Wikipedia:
For hundreds of years, Laplanders have been harnessing reindeer and strapping on Nordic skis as a way to travel across vast snowy expanses, and skijoring (spelled skijøring or skikjoring in Norwegian and meaning "ski driving") is still popular in all Scandinavian countries... By 1912, skijoring behind horses was a popular activity in Switzerland, France and the Tatra Mountains of Poland.... In the early 1900s, equine skijoring found its way to North America....Another view:
When World War II ended, men from the 10th Mountain Division, our "Soldiers on Skis", returned home. There were no ski resorts or lifts back then, so their cowboy friends attached a long rope to their saddle horn, and the skier held on as the horse was ridden at high speeds down a long straight-away usually an open field or a snow-covered roadway. Mountain towns like Jackson Hole, Wyoming and Steamboat Springs, Colorado took up the sport often running teams of horse, rider and skier side by side down main streets.... Thus, American races were born....
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My Amish friends do this throughout the winter, being pulled by a buggy or just a horse. It amusing to watch them use modern skis. Go by a school house and you will see a row of skis leaning against the hitching rail.
A drone scared a skijoring horse in Silverton and it ran into the crowd and trampled some people. The dronist has an "Ice Cowboys" video for sale.
With all the falls it reminded me of the Claudine Longet Skijoring Tournament.
That really looks like fun. If I was younger, I'd love to either be on the horse or the skis. Surprising the horses can run that fast on snow without going down.
As an old pooperoo, I'm nervous now riding on wet, muddy surfaces so probably would be very nervous riding fast on snow. Walking, trotting or cantering on snow is a wonderful experience, even better if it's snowing lightly on you.
Reminds me of my skid-hopping days in the 60s. After a snow storm the streets weren't cleared as quickly as they are today. So even though streets were snow-covered drivers still attempted to drive and some were successful - chains were still in use - but at slow/moderate speeds. Slow enough that some teen-aged kid could grab onto the generous lip of the rear bumper - when bumpers were real bumpers - and could go for a short sleigh ride. It was even more fun when your buddy was on the other side of the bumper.
Dangerous? I suppose, but it didn't really seem that way. The speeds weren't that great. To us, there were only a couple of things to watch out for. Spots where the snow had either been blown off the road surface or had turned to slush leaving some exposed asphalt; this risk was avoided by scouting out the roads beforehand. Cars traveling too close behind the car we were skid-hopping on; this didn't happen too often as those following drivers generally had the good sense to keep their distance, not wanting to run one of us over. But the worse was when the driver knew he had some skid-hopping hitchhikers on his bumper, stopped his car, and getting out trying to collar one of us. Sometimes he'd be successful and he take the kid to his parents. It was different time then. People did discipline kids they didn't even know. Today, who'd try to correct the behavior of others?
I have friends who love to go on ski vacations. God bless 'em.
Personally, I could never see the wisdom of strapping a couple of slick boards to my feet and then hurtling down a hill.
Plus, I seriously dislike cold weather. In Hollywood, Florida it's currently a sunny 75. That's more like it.
My father (dead 20 years now), told tales of skijoring he saw as a kid in Grand Rapids, MI. We built a large kite shaped thing out of visqueen and furring strip and took it out ice skating at night on a frozen canal. Like hot air ballooning, you rode the wind, which remained silent.
Magic!
Kinda grew up watching it. Started ski racing in junior high, and the yearly race in Steamboat was part of their Winter Carnival. Another part was the skijoring. Talked to a fraternity brother Friday who was born and raised there in Steamboat. I think that he is third generation, but lives these days down by Dr K by Tucson. He did some skijoring growing up there, mostly on skis and not the horses (they still have a farm there, but the two boys grew up ski racing). We are supposed to get together mid month in Scottsdale with another of our brothers. Will ask him for some stories (I remember him talking about it almost a half century ago but not much more than that). Never had a chance to to try it - down by Denver, there was rarely enough snow, and had given up horses by the time we were good enough skiers. But did want to try it. My next brother, who is still ski racing despite being old enough for Medicare, really wanted to try it, back growing up. He is the one who got us started skiing, him at eight, and me at ten, and always could out ski me.
We did this on skis behind cars when I was a kid. Lots of fun.
“My father (dead 20 years now), told tales of skijoring he saw as a kid in Grand Rapids, MI. We built a large kite shaped thing out of visqueen and furring strip and took it out ice skating at night on a frozen canal. Like hot air ballooning, you rode the wind, which remained silent.
Magic!”
Family had a condo on Lake Dillon (CO) (that next brother of mine now has it), and I used to flat track after a day on the slopes, once the lake was well frozen. Would watch the guys with kites skiing the lake under wind power. Looked like grea fun. Never got around to it though. Partly, it was financial - the times when I was living there and getting a lot of skiing in, were the times when money was tight, and then when I was earning good money, I was living far away.
Skikjøring is correct.
(and ski is pronounced "shi" - the Roman alphabet did not have a J but used I for both (and also for Y). The ki sound in the Scandinavian languages should logically have been spelled KII (KJI), but they decided to just drop the first "I". Thus Kjirsten became Kirsten.)
Skijoring is very popular here in NW Montana. An event was planned, very near us, for yesterday and today but even with lots of snow on the ground the ambient air temp is at minus 16 degrees (wind chill about minus 20) so the event was canceled for safety reasons. Lots of disappointed folks.
I saw no persons of color participating.
This is literally "Hitler" in the Age of Trump and without a significant expenditure for Minority Outreach, this vestige of White European Patriarchal Supremacy must be outlawed as part of The Green New Deal: too much horse flatulance, on top of animal cruelty.
We always did it with one or two dogs. Fun, fun, fun.
Happy to learn a new word today! "Visqueen was first produced circa 1950 by the Visking Corporation, a company founded in the 1920s by Erwin O. Freund for the purpose of making casings for meat products. Visking investigated the post-World War II emerging technology of polyethylene, and developed manufacturing techniques to make pure virgin polyethylene film. Originally spelled VisQueen...." (Wikipedia)
Had thought, based on a mistaken recollection of a passage in Mann's The Magic Mountain, that skijoring is/had been an Olympic sport but Wikipedia says, an 'exhibition sport' in 1928.
"Skijoring is very popular here in NW Montana. An event was planned, very near us, for yesterday and today but even with lots of snow on the ground the ambient air temp is at minus 16 degrees (wind chill about minus 20) so the event was canceled for safety reasons. Lots of disappointed folk."
I saw a report about that. It's what made me look up skijoring and end up writing this post.
Just got back from 2 weeks in Steamboat Springs - skiing. I have seen skijoring during the annual winter festival in Steamboat which happens earlier in February. Fun to watch.
I'd like to hear what the Swedish Chef has to say about this!
Skijoring was very popular in my northern suburb of Kansas City in the mid to late 1960s. The difference was that we use a VW Bug instead of a horse. The real trick was not to hit a parked car.
Ha! we were skijoring before you were even bjorn
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