Swipe Right, Swipe Left: As in the modern dating scene, social media is also a powerful tool. Sometimes, partners don’t physically meet until the night before the race or even the day of. “Profiles” are shared and teammates trade off until they find a good fit. Call it speed dating “skijor style”. If you click as a team, you “swipe right”. If you don’t have chemistry, you “swipe left”. No hard feelings. Next?
Blind Dates: Some skijoring races like Leadville, Colorado include a Draw meaning right up to the last minute you don’t know who your partner will be.
Matches Made in Heaven: In skijoring it is not uncommon for people in relationships to pair up: parents and their children, boyfriends and girlfriends, husbands and wives. Often these teams go on to be champions like Jeff Dahl of Durango, Colorado and his two sons, Greg and Jason, or Jennifer Butler of Bozeman, Montana and her son, David Rizzolo. Some organize events like Sam and Graham Mitchell of Okotoks, Alberta, Canada or form “Wild Bunch” skijoring clubs like Anna and Petey Jessen of Belgrade, Montana.
Swapping: Some competitors like Cam Fraser joke that on the course Corie Downey, whom he routinely skis behind, is his “race wife”. Of course, Corie is good friends with Cam’s real wife off the course, and Corie’s husband takes the joke in stride. In Sundance, Wyoming couples share partners and good-natured rivalries ensue.
On a date, two’s company and three’s a crowd, right? Not in skijoring! The horse, the driving force, is an equally important teammate. It can also be one of the most difficult team members to gauge. But practice makes perfect, and horses make wonderful chaperones. The better the rider and skier work together and the more they acknowledge their equine counterpart’s place in securing a win, the happier the “couple” will be. Horses can be the measure of many things; hearts in the right place are one.
For riders, controlling your horse’s speed can mean the difference between a clean run for your skier or a time fraught with penalties. Skiers need to be able to manage slack in the rope and recover quickly from its whipping motion. Also, landing jumps on a flat track and learning to ski with snow (and manure!) flying up in your face are factors.
Horses need to be sure-footed in snow and highly responsive. This is why Quarter Horses that enjoy loving and trusting relationships with their riders and are trained to rope and barrel race often end up in the winner’s circle. Speed is important in the home stretch, but if unchecked, spells trouble while navigating through the meat of the course.
The ratio of male to female riders is about 50:50 in Canada and America, where both genders share the winner’s circle. Skiers are more likely to be male in America, but in Canada the ratio is more even. In Switzerland, where the competitor skis behind the horse while reining it from behind, the ratio is 3:1 men to women with both genders being champions in recent years. In the US or Canada, typically both male and female athletes ride OR ski. On only a few rare occasions does an athlete do both. Lenny Hay of Eden, Wyoming is one example. The optimal age to skijor is between 25 and 50 since the sport can be tough on one’s body and experience plays a significant role in success. Some races offer Youth and Legends Divisions, however, to expand the field.
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