The Sport Of Skijoring

For those of you have never heard of it before, skijoring is an activity which involves being pulled by a horse, a snowmobile or, in rare cases, a car while wearing skis. Skijoring traces its origins to the 19^th century, at which time an innovative Norwegian soldier decided it would be faster to send messages via horse-drawn skier.

Although it may seem unlikely these days, skijoring almost became an Olympic sport 86 years ago, after becoming the subject of great interest from Baron Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics.

Skijoring with two dogs at the 2014 Cannington Dog Sled Races © Peter Marble | Dreamstime

Modern-day skijoring found a new home in the town of Whitefish, Mont., which plays host to the World Ski Joring Championships. Unfortunately, this year’s edition already took place at the end of January, but there is always next year. Alternatively, you can catch an equestrian skijoring event organized by the North American Skijoring Association, or a canine race put on by the International Federation of Sleddog Sports, in various northern states during the winter months.

The sport remains popular in its birthplace of Scandinavia, and has a growing number of practitioners in appropriately snowy areas across North America. Although it probably wasn’t the first time someone skijored behind a car, in 2012, luxury British carmaker Bentley took 16-time skijoring world champion Franco Moro to Switzerland, where he was pulled around by something far more powerful than a horse. The 570-horsepower Bentley Continental GT took Moro to higher speeds than he had ever traveled on skis, but nowhere near as fast as the 109 mph world record set by a skier dragged by a low-flying plane in the 1950s.

Novices should probably work their way up from dogs to horses before even considering skijoring behind a supercar or a plane.