2004 International Sled Dog Symposium
Speaker Biographies
Sponsored by the Alaska Dog Mushers Association, the Fairbanks North Star Borough Division of Animal Control, and FNSB Pioneer Park
Symposium schedule
Symposium home page
In alphabetical order, these are most of the speakers who'll be presenting at our 2004 International sled Dog Symposium. Biographies will be added as we receive them. For more information, email Carol Kaynor or ADMA, or call 907-457-6874.
Becky and her husband began their kennel in January 1999 with 5 dogs. They have had up to 24 dogs, but recently reduced the number to 10. Becky has been an active member of the Two Rivers Dog Mushers Association for four years, with three years on the Board as Secretary. She has helped organize races and checkpoints for the club. She was the Race Manager for the Solstice 100, a new race established in December 2003, and continues to be active in the club. Being a volunteer for the Yukon Quest for 6 years helped gain her a seat on the Board of Directors, which she held for 2 years. Becky has been the checker/timer for the Angel Creek Checkpoint for the last 2 years, where she gained a wealth of knowledge on checkpoint management.
Ken was born in Minnesota. He says he began mushing at birth, as his parents had a recreational team. He came to Alaska in 1993 to be a musher and study biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He’s been running the Iditarod since 1999 and took fifth place in 2003. Also in 2003, Ken took third place in the Atta Boy 300 Stage Race and fourth place in the Wyoming Stage Stop. Ken is married to Gwen Holdmann, also an Iditarod veteran.
Jodi began with horses on the East Coast, but moved on to sled dogs and Alaska right after college. She began skijoring, but as the numbers of dogs grew, she moved onto a sled. She has been active with dogs for more than 8 years, and is now a partner in a medium-sized kennel, raising and training dogs for mid- to long-distance races. Although she is a recreational musher, she has experience in mid-distance races and in handling for the Yukon Quest.
Dr. Battig graduated from the Oregon College of Veterinary Medicine in 1985. Her passion in veterinary medicine was lameness diagnosis and treatment in horses. For the first year she interned at an all-equine clinic under a lameness specialist at Littleton Large Animal Clinic in Colorado. After her internship there, Dr. Battig built on that knowledge by working in private equine work and eventually working for the State Racing Commission as Assistant State Veterinarian on the equine and greyhound racetracks in Oregon and as the Head State Veterinarian at the Coeur d'Alene Greyhound Track in Idaho. Wanting to continue her work with athletic dogs, she moved to Fairbanks in 1990, working on various sled dog races and eventually as the Chief Veterinarian on the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race in 1993. In addition to working on the Kuskokwim 300, Copper Basin 300, Yukon Quest, and the North American sprint races, Dr. Battig continues her interest in sled dog health and racing in her daily schedule of patients and also by sponsoring the Iditarod race team of Skunk's Place Kennels, owned and operated by Aliy Zirkle. Dr. Battig's desire is to pass on information gleaned over the years to sled dog enthusiasts to promote the best health for the participating athletic dogs.
Pat has been professionally training retrievers for 20 years. In that time he and his wife have been involved in preparing both dogs and owners to compete in field trial competition. They have made over 50 field trial champions and won the 2003 National Amateur Championship. Pat has personally witnessed the evolution of remote collar training to today's highly sophisticated level.
Miki and Julie use dog teams to run their 80-mile trapline in bush Alaska. They have written extensively about their experiences at Lake Minchumina, and are authors of the book Dog Driver: A Guide for the Serious Musher.
Cathy came from Northern New York and has lived in Alaska for 14 years. She has been a recreational dog musher for 10 of those years. She and her husband have a kennel of 24 large freight huskies with whom they tour the Alaskan wild. She is currently active in the Second Chance League and Mush with PRIDE. She began her mushing adventure as a skijorer and soon learned it was much easier to stay upright on a sled with runners, a handlebow and a brake! Cathy runs a team of 6 dogs that weigh 75–105 pounds each…they can take her anywhere with a sled full of everything to make life in a cabin or tent comfortable.
