The greatest fusion of skiing and cowboy culture reared its head this weekend once again. The Red River ski area in New Mexico hosted a three-day skijoring competition. Skijoring involves a horse and rider speeding across snow at speeds of 40 mph and higher. Attached to the horse is a rope that a skier holds - giddyup!
The skier must negotiate a course that varies in shape, includes features such as eight-foot jumps, and must occasionally perform challenges along the way, such as grabbing rings. "Skijoring gets in your system so dang bad," said a racer according to a Skijor America video (below), "It's like being drunk."
Pronounced "skEE-JOr-ing" in the western American dialect, the word is derived from the Norwegian word "skikjøring," which means "ski driving."
The Red River course stretched 800 feet in a straight line. It featured three ski jumps, rising 6 to 8 feet, each with a flat landing. Skiers had to not only negotiate the course, but navigate through gates and collect two rings along the way. This was no casual event - $6,500 was on the line.
The Whitefish Ski Joring World Invitational will be held January 29-31 and offer a purse of over $20,000.
Tim McCarthy and his daughter Savannah have been competing in skijor events as separate teams since Savannah was 12. Now at 16, she took second in the Overall Sport event, according to Skijoring America. Her father won the Open Overall.
"We're probably some of the only owners who give our horses oxygen before and after they run with masks we made," said Tim to the Albequerque Journal, who was inspired by football players "sitting on the sidelines eating oxygen."
The McCarthys have been training five horses for skijor competitions. They run them no more than twice a day. Other popular iterations of skijoring involve skiers being towed behind dogs or motorized vehicles.
