About Libby Riddles

Libby Riddles (born April 1, 1956) is an American dog musher, and the first woman to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Riddles was born in Madison, Wisconsin, to Willard and Mary Riddles, and moved to Alaska (from Minnesota; she had been living in St. Joseph while attending Apollo High School in St. Cloud) just before her 17th birthday. She saw a sprint race and fell in love with mushing. Her first race was the Clines Mini Mart Sprint race in 1978, in which she won first place. After finishing 18th and 20th in the 1980 and 1981 Iditarod races, she decided to breed her own sled dogs in order to advance. She moved to Shaktoolik, Alaska, and worked as a fish seller for a short period while training her dogs, then moved to Teller, Alaska, where she met Joe Garnie; they became partners and started breeding and training dogs together.