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Yes, NESJA holds an annual clinic in Rochester, N.H. Yes, Geoff said he would love to see the sport return to the Olympic Games (it was a demonstration sport in 1928, on a frozen lake in St. Moritz, Switzerland, mostly due to International Olympic Committee founder Pierre de Coubertin's superfandom). But between New England and Canada, there are only about six races each year on the East Coast, plus six scheduled in the Rockies for the coming season. Due to the lack of snow and unseasonably warm winters the past two years, NESJA has been able to hold only one event since 2011. Geoff won that event, run at the Newport airport in February of this year, featuring a total of two skiers being towed behind three horses. The winning rider at that race, Kate Widman, works in customer service at a travel agency. She often tows Geoff behind her, and sometimes she tows her father. Widman took up ski joring most immediately from barrel racing, but she's been riding since she was 5. Her father, who used to tune skis for the U.S. Olympic Ski Team, doesn't ride, "but he's an awesome skier." With ski joring, "We can combine two different things that we both really like," Widman says. For Daredevils Only During the winter, to be mindful of horses' fatigue, snowmobiles are substituted after a few runs. But riders who participate in ski joring believe it provides excellent winter exercise for their horses, which typically compete in eventing, roping, games and modern shooting tournaments. Since they get to tow skiers during the winter, the horses are generally considered stronger and better prepared for their various summer pursuits. Skiers can train during the warmer months by doing any activity that strengthens their upper body, like waterskiing. And it's even possible to simulate ski joring on dry land. "We do practice sometimes with alpine skis on grass," Geoff says. "I've done it on roller blades." The towed skier has a number of actions to execute at a high rate of speed: He (the skiers are typically male, the riders generally female) must work from one side to another of a 40-foot-wide course, hitting at least 12 gates and launching himself off at least three jumps between 2 and 4 feet high. Most courses also have rings dangling from stands with which skiers joust and collect on an outstretched arm. Miss any one of these, and you are assessed a time penalty. Meanwhile, skiers are holding onto a rope that's threaded through D-rings and attached under the horse's harness, pulling it in or letting it out depending on the obstacle ahead. And Widman considers the type of gloves used by skiers to be an underappreciated concern: "If they're too thin, the rope will burn right through them," she says. "Rookie mistake." Races are held over two days, and the fastest overall team wins a pot of money—"between 75 bucks and a couple of hundred dollars"—which can be split up however they choose. While sponsorship might lead to bigger pots—and races nearer to metropolitan areas might provide the exposure that could lead to more sponsors—several of the people involved in the sport said they just like the opportunity to do something different, to escape the doldrums of winter, and to work with people who both share their own passion and who excel at skiing. And if you get to catch some rings on your arm while you're at it, who's complaining? Domestically, ski joring is a cowboy sport: an exhibition of skil, speed and derring-do. For a rider, the challenge of ski joring is making sure that one's horse runs at a suitable speed for the skier. Courses are packed down using payloaders, bulldozers, trucks and grooming equipment donated from local ski areas, all to make sure the horses have a track-like surface on which to run. But let your horse run too fast, and you risk pulling your skier through the air over a jump and knocking him off balance upon landing. Go too slow, and you create slack in the tow rope and give your skier whiplash. In addition, "If the horses see something in the air behind them, they get 'interested,' " says Widman. So it falls to the rider to keep the horse focused on moving forward. While there's no particular breed of horse known for its prowess at ski joring, Widman says participants typically prefer "muscular, stocky, big, beefy horses." She's seen smaller horses get toppled over by a skier cutting too hard. C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M W INTER 2013 87

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