Racing along Northeast Ohio’s trails with his two huskies, the wind hitting his face, Don Wheeler is in bliss. He has achieved his dream of having his own sled dog team — maybe a little differently than how he envisioned it growing up.
Wheeler, who has been partially paralyzed from the neck down since a motorcycle accident in 2004, has taken up the niche sport of wheelchair mushing since 2019. With a custom setup of ganglines, brackets, interchangeable tires and skis, Wheeler regularly takes his two sled dogs, Dash and Gabby, out for miles-long runs on Northeast Ohio’s wheelchair-accessible trails between September and March (the time of year cool enough for the huskies to not overheat).
“There were a lot of fears when I started this. I was like, ‘Well, what if this? What if that?’ And because of those fears, I think, is why I put it off so long,” Wheeler says. “My only regret is I wish I would have done this sooner.”
In the six years he’s been wheelchair mushing, Wheeler, 54, says he’s logged roughly 1,000 miles, with a top single-run distance of 11.7 miles. He hopes to break 15 miles this season.
“Wheelchair mushing, to me, is miles rather than just around the block,” Wheeler says. “I’m in it for the distance, like the Iditarod.”
You can view Wheeler’s many adventures on Northeast Ohio trails on his Team Dash YouTube channel. In one, he slides down a street filled with powdery snow, a set of skis replacing the front wheels on his wheelchair. In another, Wheeler goes on a night run with Dash, who is lit in a circle of bright light from a headlamp. In another, he shows his first off-road journey, with Wheeler’s voice occasionally cheering, “Go, guys, go,” while his two dogs pull him up a hill, tails wagging.
Wheeler also uses the platform to carefully compile educational and instructional videos, detailing his equipment and training for both Dash and Gabby. Neither dog was trained in mushing when he adopted them from former owners who surrendered them.
“I had to figure out a rigging system that I can operate fully from my chair,” Wheeler says. “I had to look at the safety aspect. I had to look at the dogs’ safety. I had to look at, if an emergency pops up, how do I get the dogs out of harm’s way? How do I bring them closer to me?”
He’s only experienced one emergency since taking up the sport. In November 2023, Wheeler posted a video of the fire department coming to assist him back into his chair after he hit a slushy spot on the road that caused him to fall to the ground. In the video description, he explains that he wasn’t paying attention when he and the dogs went around a set of parked cars.
“That’s the only time it’s ever happened. I’ve never fallen out of my chair since, or prior, to that,” he says. “I think the only challenge for anybody that attempts it is knowing your limits and safety.”
The sport developed by trial and error for Wheeler, who was first inspired after joining the Greater Cleveland Siberian Husky Club in 2019 to learn more about the breed and local mushers.
Cleveland’s mushing scene is pretty small, let alone wheelchair mushing. So Wheeler, a Lake County resident, went online to connect with two other wheelchair mushers, based in Pennsylvania and California, to learn more about their setups and practice. He also corresponded with Iditarod racer Mike Santos and his wife, Caitlin, who sent him their sled dog harnesses to try out.
After gathering as much information as he could about mushing and training huskies, Wheeler sought out a husky of his own, but experienced setbacks when some dog owners denied him due to his disability.
Finally, someone gave Wheeler an opportunity to adopt Dash — and Wheeler trained the dog, both to be a sled dog and to be a service animal. Due to his spinal cord injury, Wheeler says he experiences extremely low blood pressure, and Dash can alert him when it drops to dangerous levels.
A few years later, Wheeler adopted Gabby and trained her in mushing so that he could go even further distances than with Dash alone.
“They’re considered my pets, my service dogs, my companions, my best friends,” Wheeler says, “you name it.”
Wheeler knows how strong a bond can be between people and their service animals, and he hopes he can inspire others in Northeast Ohio to pick up his unique sport. In particular, he aims to introduce his educational materials to the Cleveland VA for interested veterans.
“I’m trying to bring awareness to wheelchair mushing more and more, to where more people can get involved and realize, ‘Hey, I can see the outdoors in a different way,’” he says.
He’s got one goal that’s a little bigger than Cleveland, too.
“My ultimate goal, my end game, is I would love to see it entered in the Paralympics as a new sport.”
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