Cowboys pulling a skier on a rope: is skijoring the most extreme winter sport ever?

In skijoring, competitors ski or snowboard while being pulled by horses at full gallop. It’s dizzying and dangerous – but for these athletes, it’s not their first rodeo

At first, the crowd seems incompatible. It’s as if someone took a wrong turn. Cowboy hats and helmets, saddles and ski boots, belt buckles and snowsuits – those two types of gear aren’t usually cut from the same cloth. But this weekend in the midwest, at this year’s Extreme Skijoring event, they go together like “Minnesota” and “nice”.

The sun is beating down on the snow-covered track at Canterbury Park, 25 minutes from downtown Minneapolis, where fur and fringe fill the stands and old-school country blares from the speakers. It’s noon, but people are already taking shotskis. There’s a bison named Kidd Buffalo off in the distance, and the American flag beats against the wind.

A rider and skier compete at the Extreme Skijoring event at Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minnesota in February.

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