.”

Today, this lovely Swede has everything under control. Fall training is going as planned, and she is highly motivated. To describe her feelings about this endeavor she quotes the Tour de France king, Lance Armstrong. “ I show up prepared, I show up motivated, and I show up because I love it,” as she states the same applies to her, with a gleam in her eye and a determined look on her face. We believe that it will!

Puppytraining

Here the small videos from the puppytraining today - I finally managed it ;)))))))) And one nice and bright day I will even manage it to make a good video without black scenes in between :)))


The puppies are the 4 dogs on the right side (from wheel to the front). And on the single pictures their are Felice, Gira, Sivtsov and Andrew

Here it´s the same, the 4 puppies on the right side, at the single presentation Bartali, Fausto, Givanni and José

We had them now 7 time in harness and they are very eager and happy to run. Even if Gira is very calm in the video, she wants to run!

Snow!

At least 3 cm. But we need only 7-10 cm more that we can go out with the sled. Dogtraining this morning with the ATV was completely different because of the snow. It´s all so calm and quiet, the dogs can eat snow while running and everything seems to be more friendly :)))

I took this picture on wednesday, we had PLUS 7 degrees that day! The ice was still on the lake, but there was about 2 cm with water on it. It looked great.
This picture is from 11 am today. Looks completely different.

Now we have -8 degrees. yesterday we looked at the lake and it´s now covered with about 15 cm ice. For the ice this ups and downs in the temperature is good, so it grows fast and save. Sounds strange, but it´s the truth, believe me ;)

The forecast looks good and even with a bit more snow. So maybe we are able to drive with the sled next weekend, wish us luck!

In the middle of the day I will go out with the puppies for a ride. Maybe I manage it to make a small movie, but like usual I can´t promise to do it ;)) But I will try my very best!!!

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How to mark the trail...

First you drill a hole in the lake
and then you strike in the marker with the hand - because we forgot the hammer ;)

Like I told on saturday we went out to set the markers for our trail at the lake yesterday. At least the first km over the lake the trail is marked. The other parts of the trail are not that importand to mark now, only the markers at the lake have to hold the whole winter. At some parts of the lake the drill went through the ice very fast, so there the ice was not that thick...

The puppies got their second ride in the harness. It went even better then on saturday and they where very eager to run ;)))

The winter has come with some colder days, the coldest temperature was -10 degrees now. But we wait for the snow, ans wait and wait and wait...

The big day!

For our puppies. They where for the first time hooked up into the team. First the 4 boys, then the 4 girls in the second team. It went very well and in the end all puppies knows what to do. Only little Taylor has to wait one more month :( So I was also able to take pictures of our puppies one by one - they had no chance to disappear ;)))

4 young boys in the harness
Fausto

Giovanni is a bit afraid of his father Tchmil besides him

José wants to move on

Andrew didn´t get the right direction...

And here the 4 girls

Felice, she lookes like a profi-husky :)

Sivtsov not that happy that we are home again

Gira hopes that Stijn is nice to her ;)

Bartali: hey what´s up there, was it all for today?

We had frost from wednesday, too. So the lake is covered again with ice and it´s about 8 cm thick. So we was of course again on the lake.

The ice is so clear that we could look through it to the gras covered ground

Jörg and Susan at the lake. Tomorrow we will set the marks for our trail into the ice.

What´s wrong with this picture? That it is the 2. november and we have 5,6 degrees PLUS instead of minus :(( It´s the first time since we moved here 2002 that we have it that warm in november. The lake is still covered with ice but the forecast promise plus degrees the whole next week. Then the lake will be open again :((( But all whinig helps nothing, we have to deal with it! we can only hope that the weather change one day to normal cold tempratures...

Winter?

