Once a way to travel through remote places during snowy months, skijoring is now one of winter’s most extreme competitive sports. A person on skis holding on to reins is pulled along behind specially trained, rider-less racehorses. Participants race at breath taking speeds of up to 50km/h.
Skijoring was a demonstration sport in the 1928 Winter Olympics and nowadays races are held in many countries including the USA, Canada, France and parts of Scandinavia. Most races are between five kilometers and 20 kilometers in length. In all cases, the horses are reared and trained to remain calm in racing conditions and to be comfortable with reins and the skier behind them.
To get closer to the thrill and adrenaline of skijoring, we followed 55-year-old Franco Moro – reigning world champion, speed freak and snow chaser – as he trained in Argentina. He’s been feeding his skijoring obsession for 31 years and his passion for the sport reveals a different way to experience the coldest time of the year – to celebrate the snowy extremes, rather than hibernate indoors. Come and see.
This was my first above the line – pan european photo campaign for canon.
