News : Skijoring - a Winter Sport to Enjoy with Equines or Canines

By Cecilia Dirks, Office Coordinator

With winter setting in and predictions for more snow (maybe) this year, I have been looking for different winter activities to get me outside enjoying the outdoors. That is how I found skijoring (pronounced skee-johr-ing), a sport where a person on skis is pulled by a horse, dog or vehicle! This sport has many ways to participate including going solo to enjoy fresh snow on trails or competing on snow packed courses with a friend. I will be attempting this with horses so that is what I will reference the rest of this article, but you can use a dog, team of dogs, or any other animal strong enough to pull you around on skis that you are comfortable training!

The most basic skijoring is done with skis and a tow rope. One person can ride a horse with the rope tied to the saddle and tow the other person around. If you train your horse to line drive and handle poles touching their sides and dragging behind them, you can begin to harness yourself to the horse with a belt and quick release safety latch and go solo.

If you and a friend have a competitive streak, you can step things up and enter a skijoring event! These courses feature jumps, obstacles, and hoops to grab while being towed by your friend on a horse at a full gallop (figure 6). Spectators come from all over to brave the cold and watch the competitions. Events are timed with some races having $15,000 in prize money!

There are different rules for each event and race. Common rules include penalties, rope length, payouts, attire to be worn, etc. Here are a few examples of rules taken from the Canterbury Park event in Minnesota:

1. Timed event: Timer starts when the skier crosses the start line and timer stops when skier crosses the finish line.

2. Rope: 35 feet (will be provided). The skier does not have to have the rope in their hand when they cross the finish line.

3. Penalties: Rings- 2 second addition for every ring missed. Gates- 2 second addition for every gate missed. Jumps- 5 second addition for every jump missed.

Learn more about the competitive side and see some cool videos from the race closest to us athttps://extremeeventsmn.com/skijoring

If we get enough snow this year, this might be something I will be trying. So if you see me on a trail struggling to manage my lines, poles, horse, and stay upright, just give me a smile and a wave as you go by!