FARMINGTON – Sometimes it pays to have four legs and fur, and Saturday at the Sandy River Farm in Farmington was one of those times. It was the first day of the two-day Down East Sled Dog Club’s fifth annual Farmington race event, and the whipping wind made it feel colder than the 35 degrees on the temperature gauge.

The Sandy River Farm, located just south of downtown on land owned by Bussie and Brenda York, is large enough for the club to set up trail runs of four, six and even 10 miles for competitors. Covering distances like those might be an all day project for many of us, but the dog teams were finishing the 4-mile run in less than 11 minutes.

“Everything is running really well today,” said organizer Joy Turner, noting that Friday’s icy weather hadn’t slowed the dogs. “It sounded pretty bad outside last night, so I was a little worried, but the snow underneath the ice has helped a lot.” Turner said the start of the races had to be delayed a few hours so event volunteers could break up the ice on the trails. “It can really cut the dogs’ feet when they punch through. It takes a lot of work to make sure nothing goes wrong out there.”

Turner said the poor weather leading up to Saturday actually gave an unexpected boost to this year’s event. “We were only expecting about 45 teams, but another big race running opposite us this weekend was canceled because they were expecting heavy ice,” she explained. “We ended up with about 20 of the teams that were planning to go there.”

Each team runs in two heats, one on each day of the event. There are different categories based on expertise and number of dogs, ranging from kids’ sleds with one dog all the way to an “unlimited” division with as many as 20 dogs.

Among those racing in the 6-dog professional division is veteran musher Rob Bibber of Vassalboro. Bibber, who has been racing in the pros for about 2 years, talked about the enthusiasm the dogs bring to the races. He got started in dog sledding after his wife, Karen, gave him a Siberian Husky puppy several years ago. “I walked him and walked him, but it wasn’t enough to exercise him, so I started looking at websites on dog sledding. It’s 7 years later, and we have 23 dogs,” he said.

Bibber also described the work it takes to get ready for race day. “Training is one thing and conditioning is another,” he explained. “We start our conditioning in early September by letting them pull a four wheeler at about 10-12 miles per hour. We slowly let them go a little farther and a little faster until hopefully they’re ready to win when we come to a race.”

Erica Mayo and Dustin Hackett, a sledding couple from Wilton who are competing in the 4-dog sport division, said that training for sled dogs can start early. “You can even put a little harness on them when they’re puppies and let them pull around a block of wood,” said Hackett as the couple placed a litter of Husky puppies into their traveling compartment for the ride home. “Just so they know they’re pulling something.”

When asked about their races and why they compete, the couple repeated a sentiment that seemed common among the organizers and mushers at the event. “We do it for fun,” said Mayo. “We do it for the dogs.”