Iditarod Story On Newton Stirling

[Bruce]

«
Eye on the Back of the Pack – Marshall, Fiedler, and Davis

Date: March 12, 2010 at 12:02 pm

Ingenious Bootie Horn

Just like kids who are ready to return to school after winter break, Newton Marshall left McGrath with a team of happy dogs who were ready to hit the trail. Being lazy in a checkpoint is fine for a little while but they’d rather by running. Newton gave his dogs soup, packed his cooker and dog dishes then set about putting coats and booties on the dogs before putting his own parka on and being lead out of the checkpoint.

As Newton’s mentor and coach, Lance Mackey has undoubtedly shared lots of small tricks that make a big difference. Do you know what a shoe horn is? Well, Newton was using a bootie horn to slide booties onto 56 paws. Just as the shoehorn is inserted into the heel of the shoe to make the human foot slide into a shoe easier, Newton inserted a half circle of plastic into the bootie to allow the dog’s paws to slide in easier.

The horn was attached to his wrist by a short piece of wire and elastic band making it easy to pull the horn out of the bootie as he was fastening the Velcro strip. It didn’t take him long to get all the booties in place, a task made more efficient with the ingenious little bootie horn. While doing his pre-departure chores, Newton asked what the temperature was. One of the spectators checked the thermometer outside the checkpoint and reported a reading of 8 degrees.

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Marshall out of McGrath

(Edited for space - Bruce)

[Stonigut]

Very nice, gives you a good peek into the race.

[Sickko]

You meant Newton Marshall, right? I did a double take when I saw Stirling and wondered why Mosiah's client would be running behind dogs after he had such a s good start with Arnett