- A pro skijoring tour offering thousands in prize money will start in Utah this January.
- In skijoring, riders on horseback pull skiers through an obstacle course at high speed.
- The fast-paced action sport has gained popularity in the West over the past few years.
A pair of Utahns who brought the fast and curious sport of skijoring to Utah eight years ago have launched a professional tour with six stops in three states culminating with a championship weekend in Salt Lake City.
PRO Skijor, which bills itself as North America’s first professional skijoring series and offers tens of thousands of dollars in prize money, will hold its inaugural Frontier Tour starting Jan. 16-17 in Heber City, Utah.
Skijoring fuses two cultures the American West is known for — rodeo and skiing — into an action sport that is catching on more every year. The funny name is derived from the Norwegian word skikjøring, which means ski driving. Its roots go back hundreds of years to Scandinavians harnessing reindeer and strapping on Nordic skis to cross vast expanses of frozen tundra.
In the modern version, cowboys and cowgirls on horseback tow skiers (and snowboarders) holding a 30-foot-long rope hooked to the saddle over a snow-covered obstacle course at breakneck speed. The skier must navigate slalom gates, hit jumps, grab rings and make sweeping turns.
“It’s just like, ‘Boom!’ you’re in it, and it happens so fast,” Scott Hoover, who races in a red-and-blue-plaid flannel shirt that reads “I Could Do This All Day” on the back, told the Deseret News last year.
“You feel a jerk of rope and you’re flying down the track way faster than you think you’re going to go. Then you’ve got big chunks of ice flying off the horse’s feet, flying past your head, clobbering you in the face. ... It’s just so exhilarating. It’s awesome.”
How skijoring started in Utah
Lifelong friends Brian Gardner and Joe Loveridge, who share a passion for horses and skiing, knew they had to organize a skijoring race in Utah after they came across the sport in Montana.
“We’d watched skijoring light up a few ski towns across the West, but Utah hadn’t seen it yet. Joe called and said, ‘This needs to be Utah’s sport. It’s who we are,’” Gardner said in a press release.
“We rallied our ski buddies and our horse buddies, set up a course, and just went for it. It was a blast, and that first day sparked a movement we’re proud to share with more people every season.”
As Loveridge told the Deseret News last year about seeing the sport for the first time, “Holy crap, this is really cool. We need to do this in Utah.”
Skijoring Utah, which Gardner and Loveridge founded, staged its first race in 2017 at Soldier Hollow, the cross-country skiing venue for the 2002 Olympics. They rounded up 100 competitors and sold about 500 tickets.
The past couple of years, the competition at the Wasatch County Event Complex has drawn nearly 350 teams racing for thousands of dollars in prize money and attracted thousands of spectators. The Cowboy Channel, a network in over 42 million cable and satellite homes that carries Western and rodeo sports, has streamed the event.
“It’s rodeo energy meets ski-town attitude,” Loveridge said. “Every run is different, every crowd’s louder than the last, and we can’t wait to bring that rush to fans across the Mountain West.”
Launching a pro tour
For PRO Skijor, Loveridge and Gardner teamed up with entertainment industry veterans Greg Lipstone, a former William Morris and ICM talent agent, Chris Castallo, an award-winning producer and executive with NBC, CBS, Verizon and Amazon, and Ben Kim, former chief operating officer at Playboy.
“Skijoring is the perfect mix of horsepower, gravity and grit,” Lipstone said in the release. “We’re turning it into an event series built for both athletes and fans, something that feels epic, authentic and unlike anything else in winter sports.”
And there’s big money — and belt buckles — up for grabs.
“The PRO Skijor Frontier Tour puts $250,000+ on the line — payouts at every stop, plus a championship purse in Salt Lake City. Chase checks all season: Consistent top finishes and buckles add up fast, and a focused team can make real money before Finals even start," according to its website.
The purses are $30,000 or $50,000 depending on the stop and $75,000 for the finals, along with the belt buckles and other prizes.
The Salt Lake Winter Roundup organized by Visit Salt Lake featured skijoring exhibition on a downtown street the past two years. Travel and Tour World highlighted the 2025 event in an article, calling it a game-changer for winter tourism in the United States.
“While the skijoring spectacle stole the spotlight, bringing high-speed thrills to the city’s streets, live performances by local musicians, cultural groups and artists created an immersive experience,” per the story.
The sport is popular enough that there has been talk of it becoming at least an Olympic demonstration or exhibition sport, with some eyeing the 2034 Winter Games in Utah as an ideal showcase.
What to expect at a skijoring event
Each tour stop will feature freestyle aerials, timed heats and divisions ranging from first-timers to pro, live music, local food trucks and family-friendly activities, per PRO Skijor.
“It’s the ultimate winter mash-up,” Castallo said in the release.
The main divisions — pro, sport, women’s, snowboard and all-around — will compete for points, titles and cash. There are also divisions for beginners and novices of all ages to compete for fun.
“Skijoring’s already wild,” according to longtime skier Stephanie Webber. “But turning it into a full-on series means I get to dial things in with my crew all season, stack points and chase the finals and have a blast doing it. I’m seriously stoked.”
The 2026 Frontier Tour schedule:
- Heber City, Utah, Wasatch Events Center, Jan. 16-17
- Bozeman, Montana, Gallatin County Fairgrounds, Jan. 24-25
- Logan, Utah, Cache County Fairgrounds, Jan. 30-31
- Boise, Idaho, Ford Idaho Center, Feb. 6-7
- Driggs, Idaho, Teton County Fairgrounds, Feb. 21-22
- Salt Lake City, Utah, Utah State Fairpark, Feb. 27-March 1