steelslaver
US Veteran
Even though it hasn't been much of a winter this weekend was the Central Montana fair here. Been going on for 75 years. Weather is unbelievable last few days it has been about 50. They had to bring in belly dumps full of snow from the mountains for the Skijoring.
Whats a skijoring. Well its a slalom course is run on skis. The course is only about 150 yards long has 5 humps or moguls and 10 short flags they have to weave though. The interesting part is it is layed out over level ground. It requires a team of 3. The skier, the rider and a good horse. The skier holds a rope which is connected to either a ring on the saddle or the horn. The skier holds on about a 1/4 of the way up the rope and there is some slack in it when the horse takes off. A good horse, which is off to the side, gets up to speed quick and the rider is usually rein whipping him some. The skier must work the rope and swerve through the flags. A missed flag is a 5 second penalty. The best time was 11.52 seconds. There were some great wrecks, some showing off with guys and gals whirling themselves though the finish gate. They were getting some pretty good air on the last hump. This year the horses had pretty good ground and really went. Some great horses. Mostly quarter horses guys use for team roping and bull dogging. Some of the women use their barrel racing horses.
My home town has the Bucking Horse Sale and one of the events used to be Montana surfing. Wild horse, a harness connected to a steer hide. The object was to ride the hide so far. The wild horse race was interesting too. A bunch of wild horses were turned loose in the arena, then about 6 to 8 teams of 4 entered. Team had to rope a horse, get him saddled and a hackamore on him, Rider mounted and had to get all the way around a 1/4 mile track for the win. Haven't been to the horse sale in years, but, I think some of the events got shut down by the do gooders. Ain't really a bucking horse sale anymore. Time was the majority of rodeo bucking stock came from their. One rancher from up north would bring in about 200 or more head a year. 4 year olds that had never been broke. Had a bunch of part draft horse studs so most of them weighted in around 1200 or so. Lots of ranchers always had a few and then there were some spoiled saddle horses too. Guys rode em out. Some of the riders were greener than the horses. Main street got blocked off and the booze flowed. The good ole days.
Whats a skijoring. Well its a slalom course is run on skis. The course is only about 150 yards long has 5 humps or moguls and 10 short flags they have to weave though. The interesting part is it is layed out over level ground. It requires a team of 3. The skier, the rider and a good horse. The skier holds a rope which is connected to either a ring on the saddle or the horn. The skier holds on about a 1/4 of the way up the rope and there is some slack in it when the horse takes off. A good horse, which is off to the side, gets up to speed quick and the rider is usually rein whipping him some. The skier must work the rope and swerve through the flags. A missed flag is a 5 second penalty. The best time was 11.52 seconds. There were some great wrecks, some showing off with guys and gals whirling themselves though the finish gate. They were getting some pretty good air on the last hump. This year the horses had pretty good ground and really went. Some great horses. Mostly quarter horses guys use for team roping and bull dogging. Some of the women use their barrel racing horses.
My home town has the Bucking Horse Sale and one of the events used to be Montana surfing. Wild horse, a harness connected to a steer hide. The object was to ride the hide so far. The wild horse race was interesting too. A bunch of wild horses were turned loose in the arena, then about 6 to 8 teams of 4 entered. Team had to rope a horse, get him saddled and a hackamore on him, Rider mounted and had to get all the way around a 1/4 mile track for the win. Haven't been to the horse sale in years, but, I think some of the events got shut down by the do gooders. Ain't really a bucking horse sale anymore. Time was the majority of rodeo bucking stock came from their. One rancher from up north would bring in about 200 or more head a year. 4 year olds that had never been broke. Had a bunch of part draft horse studs so most of them weighted in around 1200 or so. Lots of ranchers always had a few and then there were some spoiled saddle horses too. Guys rode em out. Some of the riders were greener than the horses. Main street got blocked off and the booze flowed. The good ole days.
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