Dark Sky Racing Kennels

Long post ahead!

Today marks the end of the first week of the Chinese New Year of the Fire Horse and it seems to be as good as a time as any to (finally!) share our adventures from this past year.

2025 (year of the Wood Snake) was destined to be a year of reflection and redefinition. We dialed things waaaayyy back but managed to dip our toes into the race world a bit and couldn’t be more proud of our crew.

Artemis, Petra, and Erato held podium finishes with Brigid at the IFSS Continental Championships and the Minocqua Almost Winter Dryland Dash October, 2024 and again at the Farmer’s Loop dryland race in Michigan April, 2025 but our race schedule was otherwise thin for the 2024-2025 race season.

Our 2025-2026 started off with the IFSS World Championships and World Masters 2025 held in Minocqua, Wisconsin. This absolutely will forever be one of our top highlights of our racing experiences. We cannot be more grateful to the United States Federation of Sled Dog Sports for making this happen and cannot thank all the volunteers and athletes from over 20+ countries throughout the world enough for being a part of it.

ARTEMIS
This girl has grit and held her own finishing middle-ish of the pack with Brigid in the Elite Bikejor class. She is such a beast and just keeps going!

LYRA
What can we say? Forever our rockstar, Lyra absolutely rocked it at her THIRD world championship event. Sarah was coaxed out of near canicross retirement into entering the Womens Masters 40 Canicross class and couldn’t say no to racing it with Lyra. Lyra was absolutely all smiles and sailed into 6th place. Never thought we would see a top 10 finish at a World Championships in canicross, but we did! Don’t tell Lyra she’ll be 9 next week.

ERATO
And then there’s our up and coming superstar. Can we just say chef’s kiss? This tiny beast is the bee’s knees. Sarah decided to race with her in the Womens Masters 40 Bikejor and after a respectable Day 1 time, this turbo ended up having the fastest time of the class Day 2 landing in 2nd place. To be fair, there were plenty in the Elite Bikejor class with faster times who could have entered the Womens Masters, but we’ll bask in the glory while we can.
Erato raced again in 2-Dog Scooter and was on her A-game with Petra and Brigid holding their own among a stacked class with phenomenal athletes.

PETRA
Despite few races, this last year and a half has been Petra’s time to shine and earned her a place to compete at her second World Championship. She has been on fire during training runs, especially running double lead with Erato. She had a solid race in 2-Dog Scooter with Erato and Brigid.

DMITRY and RAN laid low hanging at home this round, but were there in more than just spirit. Two of Ran’s puppies – Fika (Karsk) and Pommac (Glogg) - from her litter with Choixlibre Kennel’s Billy raced in 6-Dog Rig. And they rocked it! Proving Alaskans can still play in this Eurohound game at the World Championships and we couldn’t be more proud.

Good race vibes continue into 2026. While most of our races out West have been cancelled, Brigid was able to sneak in the Grand Mesa Summit Challenge racing in 4-Dog with Lyra, Petra, Ran, and Artemis. 2025 ended mid December with Erato straining her iliopsoas on a training run and Sarah fracturing her hand during a bike crash all in the same weekend, so they sat it out with Dmitry at home. But, the Blond Bombshells + the One-Non-Blond proved they can still play in the snow and land 1st place.

So, onward to the Year of the Fire Horse!

An excellent article and interview with our Team USA teammate!

We realize that most of our followers are already aware of what bikejoring is, but so many cyclists, mountain bikers, dog-owners, and even some mushers really do not understand what our sport is about.

Bikejoring is so much more than simply having a dog pulling someone on a bike.

Bikejor is the all-out MTB competition you've never heard of Lauren Stierman is representing the United States at the IFSS bikejor World Championships in October.

We are fortunate to be able to train year-round, but some mornings are even more perfect

[From Brigid's page]

It is so much work to live with sled dogs. They're great friends, but terrible pets.

Then you have cold morning run with a golden sunrise, and all the work and time you spend training for years just comes together perfectly.

We all had an amazing time today. Smiles all around.

And we're back!

We dialed things way back this past year, but fall racing season is fast approaching.

As are the 2025 International Federation of Sled Dog Sports Dryland World Championships . . . and we'll be there!

The United States Federation of Sled Dog Sports worked hard to win the bid to host the Championships this round and we could not be more excited. Teams from around the world will be meeting and racing in Wisconsin and it is such an honor to be among such amazing human and canine athletes.

We're still working on our line-up, but Brigid will be racing in 2-Dog Scooter and Elite 1-Dog Bikejor. Sarah will racing racing in the Masters Canicross and 1-Dog Bike.

Picture from last fall's Continental Championships with Erato and Petra in their podium run in 2-Dog Scooter.