ASK THE MUSHER Vol 17: Libby Riddles

[libbyriddles]

Miss Libby, me too with more questions, please.
Will you be at the Denali Doubles Race?
Why aren't the mushers staying at locals homes? What is the necessity of it?
Are you going to be in Nome for the banquets?

Thanks, fladogfan/gretchen

HI there, don't think I'll be at the Denali Doubles, but who knows, the "corraling" rule was to make it more fair to all mushers, some had a place to stay & some would sleep in the armory, and to locate the dogs in a central area for easier access to the vets.

Not sure about Nome yet, going to try!

[libbyriddles]

Hi Libby!

Welcome to the Forum. I am so excited that you have joined us!! I have three main questions for you....

1. I am a former Elementary Teacher and I love your children's books! We bought them on our first cruise. What was your inspiration for writing those books?

2. Where did you get your parka? What is it made of? How long did it take to make it? (I have SERIOUS coat envy over that one!)

3. Will you give it to me when you get tired of it? (just kidding!!)

Thanks again for joining us. I fell in love with mushing on an Alaskan Cruise. In fact, we watched you on the cruise channel talking about mushing. If I had known then, what I know now, we would have been at the talk. I can't remember why we didn't go. Anyway, we bought one of your books on the cruise and I just loved it!

Hello! my main inspiration for writing the kids books was all the letters I received from children after winning the race, and wanting to do a project with my friends Shelley Gill and Shannon Cartwright, who are some of the best childrens' authors in the state.

Thanks, glad you like the parka, a bering sea style sealskin parka, will probably be buried in it, sorry! ;->

[Red_Husky]

Hi again

As far as did any of those survival stories go through my head that night out in the storm, no, they did not. To think was to be in the abstract, and I had to be totally aware of my surrounding & situation, thinking too much would have been a distraction, if that makes sense.

Yes, that makes perfect sense. For someone that has never endured anything like that there would be no way to fathom what it would take to deal with.

I guess my favorites are the ones that are naturals. Plus I like the ones that just have the winning personalities to match, and have bred for that as well.

I think I remember reading somewhere that you like dogs that are ‘goofs’ - there is something to be said for dogs that can make you laugh!

Tiger, Mouse, and Meadow are 3 grandpups to Dugan that are running lead in now. They've been in lead almost every run they go.

It must be great to know Dugans lines are continuing with such good dogs.
Do you mix up the dog positions in your teams, or do they generally have their specific places that they run best in?
What sort of distances are you running in your ‘back yard’ this winter?

The senses of the leaders are amazing, and I always wondered how Sister figured out where the trail was that time.

Have there been any other times a dog like Sister has steered you out of a tricky situation?

I just finished reading " A Wolf in the Parlor" about our symbiotic relationship with dogs. No one knows that like a musher, eh?

Yes, there certainly needs to be that special bond there. Sounds like an interesting read, I’ll have to look out for that one.

mushers wanting any kind of speed like a more angled rear end that puts the tail down more, and looks to some as if the dog is cowering, but it's really just the build for efficient running. With huskies, it's still usually the ones that prove that their confirmation can get the job done, that are bred, so I don't think there's much chance of them having displasia type problems.

Thanks, that explains it really well.

A specialized dog truck or trailer with an area for working on dogs, a small freezer, that sort of thing is nice.

Sadly it is an expensive sport – even the small scale it is here in NZ – with travel, supplies, equipment etc.
With the increase in entry fees and drop in purse, do you see the possibility that the Iditarod will draw less and less competitors and struggle to keep going? To me it seems to have become far removed from its inception of celebrating the sled dog, and become a big business instead.

whoever gets there first! haha!

Good comeback Personally I’d like to see Lance continue to do so well.

Bye for now
HH&N

[flowerpower]

WOW! THANK YOU so much for taking time to share your stories with us here! I would like to ask 2 questions today-
Are any of your kennels sons or daughters are currently running in the Iditarod?
and
you talked about the graciousness and kindness of the people along route, are there any especially cherished moments that stand out in your memory?

Again, thank you so much for sharing with us here. It so helps me feel just a little closer to the beauty of life in the wild.

[libbyriddles]

WOW! THANK YOU so much for taking time to share your stories with us here! I would like to ask 2 questions today-
Are any of your kennels sons or daughters are currently running in the Iditarod?
and
you talked about the graciousness and kindness of the people along route, are there any especially cherished moments that stand out in your memory?

