While your golden doodle’s in daycare, these Alaskan dogs are pulling 800 pounds through whiteouts and wolf country.
And yeah—the humans are just barely keeping up.
Thanks to Rich Wilde for urging Daily Doc to dig deeper into Lance Mackey.
Trailer for “Ice Cowboys – It’s a Dog’s World”
You Can’t Make This Sh*t Up
- Lance Mackey enters the Iditarod despite battling throat cancer and opioid addiction.
- A wild moose charges the film crew mid-shoot, and it’s all caught on camera. No one was hurt—but a camera was crushed.
- The crew braved temperatures as low as –40°C to capture the mushers’ stories firsthand.
Watch “Ice Cowboys – It’s a Dog’s World”
I could not find a current online streaming option for this one, but you can find the latest information at JustWatch.
Ratings:
- My Rating: 89/100
- IMDB Rating: 8.8/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: n/a (Users), n/a/ (Critics)
Director’s Note: This 42-minute episode series is helmed by Greg Heister and features a cast of real-life mushers like Lance Mackey, Matt Thoft, and Blake Freking—all legends in the sled dog world.
Release Date: 2022 (Discovery Channel series)
My Review of “Ice Cowboys – It’s a Dog’s World”
The Setup
The show shadows the daily lives of mushers who live for the Iditarod and Yukon Quest. These aren’t weekend hobbyists—these are the elite dogmen and dogwomen training 365 days a year in some of the world’s harshest terrain.
At the center is Lance Mackey, a four-time Iditarod and Yukon Quest winner. Cancer survivor. Addiction battler. Comeback artist. He trains off-grid in Alaska, where keeping his dogs fed and healthy is a bigger challenge than winning races.
More Highlights from the Doc
- We see mushers repairing sleds at –40°C with duct tape and headlamps while caring for 14 hyped-up Alaskan huskies.
- Blake Freking trains his team by running hundreds of miles at night, where headlight beams catch only snowflakes and tree shadows.
- The show doesn’t glamorize racing—it focuses on frostbite, kennel cough, broken sleds, and emotional burnout.
Wrap Up
“Ice Cowboys” isn’t just about racing—it’s about devotion. These mushers would go broke, get frostbite, and face down moose just to chase the trail with their dogs.
Thanks for reading!
Heather Fenty, Guest Writer, Daily Doc