Egil is a multiple winner of the Open North American Championship, the Fur Rendezvous, and the Tok Race of Champions open-class sprint races. He has also won the European Championship and the World Championship. Egil has been racing for 19 years in Scandinavia, Europe and Alaska. He is originally from Sweden but has lived in Willow, Alaska, since 2001, where he and his wife, Helen Lundberg, operate their kennel of pointer crosses. Egil has been obliterating track records across Alaska for the past 5 years. He is the successful breeder of the original pointer-cross line of sled dogs that are now found on most top sprint teams around the world.
Curtis, a noted fourth-generation Alaskan musher, comes from a long family tradition of running sled dogs and racing in Alaska. He has been involved in many aspects of racing since his first race at 7 years old. Having been deeply involved in running both sprint and distance racing, Curtis brings a wealth of experience and information for beginners and experienced mushers alike. Curtis has also been involved in racing from the other side as a race judge for the Yukon Quest and other races.
John was UAF cross country ski and cross country running coach at the University of Alaska Fairbanks from 1982–1990. He was head coach for cross country of the U.S. Ski Team from 1990–1993, and head coach of the US Olympic Ski Team in 1992. John was a member of the coaching staff at the 1984 and 1992 Olympics, the 1991 and 1993 World Championships, the 1994 World Junior Championships, and the 1983 World University Games.
Will and his wife, Linda, are former mid-distance and distance racers, and they ran a freighting business on Mt. McKinley. They live in Stampede, near Denali National Park. Will is author of a number of articles on mushing and has been a regular contributor to Mushing Magazine over many years.
Hans is the owner and sole operator of Gatt Sleds. He started building sleds when he began his career in dog mushing 17 years ago in Austria. In 1990 Hans moved to Canada and began building his sleds on his homestead in Atlin, BC. The sled business operates out of an historic old barn, which Hans has filled with the tools for his trade. Gatt Sleds has evolved over the years to make a top-of-the-line dogsled. His sleds are used by many of the top competitors around the world in sprint, mid-distance and long-distance mushing, as well as recreationally. Hans has also had an illustrious career as a competitive musher, and he is the only three-time winner of the Yukon Quest.
Jim began skijoring after moving to Fairbanks in 1992, and has been a board member of the Alaska Skijoring and Pulk Association since 1996, serving two years as President. In that time, he has introduced many people and dogs to skijoring. Jim enjoys seeing all types of dogs participate in skijoring. He is a competitive skijorer (who occasionally steps onto a sled) and is currently training for the 2005 World Championships in Dawson, YT.
Gwen has been mushing dogs for 10 years. She grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, and Rockford, Illinois. In 1994, Gwen moved to Alaska with three huskies to pursue her dream of mushing. She spent her first two winters at Windy Creek Cabin, a remote, one-room cabin off the road system just north of Fairbanks, Alaska. During this time, Gwen started developing her kennel with future husband Ken Anderson. Gwen’s first major sled dog race was the 1998 Yukon Quest, which she finished in second to last. She is still very proud of that achievement. In 2001, Gwen completed her first Iditarod race in 30th place. She has also raced in the Grand Portage Passage, the UP 200, the Copper Basin, and the Canadian Challenge. Gwen is now focusing on stage racing. In 2003, Gwen was the upset winner of the Wyoming Stage Stop Race, the biggest stage-style race in the world. She also finished in 2nd place at the Oregon Atta Boy 300 Stage Stop, and was rookie of the year at the Canadian Championship Dog Derby in Yellowknife, NWT.
Dan has been working with dogs in Alaska for over nine years. He started with skijoring, but wanting to go faster and farther led him to mushing. He began building sleds almost as soon as he started riding them. He has built recreational sleds and light distance racing sleds. He rides his own sleds in the mid- and long-distance races he competes in, including the Yukon Quest, where he placed 10th in 2003 and 6th in 2004.
Jeff won the Iditarod in 1993, 1996, and 1998, and has finished in the top 10 every year since 1992. In addition to his consistent performances in the Iditarod, Jeff won the Yukon Quest in 1981 and the Kusko 300 a record seven times. In 2003, Jeff also won the Kobuk 440. Well into his third decade of racing, King has logged well over 100,000 miles on a dogsled. First and foremost, Jeff is as dedicated to his dogs as they are to him. Following the 2003 Iditarod, he was awarded the coveted Leonhard Seppala Humanitarian Award for his consistent, high-quality dog care. Jeff has designed an innovative sled dog harness that has created quite a stir on the mushing scene. The harness eliminates the use of necklines, which gives the dogs more freedom to run.
