The faces behind the kennel
Ben 32 originally from the UK
I have been brought up around dogs all my life. In 2008, I took the chance of a handler position at Axehandle Mountain in the north of Sweden. A kennel with just shy of 100 amazing Siberian Huskies. At 19, I packed up my terribly equipped Landover & drove, searching for the first sight of snow at every mile that clicked through the dodgy clocks on the dashboard. The drive in itself was fun but that is certainly a story in itself. At Axehandle Mountain, I realized fast that this was what I wanted. I learnt so so much about dogs, tourists and myself. I can never pay Graham and Elizabeth back for this no matter what!
After some years back in the UK, the time came to take the gamble on buying a place in Sweden with the plan of starting to set up a tourist company for myself and live the dream life that I had longed for in the snow with my dogs! After a few difficult years of setbacks in setting up a kennel whilst renovating my house and enjoying my new love of Alaskan huskies I met Naomi. We both have the same dream, ambition and vision to build the best team of dogs with all the fun that our athletes and our team can handle on the way!
Naomi 28 originally from the Netherlands.
As a young girl, I watched the Iditarod and every sleddog movie that you can think of and more, Then I watched them again! From such a young age, I was fascinated with sleddogs, cold climates and extreme winter sports. It was always a dream of mine to have my own sleddog. When I was 15, I bought my first Siberian husky (Zoy). Zoy was a rehomed dog and grew to gain several nicknames from my family, but that is for a later story. Zoy destroyed my parents' house along with any belongings that he could get his paws or teeth on & to say the least got us both into quite some trouble.
It all began from there... Zoy started pulling me on my bicycle and we would be out in the forest literally every free hour that I had.
I heard about a sleddog kennel close to where I lived and decided to contact them and see if they could maybe help or advise how I should continue to learn with this energetic dog! After being at their kennel for the first time, I knew that this was exactly what I wanted to do. I became their handler for the next 7 years. Within those amazing and educational years, I dreamt of the snow and a real sled! It was amazing to drive dryland in both training and competitions; however, those films and the Iditarod videos were still screaming out at me from the far back of my mind.
In 2015, I started a new chapter in Swedish Lapland. I have been a handler in this time for both Siberian and Alaskan husky kennels whilst putting together my own small team of Siberian huskies. I started competing in sprint races both dryland and on snow. The more time I spent doing this the more I confirmed to myself that there was nothing more that I wanted to do with my life!
Fast forward a few years and I met Ben, an English guy living in Sweden with some Alaskan Huskies. To say that this was something I did not see coming is an understatement, that goes for an English guy and the Alaskan Huskies! It is amazing to start our journey together and share a lifestyle that our dogs and we thrive in!