Leonhard Seppala

To begin his new hobby, Seppala bought some young racing Huskies from a certain Jafet Lindeberg. Lindeberg had originally intended to sell the dogs to the famous Norwegian adventurer Roald Amundsen, for an attempt to reach the pole, but Amundsen had had to abandon the try when World War I broke out. So, Seppala got to run his new team in the 1914 All Alaska Sweepstakes Race, but he was badly defeated. He got lost in a whiteout blizzard and came within a few feet of a 200 foot precipice. Only the immediate responsiveness of his native Siberian lead dog, Suggen, prevented complete tragedy. Undeterred by his scary experience, Seppala simply made plans to try again the following year.

Seppala went on to a brilliant racing carer with his Huskies, winning the All Alaska Sweepstakes in 1915, 1916 and 1917. Seppala won races not just in Alaska, however, but also in New England and all over the east coast of the United States. Seppala proved the Husky's ability to race at all distances, not just marathons. Today, Huskies excel at so-called middle distance racing, 30 to 60 miles. Well, its middle distance for them, if not for us.

Seppala won so often that he was accused of being a "Superman", and of hypnotizing his opponents. Yet never, in all his years of racing, did Seppala ever strike his team. Only once did he even crack his whip - and that was in order to get the dogs up quickly after a short rest. Today, it is against the rules for mushers to even carry whips in sanctioned sled dog races.

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