What do you get when you cross rodeo with skiing? An extreme — and quirky — winter sport called skijoring. It’s a heart-pumping competition in which horses at full gallop tow skiers by rope over jumps and around obstacles as they try to lance suspended hoops with a baton.
What do you get when you cross rodeo with skiing? The wild and wacky Skijoring of course. Every winter, thousands of people descend on the old mining town of Leadville, Colorado, high in the Rocky Mountains, for one of the most popular skijoring races in the United States. A skijoring team competes in Leadville, Colo., on Saturday, March 2, 2024. Skijoring draws its name from the Norwegian word skikjoring, meaning “ski driving.
Every winter, thousands of people converge on the old mining town of Leadville, Colorado, high in the Rocky Mountains — elevation 10,158 feet — lining downtown’s main street and packing the saloons to witness one of the most popular skijoring races in the country. The spectacle, billed as “The Granddaddy of ’em All,” has been a tradition here since 1949.
Today’s sport is inherently dangerous, and injuries are not uncommon among riders and skiers alike. Indeed, one of the first riders in the Leadville race earlier this month toppled off his horse and had to be helped off the track as he shook his head in confusion. Burri did well in the competition despite skiing with a separated shoulder from a hard spill during a race two weeks earlier.
“It’s not uncommon that my hands are shaking a little bit even after all this time, because that horse’s nostrils are flaring and I’m about ready to grab a rope that’s attached to that saddle. And if I’m not ready to go, then things can go bad real quickly,” said Decker, a 43-year-old engineer from Pagosa Springs, Colorado, who has been skiing since he was 2 and skijoring for 14 years.
One of her more memorable moments was when her horse slipped, pulled back and head-butted her, breaking her nose. Then there was the time she lost control of her horse following a race and smashed into a minivan.
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