What originated in the Scandinavian countries as a form of winter transportation, the Western states have transformed skijoring into an action packed competition where a horse and rider pull a skier at a fast pace through a course that has gates, jumps, and rings.  Competitors race for cash and prizes based on the fastest combined times for the two day event as well as the fastest time each day.

Courses vary greatly from event to event and can be a straight run, U-shaped course, or a single turn L-shaped course. Typically course length will be approximately 600-1000 feet from start gate to finish gate with an additional couple of hundred feet for horses to stop. Ski gates are typically breakaway style, where the skier goes right of the red gates and left of the blue gates. Ski jumps vary from three to six feet high. The course designs are unique to each location and are created by an experienced designer who may chose to include rings for either the skier or the rider to grab to provide an additional challenge.

Skijoring is a two day competition with each team running once per day. Scoring is timing based and the times from each run is combined for an overall score. Time penalties are added for missed gates (five seconds added) or dropped/missed rings (two seconds added) to the total score. Winnings are awarded for the three fast combined times over the two days in each division as well as “day money” for the fast single day time in each division.

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