Skijoring is described as a winter sport where a person on skis is pulled by a horse, a dog (or dogs) or a motor vehicle. In Montana they combine signature ski racing with cowboy roots which results in a wild fast-paced and entertaining spectator event.
Modern ski joring involves a horse and rider pulling a skier around a horseshoe shaped 700-foot-long course at high speeds, with the skier required to navigate over jumps and around slalom gates. The sport of ski joring began several hundred years ago in Scandinavia as a way to travel during the long winters, with skiers back then pulled by dogs. Skijoring found its way to North America, where bored ranch hands attached a long rope to the saddle horn, and galloped on a horse at high speeds down a long straight-away.
Currently, the sport of equestrian ski joring has become a highly specialized competitive sport, where competitors must navigate a high-speed, snowy course of jumps and gates and curves. In 1928, equestrian ski joring was actually an exhibition sport in the St. Moritz Winter Olympic Games.
