The safety of the horse, riders, skiers and snowboarders is paramount.
This competitor get some air at Sundance ' s Winterfest. Photo courtesy of Sundance Winterfest get from one place to another. The sport made its debut in Sweden at the Nordic Games in the early 1900s. Equine skijoring, using horses instead of reindeer, was popular on the East Coast with winter festivals in New York and New Hampshire showcasing the activity as a means of recreation. Equine skijoring has become competitive and was an exhibition sport in the 1928 Olympics in Switzerland. In the 1930s Western towns like Jackson, Wyo., hosted skijoring competitions down its Main Street, racing with a rider on the horse and a skier towed by a rope.
There are now about 40 skijoring races hosted nationwide throughout the winter season where spectators can watch galloping horses and skiers or snowboarders trying to maneuver jumps, obstacles and gates while avoiding a crash or fall.
Tony Barton, an organizer for the Sundance Winterfest, says most people come to the event to see those wipeouts and crashes.
“ It ' s human nature,” Barton says, to watch people fail at a fun event like this. Before he was an organizer, Barton was a skier.
“ I provided quite a bit of fodder for the crowds,” he says chuckling. Barton was never injured but was quite sore afterwards.
Barton says most of the action people come to see is provided by the“ Young Guns” competitors, the 18-34 year olds who are very competitive and want the fastest time.
“ There are usually several good wrecks,” Barton says, adding that none have been serious thus far.“ It’ s a dangerous event, no doubt about it.” Barton explains, horses and skiers are moving fast, typically 30 mph, and that the rope between animal and human is not always providing a consistent force. For snowboarders that makes the sport much more challenging.
“ The board is running on an edge,” Barton explains, while the horses are accelerating around corners.“ Half the boarders wreck. It’ s entertaining but usually not the fastest times.”
He recalls the fastest time is about 10 seconds for the block and a half course, which he estimates is 900 feet. Sometimes the course is challenging enough that riders need to slow the horses down a little bit to get through it. Other times,“ it’ s just a horse race.”
The safety of the horse, riders, skiers and snowboarders is paramount.
“ We haven ' t bucked anyone off. It takes a pretty broke horse to saddle up and run as fast as they can in front of 2000 people,” he says.
While Sundance isn’ t exactly known for its world class skiing, the event attracts skiers and snowboarders from all over the Black Hills, Wyoming, Colorado and the region.
“ They can dang sure hold their own,” Barton says. Some skiers or boarders come to town without a horse, while some cowboys or ranchers bring horses and need someone to pull. myblackshillscountry. com Down Country Roads
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