About us:

We are Roderick Glastra and Sandra Makkreel, we have been living together since April 2002 in a nice house in Numansdorp, witch lays in the Hoeksche Waard, 10 minutes under Rotterdam at the bottom of the province of Zuid Holland and close to Noord Brabant and Zeeland. We have bought this house especially for our dogs. It is freestanding along a dike and on both sides we have a garden of 60 meters by 14 meters. It is a narrow but long stretch of garden, the dogs like this a lot because our garden has a total length now of 135 meters and for the dogs it is fun to run up and down and exercise.

Roderick Glastra Roderick Glastra: I was born in The Hague in 1971 and have been raised with sled dogs. From the age of 1 year there was a Samoyed present in the house. This Samoyed became 3 Samoyeds and in 1975 the first Siberian Husky entered the house, more Husky’s soon followed this Husky. My Mother Adry Voorbach and stepfather Leo den Ouden already competed in 1971 at sleddograces in Europe with as best result a second place at the European Championships Long Trail in 1990 and 1991. Competing in this sleddogsport: one of my uncles Guus Glastra has competed for years with a team of Samoyeds and another uncle Jim van Herpen had a Husky team and became a Dutch Champion in the category for 8 dogs.

Since 1980 my mother has been breeding Siberian Husky's under the affix "Iz Severnoi Zemli" (this means from the Northern Countries) a group of Islands from the north of Siberia. She started with the letter N and now is arrived at the letter I alphabetically. Witch means 22 litters, for witch purpose she used Husky's from all trough Europe to breed the best possible examples of the breed. In 1994 Leo en Adry separated and went their own way in the sled dog sport. That season my mother did a couple of snow competitions and the season after during the 2nd season an accident happens during the competition at 'Land van Ooit' she breaks her leg. Since then after years of not competing in 1995 after a lot of other interests I decide to go to the training sessions and decide to do a competition again at Tiekamp in Bergschenhoek. The 1st day I competed myself and the second day I run into my old friend Hans den Hartog, who also was competing in the past. These races we enjoyed so much that we decided to enter in Terlet. After the competition in Tiekamp we also decide to train together and decide to enter in two more snow races. From the word GO the 1st competition we where addicted to this sport and for 4 seasons we visited a lot of competitions in the Netherlands and in Europe. When Hans decided to stop, luckily with the help of my mother who takes care of the dogs when I work, I kept going and since 1998 I take part in the EK (European Championships) in Donovaly in Slovakia, from that moment on I have not missed a single EK (European) or WK (World) Championship. My best result was 4th at the EK 2005 in Nauders in Austria. And in 2005 I became a Dutch Champion in the category with 8 dogs.

Who am I? Sandra Makkreel My name is Sandra Makkreel, born on the 12th of May 1970 in Rotterdam. Wow! That sounds very official! The next question is: ‘how did I get involved with the sled dogs?’ Yes, that actually is a very strange story; I used to be afraid of dogs big or small. In 1993 I met the man who I call my ex now. He had a Husky of nearly 1 year old. Kimmetje was her name. A sweaty, black and white with blue eyes. It took a while for me to understand that Husky's where not dangerous. The winter of 1995/1996 was one of those winters that we had snow in the Netherlands. Stimulated by a documentary I had seen on TV, we put Kimmetje in a harness in front of a children’s-sledge just for fun and much to my surprise Kimmetje liked nothing better then pulling the sledge. So I fell into the famous trap too. Shortly after we added two puppies, Spooky and Shanta and in the winter of 1996/1997 I was standing on the sledge for the first time. At that time my ex and I had our own roles to play in witch we could operate. He was the musher and I was the handler. After our divorce in 2001 this was different, because I could not think of a life without my dogs. I teach myself how to mush the sledge. This was very encouraging In 2002 , I became Dutch Champion in the C (4 dogs) category.
And in the year 2005 I became 3d in the Dutch Championships.
These days my dogs and I live together with Roderick and his dogs. A very busy family because now we have 17 dogs. We usually choose 2 teams to go to race with. In one team we usually put our best dogs so that we have a very good chance for a podium place (this is usually Roderick).



Lenie v/d Broek Lenie

Let me introduce myself. I am Lenie v.d. Broek, born the 28th of September 1950 and I am married to Casper. I am the handler working with Sandra and Roderick. They asked me to write a bit about myself and how I became a handler. In 1976 I bought my first Husky and soon enough I was introduced to the sled dog sport. Immediately I fell in love with this sport. But with just one Husky you cannot do a lot, so pretty soon I had 5. I loved training with the dogs but the first races in the snow where very difficult. At the time I learned a lot from Els and Lau van Leeuwen. My parents always came with me, because I lived alone at the time because of a divorce, my parents have always supported me in my favourite sport

In 1986 I competed in the snow for the last time, because my mother fell ill. The years after that I went on training the dogs until they became too old and where mainly house pets. But the time comes that you have to say goodbye to the dogs sadly, 4 dogs reached the age of 11 years and one of them became 15 years old. When the last dog died I decided to go back to my former job in healthcare.

In 2002 I went to live with Casper in Zoetermeer and to my luck, Sandra en Roderick trained there with their dogs. So carefully I asked Roderick if I could ride with him and lucky for me he agreed. I was very happy again, because I had missed this sport so much.

