About Amanda

Amanda dropping dogs in Tok

Amanda was born in Sydney, Australia. Having grown up on the beach and having horses, Amanda loved the outdoors.  As soon as she was allowed, she moved to the country to work with race horses.  After working with horses in Australia and Japan for over 15 years, she decided to go to university and completed a bachelors in Natural Resource Management at the University of New England.  During this degree Amanda attended Colorado State University as part of an exchange program.  It was here that she fell in love with the North American wilderness.  On returning to Australia to complete her degree, Amanda decided that she needed to be back in North America and chose Alaska for its remoteness and wildlife.  It was a good decision.

On arriving in Fairbanks, Alaska Amanda felt like she had finally arrived at home.

Taka

Never doing things by halves, she quickly observed the lifestyle of the locals and got a dog.  Taka was her first dog, an Alaskan husky with blue eye and very relaxed personality.  Taka taught Amanda how to skijor, and Taka was observed to sometimes sigh, and sometimes laugh at Amanda trying to learn to ski at the same time.  As the snowball effect  starts, Amanda got three dogs from the Second Chance League.  These dogs, Avril, Miley, and Tas have turned out to be some of the most important dogs in the kennel.

In 2004, Amanda had 2 litters of puppies which now make the basis of her team.  The dogs are from the Ellis/Sellentin bloodlines.  These dogs started out at yearlings in the 6-dog class, and have moved their way up to the 10-dog class.

Amanda runs a very small kennel, with just 10 racing dogs.  This is both an advantage and a detriment.  The advantage is that she gets to spend a lot of time bonding with each dog, which creates a great trust between the dogs and human.  The disadvantage is that Amanda has no replacements if one of her team members gets injured – this means she must run a conservative race while also trying to compete at the highest level.

Amanda’s goals for racing are to win the Limited North American, and to compete at the highest level in other top limited class races in Alaska.  She finished top 3 in all but 2 races in 2009, to finish in the top 3 or better is her goal for 2010.

Amanda works at Goldstream Sports as the marketing manager, and she also works for the Alaska Center for Energy and Power, at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.