Bikejoring
The Abakan Samoyeds have been running in harness since the early 70s. I trained Mischa and Chata(Abakan Chatanika) on my son’s Irish mail in 1972 and attempted to train another Sam with a 10-speed bike in 1973.
As a family, my husband, son, the two dogs and I, moved to Flagstaff, Arizona, in 1974 and I bought a Schwinn single speed coaster bike there and began what has been a long partnership with the bike in training sled dogs.
We moved to E. Washington(Aeneas) in 1975. Here I started to train a three-dog team on gravel and dirt roads. We moved across the valley to Conconully, Washington, a year later and I continued to train the dogs by bike on gravel roads. We competed in the three-dog class in the 1978 Priest Lake Pacific Coast Championships. Belaya Buccaneer, Abakan Maggie Whitehair, and Abakan Rosalinda de Llana ran on that three-dog team. In that two day race we finished in 12th place in a 36 team entry. We averaged speeds of around 15 mph. That year we received the Organization for the Working Samoyed Most Improved Team award.