Skijoring comes to Estes Park next week

Story by Patti Brown

What do you get when you mix cowboys, horses, skis, snow, and speed? It’s called skijoring, a crazy and wild competitive sport that will debut on the campus of the Estes Park Fairground Jan. 24 to 26.

Think waterskiing, only replace the water with snow and then switch out the speedboat with a horse. Add in some images of a rodeo. Now you have the picture – a person on skis being towed by a horse and rider. There are some versions of skijoring done with dogs, similar to dogsledding with a team of dogs, and others with motorized vehicles, but the event in Estes will be strictly equestrian skijoring.

If skijoring had a theme song it might be a combination of “Danger Zone” by Kenny Loggins and the Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson tune, “Mama Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys.” It’s all about the speed, the thrill, and throwing caution totally to the wind.

It’s definitely the kind of thing your mom would tell you not to do, but skijoring is fast becoming one of the most popular extreme winter sports attracting both thrill seekers and spectators with three dozen communities hosting competitive skijor events in the U.S. and Canada, and several in Europe.

The word skijor comes from a Norwegian term meaning ski driving. Originating in what was historically known as Lapland by nomadic people from Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula in Russia, skijoring with reindeer may have been a mode of transportation across snowy landscapes.

The first known skijor event in the U.S. took place in Lake Placid, NY in 1915 and it was an exhibition sport at the Winter Olympics in St. Moritz in 1928. The event gained popularity and it has been adopted by many mountain communities in the West.

And while it is winter, the Estes Valley sits on the eastern slope of the Rockies and it does not get a ton of snow, so is there enough of the white stuff?

“I don’t need Mother Nature,” said Kevin Benes with Running Wild Events, one of the event organizers. “I bought two big snow machines from a ski resort in Ohio, and I’m plugged into a hydrant at the fairgrounds, and I am making snow as we talk.”

Benes has been living in his camper at the fairgrounds for the last week producing clean snow which he says needs to be free from any debris to make sure a racing horse does not step on a hidden rock or something else that could instantly cause injury.

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