Hank DeBruin

Hank runs our fastest and biggest string of dogs, his goal of running the Iditarod has been the focus of our life and kennel for the past 10 years.  Hanks life pre-husky was in the agriculture industry.  Growing up on a dairy farm, he worked on farms for 10 years before pursueing a career in agriculture millwrighting and still does some of that  work when not running dogs. He is an incredibly focused person who loves nothing better than heading out into the wilderness with our treasured dogs and his committment to them and theirs to him is 120%.  While you can go faster with an Alaskan Husky our commitment has stayed with the Beautiful, head strong Siberian and working on how to best showcase the true distance potential of this amazing breed.  A journalist (Erin Lynch) went dogsledding with Hank several years ago and wrote this about his love of running dogs and his relationship with them.

"Watching men who love their jobs work is like watching the stars come out when the world is muffled by snow and you can almost hear them sing. DeBruin is one of those men. He gets a bigger rush out of running the dogs than racing his V-Max motorcycle at 180 miles per hour   DeBruin walked between the teams of dogs asking them if they were ready to run. He knelt down, his face even with Dixie and Chinook, my lead dogs, as he worked them up and ruffled their fur. All the dogs started barking like a pack of teenagers at a concert when a hot singer yells, "Are you ready to rock?"  The excitement built as DeBruin worked his way down the gangline. Energy flowed from DeBruin to the dogs and back. It crackled in the air and seeped through multiple layers of clothes to infuse me with excitement."

Logan McCready-DeBruin

At 9 Logan is following in his dad's footsteps and they often can be found talking dogs.  Logan is already talking about running the Junior Iditarod as soon as he is old enough and currently runs a 4 dog team on his own or goes along with his Dad on long runs with the distance team on a second sled.  He has been racing 1-3 dog dog teams since he was 3 in the Haliburton Highlands Dogsled Derby that we organize every year.  Last year he ran a yearling Junior on his team that he had picked and when he finished the season he told Hank that Junior was ready for Dad's team.  He was right!

Dustyn McCready-DeBruin

7 year old Dustyn is following in Dad's and big brothers steps and also loves running and playing with dogs.  Dustyn loves having fun over all else and currently runs and races a 2 dog team.  He is however picking some of Dad's fastest dogs lately rather than being happy with our older, slower dogs like he was a year ago.  Dustyn has also been competing in our local race since he was 3 and his claim to fame was having a local photographer win a photo contest with a picture of him running Harley in the kid & mutt race in 2007.  As a result the picture was posted on the Kodak billboard in Times Square, New York City the opening day of the Iditarod 2007 to wish mushers good luck, the year Lance Mackey started his domination of the sport!

Michaela McCready-DeBruin

At just barely 3 Michaela's dogsledding expereince is limited to say the least, but she loves pushing her sled around, going for rides with Dad and the guides, and playing  with the dogs especially as she calls her "my Joey" (a 10 year old retired girl) and Strawberry (the yearling pup that she named).  At 2 she was persitant on taking "her" sled to the 2008 Haliburton races and running in the kid & mutt race.  She and Devil got 2nd.  Damion Robb of the Jamaican Dogsled Team insisted on getting his picture taken with her, the youngest musher he had ever met!