aksheephuntress Posted February 16, 2009 Report Share Posted February 16, 2009 Jamaican musher starts Quest Rookie is a quick study under mentor Hans Gatt By MATIAS SAARI Fairbanks Daily News-Miner via The Associated Press Published: February 15th, 2009 10:08 PM Last Modified: February 16th, 2009 08:23 AM Newton Marshall was working as a horseback-riding guide for Chukka Caribbean Adventures in Jamaicawhen a phone call changed his life in 2005. Click to enlarge Jamaican dog musher Newton Marshall, 25, got started giving cart rides using shelter dogs in his home country. Story tools Comments (10) Recommend (0) E-mail a friend Print Share on Facebook Digg this Seed Newsvine Send link via AIM Yahoo! Buzz Font size : A | A | A The person taking care of some dogs Chukka had adopted from a shelter was leaving. The tour company needed someone to fill in right away. "They said, 'Newton, can you look after some dogs' '' Marshall said. "I said, 'No problem.' " Before long, Chukka began giving cart rides using the shelter dogs. Not long after that, company chairman Danny Melville formed the Jamaica Dogsled Team, and Marshall, who drove the cart-pulling dogs, was among those chosen to work with sled-pulling dogs. These days, Marshall is about as far away as a person can be from Jamaica, at least in latitudinal respects. On Saturday he became the first Jamaican to race in either of mushing's premier distance races, joining 28 other mushers in Whitehorse for the start of the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Championship. Watching from afar will be Jimmy Buffet, the singer-songwriter who is one of the team's biggest sponsors. Watching more closely will be Hans Gatt, the three-time Quest champion who has coached Marshall for a year. Gatt is providing him with a team of huskies and a detailed race plan for the 1,000-milejourney to Fairbanks. After getting his mushing initiation in Minnesota, Marshall hooked up last winter with Gatt, who lives a half-hour south of Whitehorse. Gatt became involved when he met Melville at a dinner with Quest officials in Whitehorse. ADVERTISEMENT Melville invited Gatt to visit Jamaica. Gatt accepted, and once there, "Danny came up with the idea it would be possible to run the Yukon Quest with a Jamaican musher," Gatt said. "He needed to find somebody that knew how to do it, so he approached me." Marshall, 25, proved a quick study, especially for a guy who had never seen snow before. He placed seventh and won the sportsmanship award at the 2008 Percy DeWolfe Memorial Race in Dawson City. He was 21st among 47 starters in this winter's Sheep Mountain 150 and 13th in an extreme Copper Basin 300 that featured frigid cold, a stretch of open water and sugar-snow conditions. Like any rookie, he's had accidents but nothing catastrophic. "I never lose a sled on the trail and in the races," Marshall said. "And I tip (over) now and then, but not much." At the Copper Basin 300, Marshall drew bib No. 1 and had to break trail some of the time. "Sometimes on the trail I didn't know where I was going -- if I was still on the trail," he said in a report carried by the Caribbean Net News. "But we'd find the trail again and get to the next checkpoint, where the people were always very nice." Many Jamaicans have taken notice of Marshall's pursuits, but none seem envious of the realities that come with training for a race like the Quest -- cold-weather camping, long hours of hard work and visits to remote places virtually devoid of civilization. "My friends think I'm a madman," Marshall said, a huge smile swallowing his face. "They said I'm sick." That mindset doesn't faze him. "I'm the first black man and first Jamaican (in the Quest), so I'm quite proud of that," Marshall said. "I will just work off the schedule, and hopefully, it will get me to the finish line." For Gatt, working with Marshall persuaded him to come out of quasi-retirement; after the 2007 Quest, he said he might be done with the race. He said he's impressed by Marshall's ability to pick up quickly on a complex sport and by his attitude. "When I look back, it is amazing what he had to learn in a short time. Most people take years to gain that knowledge," Gatt said. "He never gets bummed out, even when things get tough." After this mushing season, Marshall will return to Jamaica and his cart-mushing job. He'd love to keep racing sled dogs, though. "I'll see what my boss can do," he said. "He comes up with all the plans, and I'm just here riding along with him." ERIC ENGMAN / Fairbanks Daily News-Miner via The Associated Press / Jamaican dog musher Newton Marshall laughs with race veteran William Kleedehn of Carcross, Yukon, on Feb. 11, 2009, during Meet the Mushers at the Mount MacIntyre Recreation and Convention Center in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heavy Metal Posted February 16, 2009 Report Share Posted February 16, 2009 cool runnins'II !!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
92xj Posted February 16, 2009 Report Share Posted February 16, 2009 feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, get on up it's bobsled time.....er.....dog sled time!!!! :D:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heavy Metal Posted February 16, 2009 Report Share Posted February 16, 2009 feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, get on up it's bobsled time.....er.....dog sled time!!!! :D:DLOL!! EXACTUALLY!!:cool: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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