A team consists of a competitor in a saddle, another on two skis and also a horse on four hooves. The playing field is a blanket of snow and includes a variety of jumps and obstacles. The goal is to go fast and, if all goes as planned, also stay upright.
“Once you hear, you can’t forget,” Matt Crossett, who first discovered the sport a few years back, said. “Adrenaline. Hoofs pounding. Cowboy screams.”
Perhaps the coolest and most curious winter sport takes place halfway around the world from Pyeongchang, South Korea. It’s called skijoring and is largely rooted in small communities around the Rocky Mountains. The sport involves a ski racer clinging to a rope as he’s being towed by a racing horse. The rider in the saddle guides the team through an obstacle course, racing the clock as they weave around cones, grab rings and navigate the skier over jumps. It’s a spectacle, an unlikely marriage of skiers and cowboys, and the skijoring events often feel like a winter carnival with drinking, family activities and the occasional side bet.
[For minimal cost, skijoring great sport for owner and dog]
While there’s a Nordic version of the sport common in Maine that involves being pulled by dogs, the Western version involves horses, and organizers say it’s growing in popularity. This year, Ski Joring America, a governing body for the sport, helped stage events in Montana, Colorado, Idaho, Utah and Wisconsin — and every year they’re adding more participants and more events.
“It’s not just skiing, and it’s not just horses,” said Ebbie Hansen, one of the sport’s top riders. “It’s being pulled by a horse at 35 mph and having to navigate the gates and jumps. It’s a little different than just going down a hill.”
A horse towing a skier might seem like a far cry from the slate of snow and icy sports at this month’s Winter Games, but skijoring does actually have some Olympic roots. It was a demonstration sport at the 1928 Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland — the second Winter Games ever staged — meaning the event was held, but no medals were formally awarded. It was a race with no obstacles back then and also was included in the Nordic Games, a forerunner of the Winter Olympics, in 1901, ’05 and ’09, according to Bill Mallon, an Olympic historian.
[Skijoring under the lights in Fort Kent]
Mallon said he has heard no recent chatter about revisiting the possible Olympic inclusion of skijoring, though nearly a century ago, Pierre de Coubertin, the Frenchman who’s considered the founder of the modern Olympic Games, “was in favor of the sport and liked it,” Mallon said, “but it was never again mentioned as a possible winter sport.”
The International Olympic Committee wouldn’t have to look hard to find skijoring disciples along the Rockies, where weekend competitions are staged in communities such as Ridgway, Colorado, Saratoga, Wyoming, and Wisdom, Montana. The sport also has seen events in the Dakotas, Idaho, Wisconsin and Canada.
“Different events try to display a different atmosphere,” said Crossett, the president of Ski Joring America. “But generally, it’s a party. It’s cabin fever-reliever.”
[Skijoring adds another day of dog-powered sports to Can-Am weekend]
Crossett works in television production and discovered the sport while working in Durango, Colorado. With a mix of great action and colorful characters, he thought he had the makings of a fun documentary, but he also saw a sport with a lot of potential. Skijoring, though, felt disorganized, so he pulled together Ski Joring America three years ago to help oversee the sport, and establish consistent rules and safety regulations, while providing guidelines for event organizers in various cities. Crossett estimates there are about 300 competitors — not including horses — and many of them travel the circuit from January to March, bouncing between weekend competitions, where prize money ranges from a few thousand dollars to as much as $25,000.
“It takes a certain type of personality to do skijoring,” Crossett said. “They’re all adrenaline junkies. You have these extreme athletes from both these worlds.”
Slowly, the sport has graduated beyond the recreational rider and casual skier. Aaron Griffen grew up with Olympic dreams. He’s from upstate New York, the same area as Olympic ski racers Tommy Biesemeyer and Andrew Weibrecht. Griffen attended the now-defunct National Sports Academy, a private school for winter sport athletes, in Lake Placid, New York, and from 2006-10, he traveled around racing in International Ski Federation events, competing just a step below the elite World Cup level.
Despite some encouraging results, when he was 19, the Olympics started to look improbable and Griffen enrolled at Montana State, where he dabbled in rodeo. Others in the horse community soon learned about his ski racing background and urged him to explore skijoring. Griffen didn’t know what to expect.
“I was a little nervous that I wouldn’t be able to perform to their expectations,” he said.
He stepped into a pair of skis and instantly learned two things: Skijoring was just as fun as ski racing, and the skill-set was surprisingly different.
Now in his third season on the skijoring circuit, Griffen, 27, competes in the pro division, but every weekend he sees experienced skiers sign up, convinced that because they can handle a black diamond run at their local ski resort, they can easily navigate the skijoring course. Most are in for an instant shock. When the clock starts, the horse bolts, racing at nearly full speed and jerking the skier along with him. Using a rope instead of ski poles is another challenge, as is maintaining balance while being pulled in every which direction.
“The biggest different is balance,” Griffen said. “It’s not consistent balance. It could change at any time.”
Griffen is intimately familiar with both the tightknit horse community — ranchers, cowboys, rodeo riders — and the fun-loving ski world in which he was raised. He knows both well enough to understand their differences and similarities.
“Skijoring brings them both together,” he said.
Like many winter sports, there’s risk involved. Skiers blow up their knees and crack ribs. Horses might tumble or fail to follow a rider’s instructions.
“Yes, things can happen. I’d say there are definitely a lot of skier crashes,” he said, “but the horse crashes are much, much more rare.”
Ski Joring America is growing from year to year. Crossett produced his documentary, “Ice Cowboys,” and is shopping a television show. With more sponsors, more attention and more structure, he thinks the sport could soon grow well beyond the Rocky Mountain region.
“Think about where the rodeo started and where you see it today,” he said. “There’s no reason skijoring couldn’t get to that point.”
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