Sled Dog Gun: Aviemore Dreaming

8/9/2019 Sled Dog Gun: Aviemore Dreaming

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About the Author

Jim was born in the dockside town of Birkenhead Merseyside.

At 18, he joined the Royal Navy. Upon leaving he travelledand worked in Europe, America, Canada and Australia.

Finally, the author retrained as a landscape gardener,highlighted by managing landscaping of Adventure Land

Disney Land Paris.

Jim met Cherry in 1984 and bought his first husky, Hustler, in1987. This changed his life and began his lifetime passion for

dogsledding. The author retired to France in 2012 where he

lives with Cherry, his 6 remaining huskies, 4 cats and Wizzy,the Border Terrier.


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For the dogs that started me on my way:

Hustler, Cassie, Labbi and Gabbi.

For the Zeros that changed my life:

Maji, Bandit, Cougar, Raider, Dansa and Fly.

Especially for my chien de tête extraordinaire

JOKER.

And for the dogs still with me, showing the way:Angel, her pups Bear, Reef and Django.

And of course,

my Chef de meute,

Gun


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To Cherry Burton – without whom none of this would

have been possible.


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Copyright © Jim Bryde (2015)

The right of Jim Bryde to be identified as author of this work has

been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may bereproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any

form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,

recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the

publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims

for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British

Library.

Cover photo taken by Don James.

ISBN 978 1 78455 227 5 (Paperback)

ISBN 978 1 78455 229 9 (Hardback)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published (2015)

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd.25 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5LB

Printed and bound in Great Britain


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Acknowledgments

My sister Norma and partner ‘Paddy’ Bernie, their daughters,Kate and Jessica and my nephew Matthew, for all the help in

the early years looking after the dogs.

The Finnegan Family – Hughie, Miriam and two grandkids,Luke and Carl, for all the help, assistance and cups of tea over

the past 25 years.

The Keen Family – Paul, Amanda and daughter Katie forlooking after Gun when I was unable to take him France when

I first retired.Harris Dunlop – for breeding the wonderful Zero dogs.

Steve Radburn – for having the knowledge and guts to bring

the Zeros to Britain.Don James – for the wonderful cover photo of Gun.

Gareth Bowyer – for making an ‘old man’ delirious for taking

on 7 lunatic pups and training them to be Britain’s best everteam.

Fred Allen and Kirk Matthews, for giving me my winningLottery tickets, Fly and Angel respectively.

Penny Evans, for her wonderful foreword and finally believing

I could write!!!Bru and Jenny for Cassie and Hustler.

Steve, Vicki, Charlie and Jo, for helping me out by taking inand looking after Bear, Gun, Angel and Reef in my time of

need.

Lord March – in providing me with the best training ground Iwould ever need – Selhurst Park, Goodwood Estate.

To all members of the best club in the World – S.H.C.G.B. for

providing me with the venue to fulfil my dreams – Aviemore.To Bob, Paul, Mike, Roger, and Carol for providing,

unwittingly, chapter titles.

And finally, Joker – my dog in a million.


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Contents

Foreword 15

Chapter 1 17

It’s Just Another Day December 22nd 2002

Chapter 2 22

Aviemore, The Dream Starts

Chapter 3 30

50 Shades of Yellow

Chapter 4 39

Gun: A Year in the LifeChapter 5 43

Training Begins

Chapter 6 55

Coming of Age

Chapter 7 62

The Dogs and Equipment

Chapter 8 66

Equipment and Rules

Chapter 9 68

Aviemore 2004 The Race: B class

Chapter 10 73

ReflectionsChapter 11

76

Fame at Last... I Think Not

Chapter 12 84

Decisions

Photos 91

Chapter 13 121 Aviemore 2005 22nd – 23rd January

Chapter14 134

Mixed EmotionsChapter 15 144

Winds of Change

Chapter 16 152

I Hear You Knocking


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Chapter 17 156

Angel

Chapter 18 160

You’re Moving Out Today!

