Skijoring the Big Rock enjoyed its highest spectator attendance and competitor participation numbers ever in its third annual run, this past weekend at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds. Roughly 160 teams competed over two days of racing, with nearly 200 spectators arriving to Boulder from distant and varied locales.
The geographically diverse group converged Friday night on The Windsor Bar, where competitors registered for the event. Visitors and locals had an opportunity to socialize, and to prepare for the next day’s spectacle.
“These local races are always the best,” said Georgia Rabin, who made the trip from Salt Lake City. “Just real Montanans, real racing. I mean, just look at the track they’ve built. It’s extraordinary.”
Rabin herself fell and did not complete her run Saturday. That was not an atypical outcome: Skijoring, wherein skiers are towed around a curved course by a horse, navigating jumps and gates, is not as easy as it might sound, and nearly a third of skiers hit the snow at some point during the weekend.
That snow was sourced from in Helena a week before, via a team of seven dump trucks each making up to eight round trips between the city and the track site. An unseasonably warm winter in no way hindered competition, as roughly 325 tons of gathered snow fortified the 900-footlong track.
Boulder Valley Skijoring Association President Melissa Ostrander was extremely mobile on the first day of racing, managing the historic crowd and participant field. “This event is a beautiful thing; it’s big work making it happen, and making sure it happens safely,” said Ostrander. “We brought skijoring to Boulder, but it’s going everywhere.”
Racers were divided into classes: novice, junior, and three competitive divisions based on preliminary times. Each skier took up to four runs over the course of the weekend, each with a different horse.This is the first Skijoring event in Boulder to also include a dedicated competitive class for snowboarders, a subject of some controversy among the skijoring community.
“This is my first time doing this, and I’m just glad to have a board beneath me,” said experienced snowboarder and novice skijorer Andrew Ryan. “I nearly got bucked from a horse in Chile, and so this is sort of an exercise in conquering fear. If this goes poorly, I swear, that’s the last straw for me and horses.”
While many skiers and snowboarders were skijoring for their first time, experienced horsemanship is a necessary bedrock to the event’s success and safety. Rider Cyndel Liebel, of Belgrade, and her horse, Jolene, competed as part of two teams: Slightly Feral in snowboarding and Up to Snow Good in skiing. Liebel sees the event as an opportunity to prepare for rodeo season.
“What else is there to do in mid-winter?” said Liebel. “We do what we can to stay in shape, plus it’s just great fun.”
As competitors rose and fell and rose again, all was announced to an emotional crowd by Cody Theriault, owner of CWT Rodeo Announcing. This was his first year announcing the event, and was glad to be part of the rodeo community’s contribution to the weekend.
“We’re a tight-knit group, everyone looks out for each other,” Theriault said. “It’s wild how this thing [Skijoring the Big Rock] has grown.” Aerial footage of the competition was provided by the Montana Drone Company, in partnership with a group of community sponsors.
After varying degrees of skill were displayed on Saturday, many gathered at Daves 32 oz Bar to participate in a “calcutta” auction. Spectators bid on teams to produce each divisions’ fastest times the next day, with 5% of the proceeds going to Animal Shelter and Care of Jefferson County.
The final and most competitive day of racing saw a group of winners crowned in Boulder. The 1D overall winner, with a combined two-day time of 32.96 seconds, was rider Kevin Frueh, skier Ty Free, and horse Pop-a-Top.
The second division was won by rider and skier team Derrick Pawlikowski and Kellen Stevenson, and third division by Jason Duncan and Aaron Reins.
Jenna McKilop and Jakobe Chacon claimed victory in snowboarding, while Caroline Birdsall and Cortney Andersen won the novice division. Michael Miller and Trippe Tubbs were the weekend’s junior division champions.
