Blind Sled Dog - Indy, raced 120 miles at Beargrease
See the heartwarming story about Indy. The aspiring lead dog, which due to a rare disease, tragically went blind on both eyes. Despite losing his sight at a ...
Indy started racing at an early age and was a natural born talent. He was groomed to become on of the top lead dogs on the team. Indy finished the Beargrease Marathon when he was only two years old, running on Frank Moe's team. Fast forward to the summer of 2016. The energy ball tragically lost one of his eyes to a rare disease known as lens luxation.
“We still ran him, but then he lost his sight in his other eye too. It took him about a year to get used to being totally blind,” Moe says.
Due to his very high energy level, and other heightened senses, fantasy mushing wasn’t an option.
“We couldn’t just not run him. He was clearly very upset when the other dogs took off for a run,” Moe says.
After many years of training in order for him to get back into the racing flow, including practicing with the older dogs and running in smaller races, Indy is now ready to mush in Beargrease again.
He has been trained as if he was going to race the marathon racing dogs and this, without a question, gave results. According to Moe Indy almost looks as good as he was when he was a two years old, and was one of the best dogs on the team.
“He was happy and wagging his tail. He was ready to go again. It’s like he was saying Dad, I’m back.”
Frank Moe, Indy, and seven of his teammates this year raced the Beargrease 120. As the team came in 5th, Indy might not have run in lead, but surely did a great job in the “Wheel” position!