Again, thank you so much for sharing with us here. It so helps me feel just a little closer to the beauty of life in the wild.

Hi there, thanks, is that a basset hound? cute pic!

There are probably a few dogs out of the lines I have here in the race, but not many, I didn't raise a lot of litters, or sell many dogs, tried to just have a good program and raise mostly keepers for myself!

I guess I wrote about some of these stories in Race Across Alaska, but the one that sums it up to me was in Nikolai, I think my first Iditarod. I was finding out the hard way that sorrel shoe packs (rubber bottoms, leather uppers, felt liner) just don't cut it on the Iditarod. My feet had been cold, the leather was all wet and frozen. I think I got all the way to UNK in the stupid things, then actually bought a pair of Moon Boots at the AC ( AK Commercial village store) and made it the rest of the way in those.
But when I stopped in Nikolai after a cold long trip through the Burn, the shoepacks were frozen. I was one of several mushers being hosted by the Petruskas, and after a home cooked meal, I was parked on the best bed in the house while Betty spent the next couple of hours getting to inhale the beautiful fumes from my boots which she dried with a hair drier for me while I slept.
So many times, people took me in their homes and fed me & let me hang all my stinky musher stuff to dry, gave me a warm place to sleep. One of the greatest things about the Iditarod is the people that it brings together, racers & volunteers & the people who live out there where we just cruise through once a year.....
thanks for the questions!

[MelanieGouldFanBrian]

I HAVE to ask Libby, because I think your Iditarod and Musher photographs (that we are able to see) are wonderful.
So any chance of a book of Libby Riddles Iditarod Photographs in the future?
I certainly hope so.

Mgfb

[libbyriddles]

:D Hello Libby!
Again thanks so much for visiting this forum and hanging with us for a while I love your story and the gutsy move you made! When I think of legendary Iditarod women I always think of you and Susan Butcher. Which leads me to my first question...

~Did you know Susan well & if so, what is your favorite memory of her?

Could you share a few memories from the Rose Bowl Parade that you were in last year?

I feel honored to have you as my Facebook friend and would like to know what you think of using Facebook as a tool for learning from the top mushers?
Do you get a lot of questions from rookies/fans on there & what do you feel is the prevailing attitude among mushers toward us "fans" and rookies?

Thanks for your reply

Hi Di,
I didn't know Susan real well, we lived in different parts of the state, I always remember when she jumped through a hole in the ice in her swim suit as a race promo way back when though. She was tough!

The Rose Parade was really amazing, I got to see a bit of how the floats were made, some of the rest of the people from the float were native Olympic athletes, and tow of the Pamyua band were there as well. A couple people got to be in the float because they won a contest. The Native Dancers walked and danced the entire length of the parade which is 4-5 miles! Many wore holes through their mukluks. I got to ride up top on the sled, with my 6 dog team made out of pampas grasses and other cool stuff. There were more people lined up watching the thing than we have in the entire state. It was an honor to be on the float, AK had been trying to get a float in the parade for years, it was because of the 50th yr anniversary that we got in. I got meet the float designer Raoul Rodriguez, we won the National Award.

Nope, not too many questions about attitude towards fans & rookies, that's all part of it, couldn't have a race without fans, eh? Thanks for the questions.

[libbyriddles]

Libby, thank you so much for joining us on the forum!

I was lucky enough to hear you speak at an event at UW-GB some time ago. I was so impressed with your history, your tales, and your approach to life.

As a teacher, I loved using you as a positive role model. Storm Run was one of our favorite books, but the kids loved Danger too. Do you have any Danger descendants in your dog yard these days?

Also from your books, I understand Joe Garnie played an important role in your Iditarod training. Can you tell us more about his influence? Do you still keep in contact with him? And what do you think about his attempt to run the Iditarod a few years back?

Thanks so much for sharing your time...especially when you'd rather be out with the dogs.
BB Backer

Thanks, I'm glad you've enjoyed the kids books in the classroom, kids are our biggest fans! I have a Maine Coone rescue kitty that's almost as cool as Danger, his name is Maestro.