Carol has been skijoring and mushing for eight years, and her dogs have racked up an impressive number of wins in the skijoring, 4-dog, and 6-dog classes. Carol's kennel is composed of more than 20 second-hand dogs, all neutered and spayed. She describes herself as a “bleeding heart for every castoff, unwanted sled dog that needs a home, adopter of many, and an easily trained owner who tolerates jumping, barking, digging, and sleeping on beds.”
Dave started mushing in 1979 and began building dogsleds in 1980. He was on the first board of directors for the Yukon Quest and was the second musher to sign up for the inaugural race. Dave started Laughing Husky Enterprises in 1991 as a full-time sled building business. Laughing Husky is now the largest manufacturer of dogsleds in Alaska, if not the United States. The company builds 75 to 100-plus sleds a year, does repairs and supplies parts. Laughing Husky sleds are exported worldwide and range from children's sleds to adult racing sleds. Dave is in the process of writing a complete book of sled-building techniques and plans. Currently Joanne and he have a 16-dog yard and mush recreationally.
Eric was introduced to mushing through his brothers at a very young age. He grew up in Michigan racing Samoyeds and Siberian huskies and then eventually Alaskan huskies. In 1995 he moved to the dog-mushing capital of the world with just eight dogs and the dream of becoming the top unlimited-class musher. Although he has not yet become a champion of the Open North American or the Anchorage Fur Rendezvous, he has become one of the top competitors, placing third and winning several other races. Currently, he and his wife own and operate their own construction company and racing kennel. Together they hope to one day fulfill Eric's dream.
Val has been running dogs since 1986, when Leroy Shank gave her two of his long-distance pups. Gradually he gave her more, all siblings but one, and she had a six-dog team. When her dogs were too old to race, she borrowed dogs from Bob Holder, another distance musher, and they won the Limited North American 4-dog race in 1996. She now runs her own distance dogs at Two Rivers in the 6-dog races and in the AARP races at ADMA with some of her old dogs. Val has been involved with the Yukon Quest since 1983, when the first meeting was held. The Two Rivers Dog Mushers Association has run the checkpoint at Angel Creek the last two years, and Val has been part of the team.
Dr. Maddux obtained her veterinary degree from Louisiana State University in 1979, her PhD in clinical pathology from Kansas State University in 1986, and her Board Certification in Clinical Pathology in 1989 while she was on staff as a Clinical Pathologist at the University of Tennessee. She has worked at the Alaska State Public Health Virology Laboratory in Fairbanks, in several small animal practices throughout the United States, and has been a staff veterinarian at Aurora Animal Clinic since 1996. She is interested in general health care, medicine and surgery, and enjoys working with sled dogs.
Dr. Olson has been practicing veterinary medicine in Interior Alaska since 1988. She specializes in holistic medicine, including herbal, chiropractic, acupuncture and homeopathic modalities, through her private practice at Raven Veterinary. She has been head veterinarian for the Copper Basin 300 and Yukon Quest for numerous years, as well as team veterinarian for numerous local sprint and mid-distant races. She has served as staff veterinarian for the Fairbanks North Star Borough Animal Shelter and is now shelter manager at the same facility, with a goal toward improving life for sled dogs in Alaska and the working relationship between mushers and the shelter.
Kathryn is a Stewardship Forester with the Northern Region Division of Forestry, State of Alaska Department of Natural Resources. The Division of Forestry–Forest Stewardship Program is a federally funded service that assists private landowners with forestry needs. In May 2003, Kathryn helped coordinate the Interior FireWise Community Workshop, which is designed to teach individuals to perform wildland fire risk and hazard severity assessment and to build partnerships in their own communities to reduce the risk. Since then she and others have been working with private landowners, conducting individual Firewise home assessments and hosting Firewise information booths at fairs, workshops and presentations. This next year Kathryn hopes to start working with individuals as well as communities in developing Community Wildland Fire Protection Plans (CWPP) for their areas. CWPP plans may address issues such as wildfire response, hazard mitigation, community preparedness or structure protection—or all of the above.
