Snow, snow, quick, quick…

Skijoring is a thrilling combination of skiing and racing – why not give it a go this winter?

- MARTHA TERRY 

The gates spring open. Twelve thoroughbreds surge forwards through a cloud of snowflakes, a gaggle of neon-clad skiers jostling in their wake as scrabbling hooves hurl snow pellets into the sky. A furlong later and the chaos subsides, the horses settling into a familiar racing pattern as they stretch out along the snow-white track around the frozen Lake St Moritz. They stream past fur-clad crowds cheering from the rails, towing their skiers – bar two, cut loose in the initial mayhem but whose rigging remains to trip up the others. One skier is valiantly continuing on one ski, his other having flicked off in the early mêlée. If it is exhilarating to watch, it must be electric to take part, a heady blend of speed, horsepower, danger and blowyour-mind adrenaline – with a blast of icy kickback in your face.

This is the skikjoring race at White Turf St Moritz, this enigmatic sport’s blueriband event. It is at once traditional and bonkers. Skijoring (without the second ‘k’) – which involves a horse and rider pulling a skier over the snow – dates back millennia to the days when hunters in snowbound climes harnessed reindeer to speed up their search for food. The sport’s name derives from the Norwegian for ski driving: skikjøring. While Asians, North Americans and the Scandinavians lay claim to its origins as a method of transportation, it has gradually evolved into a sport that is enjoyed by novices and experts alike, from Norway, Scotland, the Alps and the Tatras to the Rockies.