In 2003 Casper and I joined the team to go to Sankt Ulrich, in Austria. Sandra and Roderick gave me 4 dogs to join in the Happy dog class. That was a very emotional day for me. After 17 years I was standing on the sledge once more. It was a very special experience.

Now I love to help in the kennel and at the races I work as the handler. This way I am involved with my favourite sport again and can enjoy the huskies. They remain my favourite breed and the best sport. When Sandra and Roderick enter a race, I am not sure who is more nervous them, or myself. I always hope for good results, because that is the reward for all the work you have put in.


Casper Pannekoek Casper

Now I will introduce myself. I am Casper Pannekoek, born the 30th of august 1944 in Berkel en Rodenrijs. I don’t have to tell you how I met Sandra and Roderick, because Lenie just did that. Actually I have only one big hobby and that is riding my motorbike: O sorry, I have another hobby and that is going on vacation. And help! Yet another hobby: the sleddogsport, but luckily that is only in the winter. When we met Sandra and Roderick, shortly after they moved in together in Numansdorp. And then the party started, what a lot of work. Building kennels, a lot of work in the garden, fencing of areas for the dogs, etc. But I had enough time, as in 2002 I stopped working, so all my free time was spent in Numansdorp at Roderick’s and Sandra's home.

I also chip in as handler during races and I work for the sled dog club as a steward/poster along the way. I only regret that it is a winter sport as I am a real sun worshipper. But yes, you have to do that in the name of friendship some times.




Adry Voorbach Adry

My name is Adry Voorbach, born on the 20th of January 1944. In 1971 I bought my first Samoyed and since 1975 I have Siberian Husky's. First only one, but to work with them you need a couple more. We got two Husky's from the "Kolyma kennel" owned by Els en Lau van Leeuwen. With a few borrowed dogs witch we where allowed to use we had a team of six. My partner at the time did races with this team of six dogs. Since 1980 we have been breeding our own Husky's. For many years we did races, sprint as well as long-distance racing.

When in 1994 my partner decided to lead his own life, we shared the (16) Husky's and I continued with 6 females. One year I did go on training and did races, but sadly I broke my leg at one of these events. My son Roderick Glastra had to take care of the training and the dogs at that point, as I was disabled. He started to enjoy that very much, and I decided to breed a few litters to rejuvenate the team. Very quickly we where back to 15 Husky's

But then Roderick also decided to go his own way: as you have read before, he lives together with Sandra now and took 11 dogs with him to Numansdorp. Four older females stayed with me. But in spite of my former injuries I still wanted to be involved. So we changed around our roles now, I am one of the permanent handlers and Roderick is the musher!

As a sideline I do the most of the typing for this website.







Ad Gelens Ad

I am Ad Gelens, born on the 11th of February 1959 in Moerdijk and I reside in Zevenbergen. Yeaz!, that sounds very official. The next question is: 'How did I get involved in this sled dog world?' Actually that is rather a strange story. In one of the preliminaries of the "Camel Trophy" in the eighties, there was somebody from the S.H.K.N. present, and I came in contact with the Siberian Husky. As a result I visited a few breeders. And came in contact with "Iz Severnoi Zemli" kennels, owned by Adry Voorbach and Leo den Ouden at the time, In 1994 I bought Zhulak there. Because of their enthusiasm I visited some of the races in Duinrell, Terlet, Tiekamp, E3-strand, Land van Ooit, Winterberg etc.

At the beginning of the season in 1996 Adry (mother of Roderick) asked me if I was interested to come to France with them as handler/interpreter (I speak a little French, always handy). They wanted to take part with 2 teams in the "Trophee de Savoie". From that moment on I took part as a handler in the team of Roderick and Hans. When Roderick met Sandra in 2002 and moved closer to me, I became their handler. And I also help them in Numansdorp, because a lot is always going on there, building kennels, fencing, sawing down trees, tiling, etc. I also join in the training sessions a lot, and act as the balance on the cart. Now and again I swop my handling job for that of the musher and take part in a race or join the Happy dog class

jerry van der Duim Jerry

I am Jerry van der Duim, born on the 22nd of April 1970 at Leeuwarden, and reside in Gorredijk. I have 5 Husky's at the moment. Roderick had asked me if I would set up a website for him, and so I did. The result is this website. I have been working as a freelancer in the world of automation since 1993.

I came into this sleddogsport trough my first dog witch I rescued from an animal sanctuary. This dog could not be kept in the house: he had lot of energy. After a phone call with the S.H.K.N. they advised me to give him lots of exercise, biking and bringing home a second dog. The second dog I found trough Adry fairly quickly, she knew of a female dog: called Shawnee, witch I took over from Xander Alleman.

Entering the sports events came via Xander. Going to Diever just to watch was not his thing, His idea was to participate. I entered for the first time in 1998 in the skijoring class for the sake of my dog (Dingo). In 1999 Artay joined us so we could join the (skijoring) classe with two dogs. This because Shawnee let us know she was more a supporter then a runner. In the meantime the amount of dogs we own has been growing and I no longer do the skijoring class but have the possibility to run in the 4 dogs class now. This is with dogs from Adry or Sandra & Roderick together with my own dogs.

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