Married to it

UNALAKLEET — Silvia Willis wasn’t lucky enough to be born into a mushing family, so she did the next best thing.

She married into one.

Willis originally left her native Switzerland to train Icelandic show horses in Canada. After one summer of training the horses — known for their elegant, distinctive gait — she met the Valley’s Willis family, who in addition to training Icelandic horses on their own, also ran sled dogs.

They also had a son, Andy.

“That’s how I met my husband,” Silvia said Monday while taking a break from her second Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race at the Unalakleet checkpoint.

Andy Willis is also an Iditarod finisher, as is his father, Bernie, and brother, Tony.

With her new family connection to spur her interest, Silvia quickly switched from horses to canines, and it turned out she was a natural.

Veteran Iditarod musher DeeDee Jonrowe met Silvia through the Willis family. She said Monday that Silvia’s background in training horses made her a quick study when it came to running dogs.

“She’s really gifted with animals,” Jonrowe said.

Jonrowe said she thinks Silvia’s experience with Icelandic horses was a big advantage when the Alaskan newcomer began her mushing career.

“She didn’t need a whole lot of help,” Jonrowe said.

Willis said there are some parallels between the two sports.

“I can look at a dog and I can tell you what gait the dog has, if it’s a clear gait or if it’s off,” she said. “Usually that’s something that takes years of experience to be able to look at a dog and tell he’s not right in his gait and find out injuries, so that helps a lot.”

Willis’ first running of the Iditarod last year was an unqualified success. Just a rookie, she placed 26th last year, finishing just two seconds behind Iditarod legend Rick Swenson.

 Jonrowe said she thinks Silvia is a natural born musher.

“She’s got it nailed,” Jonrowe said.

Running at the edge of the top-20 again this year, Willis said this year’s race has been a challenge because of slow trail conditions that have delayed many mushers along the trail.

 “It seems like my dogs are really good but I’m not getting anywhere,” she said.

Still, she said she’s not giving up on her goal of improving from last year’s finish. But just because she’s had quick success in the sport, she said that doesn’t mean she’s planning on becoming the next mushing star. Her kennel has only about 18 dogs, she said, and she doesn’t plan on making mushing a full-time gig.

“I’d like to be competitive, but I’m not going to be too competitive,” she said.

She and Andy run a fishing guide service on the Deshka River that takes up a lot of the couple’s time, and Silvia said that to be a top-flight musher would simply take up too much time and resources.

“It’s just too expensive and it’s a huge commitment. You can’t do anything else,” she said.

For the time being, Willis said she’s content to run dogs for fun and see how well she can do, then move on.

“I think I would like to travel,” she said.

But while she wants to see more of the world than just the Iditarod trail, Willis said she plans on making Alaska her home for good.

“Absolutely.”

Contact Matt Tunseth at 352-2265 or matt.tunseth@frontiersman.com