In the UK the sport of husky racing has a relatively small but steady following with anything up to 150 teams taking part in races most winter weekends all around the country and mostly on Forestry Commission land. The sport is very much limited by terrain and temperature – with their double coats, huskies can’t be expected to run flat out over 5 or 6 miles in summer temperatures and humidity (although we do keep them fit all year round but running shorter distance in the wee small hours of the morning in summer time!). As far as terrain is concerned there are few areas of the country which are as perfect as Thetford Forest with its free draining sandy soil and grassy tracks, and those of us that live and train in the area count ourselves lucky to have such wonderful trails on which to run our dogs. Even in the winter time, we tend to be out early – arriving in the forest as dawn breaks, the dogs harnessed, hitched up and off for their run in no time. We run teams of 6 to 10 dogs in training – although even those with only 2 or 3 dogs can still take part in the sport. The dogs are our pets although most of us have rather a lot of them! Households of 10 to 20 dogs are not at all uncommon – most of the racing dogs are Siberian Huskies but Alaskan Malamutes, Samoyeds, Eskimo and Greenland Dogs all take part. Malamutes are built more for freighting so tend to be a bit steadier in terms of speed while the Siberians are sprint racers. Beautiful to look at but they don’t make good pets for the average household since they can’t be trusted off the lead – they DO NOT come to call, have no interest in chasing a ball and will dig up your garden and escape at the drop of a hat – and they will hunt cats, rabbits and other small family pets. As pack animals though, they are wonderful and love nothing better than a good howl in the early morning before going off for a long run! Their owners are a mixed bunch of people – from all walks of life but all with a passion for dogs and sport – you need to be pretty active to keep up with this lot! Caroline Kisko Husky Racer Back to My Suffolk, Your Suffolk >