Farm and Safari Equipment

Farm and Safari Equipment

How we source sustainably and make much of our own equipment, from sleds and lines to kennels, harnesses and collars, in one of the most remote regions of Europe.

Sourcing Sustainably: we live in such a remote region that there are only three shops within 100km of us. Sourcing goods sustainably, using short supply chains and keeping money in the local economy is therefore challenging, particularly for specialist equipment. To help, we work with other farms to order and collect things from afar together, minimising transport costs and emissions.

Wood we cannot supply from our own farm comes from local sawmills. We buy reused or recycled products whenever possible - for instance the paper-mill waste material used to cover our kotas - and in turn reuse and recycle our own paper and plastics and carefully monitor the sustainability of our wood use.

  • Only three shops within 100km - goods sourced sustainably via short supply chains and cooperative orders with other farms
  • Client sleighs are mostly Bjorkis toboggan sleighs from Kiruna, Sweden; brakes (drag, claw and anchor) built in
  • Around 200 necklines made in-house each year; main lines bought from Muonionautotarvike in Muonio
  • Colour-coded Bjorkis harnesses (black > pink > black adult > yellow > blue > red size 4) and collars (red for females/castrated males, green/blue/black for males)
  • Weekly checks of sleighs, lines, harnesses, cages and running circles

Choice of Sleds

Most of our client sleighs are toboggan sleighs - a low carriage and closed bed, good at floating over deep snow - built by Bjorkis, a dog-sledding company in Kiruna, Sweden. We also have one from Oinakka in Kiruna and a couple of slightly bigger basket versions built by Juha Pekka from Ivalo, whose beds sit several inches above the snow, like the short-bodied sleds often used in racing; these suit larger passengers and families. A couple of larger, heavier family freight sleighs can take a whole family, driven by a guide - generally only during our Father Christmas season!

All our sleds have drag and claw brakes built in and runners sticking out behind for the musher to stand on; guide and multiday safari sleighs also carry anchor brakes. After each safari, sleighs are put away in a custom-built shelter rather than left in the snow, to prolong their life and improve safety.

Choice of Lines

We make a lot of our lines ourselves and do all our in-season repairs, but we also buy ready-made main lines from Muonionautotarvike in Muonio. With c. 15 companies within a 100km radius of Muonio, demand has grown enough for local suppliers to standardize designs for frequently used products like lines. We still have to size and splice our own backlines, but this makes the starting point much less work. We have in-house guides for making necklines - about 200 a year - and for splicing leads and making the skijoring lines we use when training the dogs.

Choice of Kennels

We make a lot of our kennels ourselves from locally sourced materials. All of the kennels in the cages, for instance, are made to our own design and have a double entrance so that there is no chance of one dog denying another access in bad weather. We also took part in a research project looking into optimal dog-sled kennel design.

Choice of Harnesses and Collars

We use primarily Bjorkis harnesses, ideal for our fluffier Siberian-style dogs, and colour-code them all by size. Pups start in black harnesses with reflectors, graduate into pink training harnesses, then into the smallest (black) adult harnesses. Some females stay in black for their working lives; many work in yellow (the next size up) and some are big enough for standard blue. Our very largest dogs use red, size 4 Bjorkis harnesses, while a few of our more greyhound-like Alaskan huskies fit Manmat or classic Non-Stop harnesses.

Females and castrated males wear red collars; males wear green, blue or black. This is especially helpful for similar-looking siblings, giving new guides one more clue that they have grabbed the correct dog when putting teams together - and so preventing unwanted pregnancies.

Maintaining Our Equipment

We take pride in keeping our equipment in optimal working order, so we run weekly checks of sleighs, lines, harnesses and all the cages and running circles, fixing problems almost as soon as they occur. In summer our area fills with berries the birds love, so to stop them pooping purple all over our sleighs we cover the sleigh shelter with netting. Each summer also brings new building projects, all gradually aimed at improving life for the dogs and guides.

Line shed for storing safari lines
Bird netting over the sleigh shelter to protect the sleds
Repairing and maintaining safari sleighs