A moment in the lead-up to last year’s Iditarod has continued to play on repeat in Jaye Foucher’s head.
WILLOW, Alaska - Foucher witnessed the moment that a truck collided with the front six dogs of her sled dog team — a moment she will likely never forget.
The crash happened weeks before Foucher was getting ready to compete in her first Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, which has been a dream of hers since she started mushing back in 2002.In April, Foucher returned back to her New England home before traveling back to Alaska later that year to begin training for the 2023 Iditarod. In October, she announced that she was withdrawing from the race due to continued struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder from to the crash.
Since the incident, Foucher and her team have slowly been recovering. Today, she says all three of her dogs who were injured are back out and running.“They’ve made a really remarkable recovery, beyond my wildest hopes,” Foucher said. “The three dogs that were the most seriously injured are all three back running and harnessed this season. Even the one whose pelvic was broken in five places.”
“They’ll still you know, occasionally, if a huge truck gets a little too close, they’ll kind of shy away and get skittish about it,” Foucher said.
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