Aurora

There are a lot of different kinds of lead dogs, and then there are the dogs who lead because they know they belong up there. Aurora is one of those dogs, a dog that never tires from leadership, and who at times seems offended if I place her elsewhere in the team. Since 2019, if Aurora is in the team she is in lead. I’m not kidding. Every training run, every race….every run. For three years, if Aurora is in the team she is leading the team. As a confident, whip-smart, hard-driving, and totally focused dog, I have no problems with Aurora leading every run.

Aurora has a natural leadership, and is the kind of leader who leads because she believes in being in the front of the team. During hook up, she trots to the front of the team and sits patiently waiting, calm and serious; but the moment I put on my parka, she explodes in drive and leans forward.

Aurora is the most skilled leader in the team for navigating rough trail conditions, from open mud spots to water bars to ice to deep snow and trail breaking, and I love watching her weave her way across challenges. Her favorite co-leaders are Willie Nelson Jr, and her sister Ariel. Of her pups, she prefers Jameson and Skee as her co-leaders.  

I’ve said this often, but while it is always difficult to describe siblings without reference to one another, Aurora and Ariel are twinned unlike any other siblings I’ve seen. I did get a palpable sigh of relief from Ariel when her sister moved to the team in 2018, as if to say ‘finally, someone who is like me.’ Aurora and Ariel are the two spoiled house dog leaders, which gave me the opportunity to realize that Aurora’s tail wag is so persistent she even wags her tail in her sleep. 

In 2019, I also got to experience Aurora as a mom, when she brought nine puppies into the world fathered by the energizer bunny Zippo. Aurora is a very good mom, who had a hard time separating herself from her pups.

Aurora, like her sister Ariel, are two of the leaders who inspire me to be a better human, a better woman. Ariel who single leads, carrying the water on her own, and Aurora who raised a healthy strong litter of NINE puppies….and then six months later threw down and won every race she entered, including the most competitive 100 mile race in New England, the Can Am 100. May I someday be like you, fierce mama Aurora.

Aurora, and Ariel, were the ‘Disney Princess’ litter bred by the Stielstras. The funniest part about that litter was that it was all girls, with exactly one boy, who was named ‘Prince Charming’ and is one of the least-driven of the entire litter.

Born: 2013
Solomon (Little) x Swann (Stielstra)

Mother of the Jersey Shore/ aka Lilliputians: Bruce Springsteen, Squan, Riptide, Jameson, Skee Ball (and Coppertone, Fried Dough, Tappan Zee, and Carlson)

Race Experience:

2022:
Wilderness 35: 6th place, leader
Can Am 30: 12th place, leader

2020
Blue Mtn 30 mile (leader) 1st place
Can Am 100 (leader) 1st place

2019:
Beargrease Marathon

Yukon Quest 1,000 mile race 2018
Iditarod 1,000 mile race 2017 and 2016