# Cowboys pulling a skier on a rope: is skijoring the most extreme winter sport ever?

In skijoring, competitors ski or snowboard while being pulled by horses at full gallop. It’s dizzying and dangerous – but for these athletes, it’s not their first rodeo

## By S Nicole Lane with photographs by Caroline Yang

At first, the crowd seems incompatible. It’s as if someone took a wrong turn. Cowboy hats and helmets, saddles and ski boots, belt buckles and snowsuits – those two types of gear aren’t usually cut from the same cloth. But this weekend in the midwest, at this year’s Extreme Skijoring event, they go together like “Minnesota” and “nice”.

The sun is beating down on the snow-covered track at Canterbury Park, 25 minutes from downtown Minneapolis, where fur and fringe fill the stands and old-school country blares from the speakers. It’s noon, but people are already taking shotskis. There’s a bison named Kidd Buffalo off in the distance, and the American flag beats against the wind.

There’s no doubt about it, we’re in cowboy country now.

After an opening ceremony, prayer and the national anthem, it’s off to the races. At about 40mph, horse and rider fly down the snow-packed track while a skier or snowboarder holds on to a 30ft long rope attached to the saddle 8 to 10ft behind the horse. The  include 6ft tall jumps and obstacles where the skier grabs plastic rings with their arm, all while maintaining balance, speed and the grip of the tow rope. Skiers fall, others crawl over the finish line, but most catch air.

In about 20 seconds, the entire run is finished.



Skijoring, or _skikjøring_ in Norwegian, means “ski driving”, and it originated in Scandinavia, where reindeer pulled skiers for transportation.

Competitive skijoring first started in the Nordic Games in Sweden in 1901, and by 1949 a slower carnival event version was introduced to the United States in Colorado.

Today, the western US largely dominates the sport. Each year, the Skijoring World Championship is held in Whitefish, Montana, and dozens of races happen in Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming and Utah. Abroad, Switzerland, France, Poland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia all have their hand in the sport, too.

It was once an exhibition sport in the Olympics, but it’s mostly a thrill sport for the people involved. The top teams receive prize money and rodeo belt buckles.
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