Joe & I worked as partners with one racing mid distance & the other doing Iditarod, combining our best dogs. We both had our best finishes with this combination. Both of us had different things to contribute to the dog training, and it was always good to have another knowlegable person around to bounce things off of. I learned a lot about living off the country from him. We talk every once in a while, I am still close with his daughters, and their kids are getting into mushing as well.
A lot of people were happy to see Joe in the Iditarod again, but it's really expensive to do from the Bush, I think he would like to race more, but at least his good dogs have been running in the top teams, that has to give him some satisfaction. Thanks for the questions!

[libbyriddles]

Welcome to the forum Libby, and thanks so much for answering our questions.

Like many of us here, I was following the race online last spring when the storm blew in and the mushers had to make tough decisions about whether to head out along the coast or wait for the winds to die down. Your name came up in some of those conversations as people remembered 'your' storm. It sounds like you were following the race as well, so I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on it.

How did the events of this year compare to the year you won? What were your thoughts as you were watching it unfold in real time, and are they the same as your thoughts today?

As someone who had to make a similar decision to this year's mushers, I would also be interested to hear more about how you (or mushers in general) make those calls. How do you balance the potential risks to both dogs and mushers with the opportunity to make progress in the race?

Are there any changes you would like to see in the race to better protect mushers and dogs in these types of conditions? Or do you think the current rules are sufficient?

Yes, I was following the race, hard to know just how it is going out there sometimes. Each musher has to be able to gauge their team at a time like that, and to know if the dogs can cope with a blizzard like that or if they're better off holing up. It goes to show too, that mushers need to be carrying enough stuff to keep themselves & their dogs safe if it gets bad. Mostly my thoughts about it were that I admit I was glad it was them out there not me!

You have to know your dogs, your training, the health & state of mind of the team at the time, and then pray for luck. Dogs safety has to come first though. My dogs were trained in storms, that helped when I raced.

Race changes in these situations? Hmmm. I think the rules are sufficient. If race officials or vets see things that make them think it would not be a good idea for the musher to continue, it's also their job to bring it up, if the musher has no sense.

[libbyriddles]

Hi again

As far as did any of those survival stories go through my head that night out in the storm, no, they did not. To think was to be in the abstract, and I had to be totally aware of my surrounding & situation, thinking too much would have been a distraction, if that makes sense.

Yes, that makes perfect sense. For someone that has never endured anything like that there would be no way to fathom what it would take to deal with.

I guess my favorites are the ones that are naturals. Plus I like the ones that just have the winning personalities to match, and have bred for that as well.

I think I remember reading somewhere that you like dogs that are ‘goofs’ - there is something to be said for dogs that can make you laugh!

Tiger, Mouse, and Meadow are 3 grandpups to Dugan that are running lead in now. They've been in lead almost every run they go.

It must be great to know Dugans lines are continuing with such good dogs.
Do you mix up the dog positions in your teams, or do they generally have their specific places that they run best in?
What sort of distances are you running in your ‘back yard’ this winter?

* I do like to mix up the dogs' positions, and I am running small teams under 20 miles usually, leader training, working with the yearlings

The senses of the leaders are amazing, and I always wondered how Sister figured out where the trail was that time.

Have there been any other times a dog like Sister has steered you out of a tricky situation?

I just finished reading " A Wolf in the Parlor" about our symbiotic relationship with dogs. No one knows that like a musher, eh?

Yes, there certainly needs to be that special bond there. Sounds like an interesting read, I’ll have to look out for that one.

mushers wanting any kind of speed like a more angled rear end that puts the tail down more, and looks to some as if the dog is cowering, but it's really just the build for efficient running. With huskies, it's still usually the ones that prove that their confirmation can get the job done, that are bred, so I don't think there's much chance of them having displasia type problems.

Thanks, that explains it really well.

A specialized dog truck or trailer with an area for working on dogs, a small freezer, that sort of thing is nice.

Sadly it is an expensive sport – even the small scale it is here in NZ – with travel, supplies, equipment etc.
With the increase in entry fees and drop in purse, do you see the possibility that the Iditarod will draw less and less competitors and struggle to keep going? To me it seems to have become far removed from its inception of celebrating the sled dog, and become a big business instead.

whoever gets there first! haha!

Good comeback Personally I’d like to see Lance continue to do so well.

Bye for now
HH&N

Hi again, I do think the nature of the race is changing, you have to have $$$ to be involved, and it's pretty much out of reach for a lot of people, but it's a great sport, and what else would we pour our money into if we didn't have our dogs? No matter what the nature of the Iditarod, it is helping to keep the breed of Alaskan huskies alive and well, and that's good enough for me!