Saturday, September 18, 2010

Soul Mates

Everyone needs a friend.

You always hear stories of super natural talented lead dogs, amazingly smart dogs and stars, that develop within a sled dog team, youngsters that surprise by stepping up to leading big teams and such.

And then there are stories of friendship between the dogs, and the need to find their real soul mates and partners, sometimes in order to perform at their best, and to become who they are meant to be.
This is such a story.

Multiple Iditarod champion and musher I greatly admire, Martin Buser, once said, that one may be running a team full of Michael Jordans, but if they don´t work together well as a team, there will be no success.

I thought of this a lot today.

Ginger has always been a little dog, who never really "fit anywhere". It sounds awfully harsh and it always felt to me a bit sad, and I felt a bit of pitty for this crazy and "different" girl.

Although she sometimes surprises me with some leading potential, she can also drive me totally crazy more than often, when I decide for running her in lead, and she is her usual self. the jojo dog. The always confused, floating with her mind in some paralel universe dog. Which often makes her look dum.

Whatever position and whichever running partner I have ever chosen for her, Ginger was always somehow "sticking out". But not really in the "good way".

Often, she just seemed "ok", average. Keeping her line tight, but not really driven. As if something was missing.

Until today.

When I train the dogs, one of my priorities is to make sure everyone gets to run with everyone. This way, all the dogs learn to accept and tolerate each other, and cooperate - work as a team.

But I never really came upon (intentionally or not) a suitable partner for Ginger. Out of the big main string none.

And here comes today. Today I ran Ginger beside Rizey. Rizey is a two-year old and a real freshman on the main string. And similarly to Ginger, she seems a bit immature, a tad shy and unsecure.

As I watched all the dogs run, my eyes always turned back to this totally harmonical couple. Same step size, same gait, same hight, longer slender bodies. Two girls of a similar type.

Here they were, the perfecty cooperating couple, running as a brace, smoothly and enthusiastically. I haven´t seen such harmony in a long time.

I watched them during water breaks, and pauses when I praized the team. They were like twins, or I should say like one dog. Totally happy with each other and loving the company of one another. The "sparks" in the air and the spirit these two created, were almost physical.

Soul mates.

Sorry girls, that it took me so long to finally match you up. I am just an unperfect human!

1 comment:

Barbara said...

What a great story, Katerina!