Emil Inauen had planned long ago to breed Leda. But the bitch is such a key dog in Inauen's racing team that the project had to be postponed many times. After she led Inauen to an impressive victory, it was now time for Leda to produce future champions.

Leda wearing the Golden Harness (Photo Clotilde Richalet)

Leda is out of strong long-distances lines as her father, Bronco, is out of the main breeding lines from Joe Runyan. Leda's grandfather led Runyan to the victory in the late Alpirod and did run great in long-distance races like Iditarod or Kobuk 440. As the only daughter left out of bronco, she followed his path when she was in Emil's team when he took the 5th place and the rookie of the year award in the 2005 Finnmarkslopet 500,, setting the best result for a non-scandinavian team so far, showing some real long distance skills. 5 years later, she's still amazing as she won LGO this year. Like her grandfather won the Alpirod, she won LGO (which took the place of the late Alpirod.) Talking about heredity ?

The puppies a few days after their birth (photo: Emil Inauen)

The 7 healthy puppies will receive their mother's qualities but also the ones of their father who is out of the greatest norwegian long-distance lines. We may see the best of the 4 males and the 3 females in La Grande Odyssée Savoie Mont Blanc 2012.

The birth happened with no problem during the night of the 23rd of march. Two days after the start of spring and... Inauen's birthday ! That's the kind of present he's found of, for sure. Leda has already prooved that more than a tremendous sleddog, she is also a sweet and caring mother.

Emil's will is to work on long-distance lines with dogs having great endurance qualities and also some extra spedd compare to older long-distance lines. A kind of modern long-distance sleddog. That's also the way most top-competitive kennel are taking now. As the level is getting higher and higher, the endurance is still a key skill to be in the top but among the top, some extra speed can make the final distance. Emil is also dedicated to show that with an appropriate training his long-distance dogs could do as great on long-distances races than on long-distance stage races like LGO and even beat houndier teams.

Emil will be back on La Grande Odyssée Savoie Mont Blanc 2011 to try to become the first musher ever to be a double LGO champion.

To know more about Emil and his sleddogs, don't miss the documentary: That's Mushing!

Visit Emil Inauen's website.