Greyster

After World War II, skijor and pulka style dog sled racing gained rapidly in popularity in Norway and neighboring Scandinavian countries.^[1] These styles of racing required small, fast teams of 1-4 dogs who competed over short, hilly distances of 15–30 kilometres (9.3–18.6 mi). Required to use purebred dogs by the Norwegian Sled Dog Racing Association, the German Shorthair Pointer quickly emerged as the dog breed of choice.^[1] At the beginning of the 1970s, the "sled pointer" had emerged, a pointing dog who was bred exclusively for sledding and not hunting.^[1] During the 1970s, "Nome-style" sled racing, which mimicked the big sled dog teams running long distances and overnighting in subzero temperatures seen in North American-style races, started to attract interest in Scandinavia. In 1974, the first Nome-style sled race, the Skjelbreia Sweepstakes, was hosted near Oslo. For this style of racing, Norwegian mushers began to import Alaskan huskies; popularized by mushers like Stein Havard Fjelstad and Roger Leegaard who traveled to Alaska to race in the Iditarod. However, as a performance crossbreed, the Alaskan husky could not be legally raced in Norway until 1985, when the Norwegian Sled Dog Racing Association removed the requirement that sled dogs be purebred.^[1]

This new ruling also paved the way for Nordic-style mushers to breed their best performing dogs regardless of breed, with mushers mixing Greyhound with German Shorthair Pointer to produce the greyster.^[5] These Nordic-style crossbreeds gained in popularity across Europe and later North America, especially with the rise in popularity of dryland mushing, such as bikejoring and canicross.^[1]