Wes is a physical therapist of 29 years, and a certified manual therapist. He was the Oregon state representative for veterinarian physical therapy, and has presented at the National Physical Therapy Symposium in Seattle on spine disorders of canines. Wes worked on Ken Anderson and Gwen Holdmann’s team before and after the Atta Boy 300 race in Oregon and before the 2003 Iditarod.
Fred has provided race wax service to nordic ski teams and individual racers in Alaska for 15 years. He provided race wax service for the United States skijoring team in the 2001 IFSS World Championships and has worked many high-profile events in Alaska. Fred has also worked with sponsored sprint and distance mushers to build on the knowledge of racing sled runner preparation.
Dr. Reynolds is a veterinarian and a canine exercise physiologist and nutritionist who also competes in open-class sprint races. He received both of his doctoral degrees from Cornell University. He says racing started as his doctoral project, but has become his job and life's passion (second to wife and kids). Dr. Reynolds has studied the relationship between diet and performance in sled dogs for more than 10 years in his laboratory and on the Alaskan sled dog trails.
Scott shares a 23-dog kennel with his wife, Kerry Walsh, in Pleasant Valley, Alaska. He has been skijoring for 10 years and mushing recreationally for the past four. Scott is currently president of the Two Rivers Dog Mushers Association.
Mitch was born in Minnesota and moved with his family to Alaska in 1963. He began mushing in 1964. Mitch’s dad, Dan, ran the Iditarod in 1973, so he decided he wanted to run the Iditarod some day. After running eleven Iditarods, Mitch is the current champion. Mitch and Janine are the parents of four boys, three of whom have run the Junior Iditarod and two of whom, Tyrell and Dallas, will be running the Iditarod this year with their dad. Their oldest son, Danny, has finished the Iditarod and is away in college, and the youngest son, Conway, is 7. This past year Mitch's dogs wore a harness of Mitch's own design with great results.
Tyrell was born in Alaska into an Iditarod family and began mushing as soon as he was born. His grandfather, Dan, is an Iditarod veteran; his father Mitch is the current Iditarod champion. Both Tyrell and his older brother, Danny, have run the Iditarod. This year the third brother, Dallas, will also be running. All three of the Seavey boys have also run the Junior Iditarod. Tyrell won the Junior Iditarod in 2001. He went to school at the University of Montana last year and is currently a sled dog tour operator.
Cheryl S. Smith, keynote speaker
Cheryl is a long-time dog enthusiast and a journalist specializing in dogs. She enjoys training and both attends and gives lectures on the subject. She has attended chicken camp in Arkansas and taught at chicken camp in Washington. She also covers canine nutrition regularly, and is lecturing at the upcoming Nutrition Forum in St Louis. She is the author of a dozen dog-related books and uncounted articles, as well as the recipient of the Maxwell award from the Dog Writers Association of America and the Eukanuba special award for writing on canine health. Though she hasn't yet tried sled dog racing, she has trained dogs for and competed in agility, obedience, herding, flyball, carting, water work, and tracking. Living with her own dogs (and sheep and chickens) plus teaching dog classes helps keep her sense of humor sharp.
Janet has been skijoring for 5 years. She skijors for fun and to provide extra training for some of the dogs in her 18-dog kennel.
Zack was born and raised in Alaska. He currently owns and operates Sheep Mountain Lodge with his wife, Anjanette, and his son, Glenn. Zack started mushing in 1997 as a handler for Anchorage musher Robert Bundtzen. He has completed two Iditarods (1998 and 2000), one Yukon Quest (2004), three Copper Basins (2001, 2003, and 2004), and many other mid-distance races. Zack considers himself a “competitive recreational musher” and has a small kennel of about 25 race dogs.
Margi Terhar, DVM (Dr. Margaret Eastman)
Dr. Eastman, somewhat better known as Margi Terhar, is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine. She has served as a race veterinarian for the UP 200, John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon, Great Trail Sled Dog Race, Grand Passage Sled Dog Race, Yukon Quest and Iditarod, and was head veterinarian for the Yukon Quest from 2001–2003.
Kerry shares a 23-dog kennel with her husband, Scott Rupp, in Pleasant Valley, Alaska. She has been skijoring for 10 years and mushing recreationally for the past four. Kerry is currently chair of the Two Rivers Dog Mushers Association’s juniors program.