Fort Smith (Mar 20/06) - If you happen to see a dog team zooming along the side of a highway in Fort Smith, chances are the musher is a woman.

Most active dog team owners in Fort Smith - six out of 10 - are women.

Women mushers are in the majority in Fort Smith, as demonstrated by this gathering of some dog team owners on March 11. Kevin Antoniak is outnumbered by Linda Sheesley (front left), Rita Antoniak (front right), and back row, left to right: Rayanna Patterson, Kathy Beaupre and Anneliese Cusack. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

"It used to be no women and all men 20 years ago," says Rita Antoniak, who is believed to be the first Fort Smith woman to get her own team seven years ago.

The female mushers say they have been welcomed to the sport by their male counterparts, but Kathy Beaupre says most of them only comment on the dogs.

However, she notes, "Some ask, 'Where's your husband?'"

Linda Sheesley says Fort Smith is the best place in the world to run dogs.

"That's the reason I moved here," she says, noting she first started mushing while living in Nunavut.

Beaupre began mushing in 2000 in the Ottawa area, but moved to Fort Smith because it's easier to find room to run. "Here, you step out your door."

Rayanna Patterson says she loves mushing because it's so peaceful.

"It's just you and your dogs," she says.

Antoniak describes mushing as therapeutic.

One female musher comes to Fort Smith only for a couple of months in the winter, and this year came all the way from Australia on her way to a nursing job in Nunavut. "It's something I never dreamed I could do," says Anneliese Cusack, who is from the Australian Outback. The female mushers all agree caring for dog teams is a lot of work. "It's not a hobby," Patterson says. "It's too much bloody work to be a hobby. Stamp collecting is a hobby."

It's also expensive. It takes $2,000-$3,000 to gear up, and at least a dollar a day to feed each dog year-round.

Dog mushing is also hazardous.

Beaupre is currently getting around with the help of a cane after tearing a ligament in her right knee about a month ago.

"You take your chances," she says. "The sled stopped, but I didn't."