A Tribute to Forrest; Pence in the Snow

This week’s newsletter is brought to you by:

Boost Your Income with Lysted

Looking for a side hustle? Lysted lets you resell tickets effortlessly. List once and reach buyers on platforms like StubHub and Ticketmaster. Our pricing tools help you get the best value, and you’ll receive fast payouts, usually within weeks. It’s a simple and profitable way to turn unused tickets into extra cash.

Start selling with Lysted today!

Hi friends! What a roller coaster of a week it has been. First and foremost, we were so sad to hear about the passing of our friend Forrest. Our hearts go out to Blair and Q, and the rest of the BraverMountain team.

It’s weird to think we can care so much about someone else’s dog(s). But we’ve really gotten to know and love him over the last few years.

The photo below is one of the first times we met Forrest back in October of 2020. We were playing at the cranberry bog with Blair and a few dogs, when I looked over and saw Riley and Forrest hugging in the trees.

At dryland races, Forrest mostly ran canicross with JT. However, I was fortunate enough to have him on my first every four dog team in a dryland race in October of 2023.

Although we did not get to run with him in the snow in December, we were able to give up a lot of pets and love. Forrest was a big dog, with an even bigger heart. He has now earned his silver harness. Run, Forrest, run free.

As for what we’ve been up to in the past week…we got more snow! We got about 4 more inches of snow on top of what we already had. I believe I saw a stat on the news that said we haven’t had this much of a snow pack for this many days in over a decade. Of course, we only got all this snow because we left our sled up north. If we would've brought it back with us, we probably wouldn’t have any lol

But that didn’t stop us from trying!! Over the weekend, I took Pence to my dad’s house to free run in the snow. She loved it. She did her little happy trot and kangaroo jumps all over the yard.

I was sad that we didn’t have a sled to play with since we finally had enough snow in Indiana, so I tried to improvise. I remember seeing a video of Blair being pulled on a “kids sled” at some point, so I figured I’d give it a shot. I dug out an old sled from my dad’s garage, hooked Pence up, and sat down in the snow.

The snow was soft, and I sunk in. Pence was like, “nah girl, no way I’m pulling you through this by myself”. There is a lot more resistance on the snow with a sled like this, plus in fresh and deep snow without a trail, and only one smaller dog, we didn’t go anywhere lol. Worth a shot! If we had Boo and there was some packed down snow on a back road, we probably could’ve done it. So instead, I put a couple bricks in the sled and let her pull it around for a little exercise.

That’ll do it for this week’s newsletter…talk to you all soon!

-Hannah, Riley, Boo, and Pence