At least a small hint of it. After two days with some degrees minus and fog we got an amazing day today. -6 degrees and sun the whole day :))) Our lake is complete covered with ice and like every year we could not hold back to test the ice. By the way, the ice was holding and we come from the lake without wet feeds ;))

Even foggy evenings could be great!
What a beautyful day today. This morning I was at the lake by myself. You see, the lake is covered with ice.

The morningsun was shining through the frost-covered branches.

And at the ice of the lake.

Ok, I was not on my own at the lake ;))) Susan was of course with me, it´s not possible to do something without her :))) But so she had to come with me onto the ice to make this picture.

The fox and the rabbit were here some days ago when the ice was not that save...

When Jörg was coming home from work, we went to the lake to make the "ice-thickness-test". The ice it´s about 5 cm thick, so it´s thick enough that a horse can walk on it.

That looks all very well for the lake and the swamps (there is a lot of water in the swamps this year because of the heavy rain), but unfortunally the weatherforecast is not that good. In the morning they wrote that it should be cold from the beginning of November, now they promise warm weather (about +5 degrees) from the weekend and the whole next week :( But maybe they promise cold again tomorrow...never knows and we can´t change it ;)))

Today we trained with snow under the paws of our dogs. It was very nice and silent and we all loved it. So I got motivated to test our new videocamera that was lying in the drawer now for nearly one year (!!!). Sorry for some strange pictures, I found the anti-shaking-button after we was home again...But I´m learning and maybe someday I manage it to make a good video :))) But at least I managed it to have some musik within the film!!!



Und hier kommt das Filmchen ohne Musik für unsere Freunde in Deutschland :))) Wegen der Rechte bei der Musik kann man das in D ja sonst nicht abspielen...

Aktiv Hund

We are very happy that Ägna AB (www.agna.se) with their Aktiv-series sponsor us one more season! We really believe in their products and used them already last season. We had no wrist problems with our dogs during the whole season and two other longdistance-drivers used it and said the same like we. It works!
If somebody is interested in the products, order it via us, there will be a special price for dogdrivers :)))
Aktiv Hund, easy to use and really helpful to prevent wrist problems. And only natural ingrediences!

This night we had the first real frost. It was -6 degrees in the morning and the lake starts freezing. But the forecast promise warmer days for the next weekend :( But the winter will come, that´s for sure ;)

The first ice on the lake
Jörg was training the dogs - and you see he has the downjacket on. It was really cold.

Pedro in the front and Didi behind him. They thought it´s better when it´s colder ;))

Finnmarkslopet

Now the first starting order for Finnmarkslopet is online. I got the bibnumber 35 - if nobody withdraw until march. The whole list you can find here http://www.finnmarkslopet.no/media/dokument/2011-10/Forste%20trekning%202012%20PDF.pdf

Kiruna symposium

This weekend I drove with my ManMat-equipment to Kiruna at the sleddog-symposium who was arranged of the Kiruna sleddog club. First, everybody who had the time to come and didn´t show up missed really a lot and should blame him/her self! Second, many thanks to Mats Pettersson and Lotta for their hospitality. Sven Engholm and I slept over in their house and we had a lot of interesting dogtalks until late at night.

Dr. Jerome A. Vanek spoke about stretching and massage of dogs. And he did it in a really funny and understandable way. We all laughs a lot :)))
So, forget about stretching your dogs before the race if you see this ;))) But he explains also a way to warm up dogs without that much time :)

After this we heard from Hans Gatt how he treats his dogs with respect and about his training before the Quest and Iditarod.

Here one of his trainings-shedules. Are you now sad that you didn´t show up :))) BUT I have a bit more informations, I did some secret-talk with Hans after the symposium ;))

Here Hans and I philosophize about harnesses. He took a skibelt and a Lash-harness from ManMat home to Whitehorse :)

Make an educated guess who is creeping under every sled in Kiruna?

Tim White of course!!! I guess there is nobody else in the whole world who is that interested in dogsleds! He spokes at the symposium about sleddogs in general - and everybody can feel that this came really from the bottom of his heard!