My Visit To Shaman Huskies in Rovaniemi
My name is Claudia and as you may already know, I am an intern of Visit Lapland for 4 months. And on Saturday, January 23th, I had the pleasure to pay a visit to Shaman Huskies, located in Rovaniemi.
Before I asked them for a visit, I looked up some background information about the company. And I was excited when I was reading that they are mainly focused on respecting the roots and traditions of the huskies and that their goal is to build an ecological environment for the dogs and themselves as well as for their guests because they are dedicated to protect the precious winters of Lapland.
Arrival at the Husky Farm
So I reached out to them and we agreed on this date a week in advance because the weather would be nicer in the weekend, since the weather forecast predicted some fresh snow. And indeed, the night before on Friday it snowed a lot, and even when I was driving to their place around Saturday noon, I had some little snowfall. The day of my visit it was around -14° degrees.
They informed me in advance about the exact location, because sometimes the GPS gives wrong direction and you end up at the other side of the river. But I didn’t stumble upon this situation, since they gave me the right directions. When I arrived at the place, I ended up in a beautiful location in the middle of nature only surrounded by the forest. And even though it was only 18 km out of the city center of Rovaniemi, it immediately gave me a feeling of being fully in nature and no sign of traffic sounds.
Meeting Inka, Jussi and the husky family
I was heartwarmingly welcomed by Inka and Jussi, the mom and dad of this husky family. They started in 2017, so they are going trough their 4th winter now. I received a private tour at their company and went into the homes of the huskies to greet and hug them. I also had the chance to say hi to their new born puppies of 4 months old.
After this introduction, I went live on Facebook (the link to this video will be at the end of this article, in case you missed it). During this live video, I had the opportunity to ask Inka and Jussi several questions to find out more about them, the dogs and their company. I also showed around the place in the video and later on, I was given the chance to participate with a husky sleigh ride. In general, the dogs were really calm, but once they noticed that they were grabbing the required things to get the sledge ready, they started to be really excited. Some were even jumping because the huskies immediately knew we were going for a ride.
Husky Ride Experience
Once we started riding, the dogs became really quiet and focused. For this ride, 8 dogs were running, divided in leader dogs, team dogs and wheel dogs. Every dog played their role in the pack perfectly. The ride was about 4 kilometers long and took me 20 minutes long into the forest and we even crossed the river, this was possible to do since 2 weeks. During the ride, I was even more impressed by the beauty of this place and I still get amazed by the real Arctic beauty (even after already living here for 6 months now).
I would like to thank Jussi and Inka to heartly welcome me and to introduce me to their warm family company. You can really notice how much time they are spending with their dogs and how strong their bond is with every single one. Don’t miss out this place if you find yourself in the area!
♥ Link of the Facebook live video: Facebook Live
By Claudia Martens/Visit Lapland
claudia.martens@ourlapland.fi
