Episode Details

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello, and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. She's had a genuine love of dogs all her life. Now, that love is leading a Bingham High School student to follow her dreams to compete professionally in the sport of Dog Sledding, also known as Dog Mushing. On this episode of the Supercast, we meet 17 year old Mary Christensen and her dogs, and find out what goes into getting these dogs to work as a team, racing to the top in competitive Dog Sledding.
We're here with Mary Christensen in her backyard in South Jordan, Utah. And Mary's gonna tell us why we're in her backyard. Mary, you're a student at Bingham. What's your hobby that brings us here today?

Mary:
You know the thing that keeps me going is dog sledding. That's my thing.

Anthony Godfrey:
Dog Sledding. Now in my mind driving over here, I'm thinking she's a musher. Is that a term? Is that a thing?

Mary:
That is the right term, yeah. The term comes from the word to go, ‘marche’, which is a French word that is traditionally used with mules. We don't really use that word anymore, but the term musher still applies.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now you pronounce it a little more, you know, with a little more French flare than I did. Tell me again how you pronounce it.

Mary:
A musher.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, so you are a musher, let's go back to the start. We got the dogs in the background and I wanna meet them in a second, but tell me, how did you get started with this? How did this pop into your mind that this is what you wanted to do?

Mary:
Yeah, I mean, you know, it all started when I was six years old. I've always loved animals, but I watched this movie called Iron Will. It's an old Disney movie from when I was six. And I just became enchanted with this idea of being out in the snow with dogs. My mom, you know, didn't wanna crush my little girl dreams. And she was like, “oh, you know, that's such a cute idea. Let me learn all about it.” But you know, we live in Utah and we didn't really think that was an actual thing to do. But for my 12th birthday, excuse me, my parents found a kennel that did dog sledding up next to Park City. And they got me like a kennel tour and I went up there, fell in love with it. They kind of thought it might turn me off a little bit. You know, they're like, “okay, it's been six years. Maybe we can end this a little bit.” And I just, even more, I went to summer camp and now I can't be done with it. I just keep going.

Anthony Godfrey:
So they were thinking maybe we can scare her straight if she sees what it really involves and she'll move on.

Mary:
Yeah, exactly. Especially that summer camp. They're like, “oh yeah, a week with dogs, with strangers, no way she's gonna make it.” And I came back with like the biggest grin on my face. My dad's like “you are covered head to toe and mud, and I've never seen you so happy.”

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me what it means to be a musher. Do you compete? Do you go to competitions? What does that look like?

Mary:
So, I mean, there's just different levels of it. I kind of started out more of a recreational musher, which is just, I had two dogs. Well, I mean, obviously I had one first, just kept growing from there, and I just took 'em out like on a little scooter and I'd be like “woo dog sledding!”. And then as I got more dogs, became more advanc