Hi, my name is Ryan (@scenicroute.adventures) and together with my 5yr old Hungarian Vizsla Rhubarb we take part in the wonderful world of sleddog sports!
One of our early canicross runs in the local forest
We first visited Wiggle & Wag 3 years ago for a Non-stop Freemotion harness , Trail belt and 2m bungee line, so that we could join our local canicross club on some social runs.
At the time, Rhubarb’s recall and on-lead walking wasn’t great, so we were mainly looking for a fun way to burn off some of her working dog energy. Purely for fun, obviously. Definitely, definitely not planning to race…
BSSF Nationals Round #1 in Thetford Forest, 3rd place, Photo by Geoff Pirie
Fast forward to today and we now compete nationally in bikejor (dog pulling a mountain bike), are ranked 4th in the UK and are also ambassadors for Non-stop dogwear with Wiggle & Wag!
Last year was our first ever season racing and it completely exceeded my expectations. We’ve made so many new friends, travelled all over the country and also collected a medal or two along the way.
I think what I’m most proud of is showing that you don’t need to have a purpose bred dog to have fun doing a sport together! Sounds super cheesy but the bond you’ll create from working alongside each other is better than any medal, finishing on the podium is just a bonus.
BSSF Nationals rd #3 Scotland, 3rd place again!
In the UK, canicross and bikejor are predominantly winter sports, as ideally the weather needs to be pretty cool for the dogs to be able to run safely.
So from April - August we have swapped the 5:30am alarm and harness for other adventures. This summer we’ve been fortunate to do lots of camping and hiking, including a 2 week road trip exploring the Swiss alps where at one point Rhubarb was rolling in snow at the top of a mountain while the rest of Europe was in a heatwave!
Hiking in Chamonix, France this summer
We’ve kept Rhubarb in shape with lots of off lead time, canihiking and free running with the bike! For us, this time to decompress is just as (if not more) important than the sports stuff.
Bikejor is a team effort, so the summer harness break has also given me an opportunity to focus on my own training so I don’t slow Rhubarb down so much.
Evening training ride
Now that the weather is (hopefully) starting to cool down, it’s time to start thinking ahead to this winter, as we have something very exciting to work towards!
In the next post I’ll go into how we’ve been preparing for the upcoming race season and why we’re planning a roadtrip to Poland in November…