Chapter 19 163

Lost in France

Chapter 20 170

Aviemore 2009 Between Blue and Me

Chapter 21 175

The Trio Return

Chapter 22 188

Run Like the Wind

Chapter 23 192

Jokerman

Chapter 24 194

Shadow on the Wall

Chapter 25 200

In My Own Time

Chapter 26 206

Aviemore 2011 Three Wheels on my Wagon

Chapter 27 218

It’s Just Another Day Sunday Morning January 26, 2014, France


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I was surprised when Jim contacted me and said he’d written a

book. Surely not the Clown Prince of UK sled dog races … You’dthink after all these years I wouldn’t fall into the usual trap of …

“Joker Jim done what?” but to my discredit that’s what I did.

Every walk of life has its mavericks – someone who doesn’t

always completely follow the rules but makes life just that bitmore colourful in the process – and Jim is our UK sled dog racing

renegade. But woe betide those who take him for a fool. Like his

dogs Jim lives life at full tilt which may be unsettling for some but

his insight and understanding of sled dogs and their training andracing is remarkable, even though his show career never truly

took off with the same success. Yes, I was the judge he chose to

enter Gun under. A fourth was the best I could give to a dog who

could not manage four feet on the ground at the same time, but

with a bit more effort he would easily have qualified for Crufts –

you don’t win races with dogs that have poor construction. But

racing is Jim’s home ground and his training regimes caused the

UK Mushers to sit up and take life a bit more seriously … oh andremember to take hangover cures to races!

In this book Jim opens a very honest and frank door on his life

with his dogs. Read and learn from this generous guy who so

clearly loves his dogs but who – like so many of us – in his love

affair with this eccentric and most beautiful breed, the Siberian

Husky, has been forced to understand they live life to their rulesnot always ours. Admire his efforts, laugh at his antics and cry as

we all have to when the time comes for our cherished four-footedfriends to leave us.

I hope those lucky French racers are enjoying his company

because UK Sled Dog Races are just that bit lacking now he has

crossed The Channel.

Penny EvansSecretary of the Siberian Husky Club of GB 1978-2005

Co-organiser of the SHCGB Aviemore Sled Dog Race 1984-2006 KC and FCI CC qualified Judge of Siberian Huskies Breeder of Siberian Huskies 1977-200 under Mikalya and 2000 to

present under Penkhala affixes


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Gun at 3 weeks old

And yet it all started so well.

Cherry and I had been out the night before for a meal, so I

was up a bit later than usual, but not too late to take the dogsout for their Sunday run.

We were in training for an 8 stage race , the 9th

running of

“The Trophie de Savoie” (which was starting on 4th

January)


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and I was so glad that the incessant rain of the past two weekshad at least stopped for a couple of hours. The weather was

now cold and dry and I was looking forward to hooking up myseven dogs, Joker, Dansa, DiMaggio (Magi), Bandit, Cougar,

Raider, and my only girl, Fly. All pure bred Siberian Huskies,

the original sled dogs.I had been running them hard now for the past month, 5

miles a day, four times a week, over the hilly terrain of

Selhurst Park, Goodwood to get them at least some way prepared for the coming adventures in the French Alps –

though I have to admit Selhurst Park in December really

doesn’t bear much resemblance to Meribel, (the venue for thefirst stage), but it helps to dream.

All the dogs where motoring along the trail, including Flyin lead, even though she did look a bit fatter than usual, but I

put that down to the fact I’d been feeding them all more to gettheir body weight up a bit in preparation for the minus 20c

temperatures they would be experiencing in the two weeks in

France.

So after a very fast run, I loaded the dogs and quad backinto the truck and drove the 6 miles to my house at Runcton

(south of Chichester). There it was a quick unload, feed andwater and then into the house for something I’d been looking

forward to for weeks, the Liverpool – Everton derby match onthe tele.

Wasn’t much of a game, usual frenzied action

accompanied by the flurry of fouls, but no goals by half-time.So got up, as you do, to put the kettle on for the regulation cup

of tea, when I heard the dulcet tones of Cherry, my partner of19 years, ring out; “There’s a big racket going on out in the

pens, I’m trying to work here, go and get it sorted”, or words

to that effect.“Those bloody dogs, 5 miles and they still won’t settle

down!” I was heard to mutter as I went out to the dog pen. No

matter how hard you ran them and how knackered theyappeared to be at the finish, by the time you got them home,

they were full of beans and raring to go again. Not that I wastotally surprised, these dogs where bred to run 60/70 miles a


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Documents

Sled Dog Gun: Aviemore Dreaming