PHOTOS: Skijoring delivered a thrilling weekend of skis and hooves in Heber City

Skier Troy Houston goes off a jump at the skijor competition in Heber City, Jan. 27, 2023.

Skiing and horses are two things Utah has no shortage of. So why not combine them?

It’s called skijoring – kind of like water skiing, but on snow. Rather than a boat, a horse and rider pull the daredevil on two skis. Over the weekend, the Utah Skijoring competition brought together 200 teams in Heber City.

During the competition, horse riders and skiers try to navigate gates, turns and jumps on a track in under a minute. Skiers grab rings with one hand, shimmy them onto their arm and snatch the rope again. Sometimes there are rings for the rider, too.

The first record of an animal pulling a human on skis is from thousands of years ago in Central Asia. The sport’s name comes from Norwegian, sometimes spelled skijøring or skikjoring, and means "ski driving." Equine skijoring arrived in North America in the early 1900s. They’ve been skijoring in Leadville, Colorado since 1949. Competition in Heber began in 2017.

Shelby Moore’s horse, Jack, kept trying to get in on the interview by bumping his head up against KUER’s Ciara Hulet and the microphone. Moore said, “He’s a love bug. He likes the attention. He’s just excited. His energy is very high today – he knows what’s going on. He’s ready to compete.”

Frisky Whiskey was one of the teams in Heber this year. Rider Shelby Moore of Grantsville is in her second year competing. Her horse is Jack. The team’s skier is Troy "T-Roy" Houston of Parowan, who has been skiing for more than five decades and skijoring for eight years. By the end of the weekend, Frisky Whiskey didn’t place. But Houston said the sport is about more than that.

“Everybody needs to get outside to enjoy and breathe the clean air and live life to its fullest under the blue dome.”

There could be more skijoring in Utah’s future if the state wins its Winter Olympic bid. Skijor International is working to bring the sport back to the Olympics. Yes, back. It made a single appearance as a demonstration sport in the 1928 Olympic Games.

Skier Troy Houston said he competes for the adrenaline rush. “And my wife’s like, ‘Oh, you’re going on your own if you get hurt. Good luck,’” he laughed. “But it’s just fun.”

Moore gets Jack ready to race. Her preparations also include checking the track to see what the conditions are like. “It gets slick out there on the course,” she said. “My biggest fear is if my horse falls, it’s going to hurt my horse and then me or my skier.”

Moore described what it’s like racing on the track. “It is so intense. You can feel my horse’s heartbeat. You can feel my heartbeat.” She listens for Houston’s yells to go faster or slower. “And I’m always looking back when I feel him pull on me a little bit harder than normal, just to make sure that he’s still up.”

When he’s racing, Houston said the main thing he’s focused on is hanging on to the rope. But he also has to always be looking ahead. “Because you don’t know if the horse is going to act up or go too fast, and you really got to compensate for everything that’s going on. So it’s a team effort.”

Utah Skijoring 3, Heber City, skier Ryan Simons and rider Whitney Watts Jan. 27, 2023 — Out of the gate, the horse has the challenge of quickly accelerating while pulling a skier’s weight. And then the skiers are constantly adjusting their grip to make sure there isn’t too much slack in the rope. Pictured are skier Ryan Simons and rider Whitney Watts.

Utah Skijoring 8, Heber City, skier Kaleb Dymock and rider Scott Long, Jan. 27, 2023 — There was a fun atmosphere at the competition, with the emcee cracking jokes all day. Of pictured rider Scott Long, the emcee said, “I don’t know what’s more beautiful – your hair or your horse’s mane.” There were also a lot of fun team names like “Biscuits n Groovy,” “Sundance Kids,” and “Don’t worry my mom is a doctor.” Also pictured is skier Kaleb Dymock.