What Do You Get When You Cross Rodeo With Skiing? The Wild and Wacky Skijoring

What Do You Get When You Cross Rodeo With Skiing? The Wild and Wacky Skijoring
A skijoring team competes in Leadville, Colo., on March 2, 2024. Thomas Peipert/AP Photo
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LEADVILLE, Colo.—Nick Burri clicks into his ski bindings, squats to stretch his knees and scans the snowy race course. Moments later, he’s zipping past a series of gates at high speed and hurtling off jumps. But it’s not gravity pulling him toward the finish line: It’s the brute force of a quarter horse named Sirius.

Welcome to skijoring: an extreme—and quirky—winter sport that celebrates the unlikely melding of rodeo and ski culture in the U.S. Mountain West.