Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Continuing Oregon Ski Joring quest

Ski Bowl in the Summer
The third and last positive response I got from my summer queries came from Greg "CHOPPER" Moreno the Manager at Mt. Hood Adventure. Starting his e-mail with: "Wow that sounds crazy," he went on to say that he had seen dogs pulling people on skis, but not horses. His e-mail was promising though as he said that he could most likely could get a few horses, even though he was not really sure how he would get them hooked up. 

Another photo of Mt. Hood from Ski Bowl in the Summer
He also made the point that the Forest Service might have regulations about horses on multi use trails. I had not thought of this, so I gave the Zig Zag Ranger Station another call. This time a man answered my call. Again I was told that he had not heard of such a thing, and again I was put on hold so that he could ask his collegues.

The answer that came back was not promising. His conclusion is that I probably would not be able to take a horse on most of the trails. Some of them do not allow horses and others would probably not be found by a person behind a horse. He said that he really had a hard time visualizing it on the snow trails in his district. 

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

The quest for Ski Joring in Oregon continues



Another good suggestion and positive response to my Oregon search came from Shelley Hakanson at Wy'east Nordic Center. She says that on Mt. Hood "there is a very big contingent of folks who skijor." She described how much fun she has had doing it with her dog and encouraged me to contact the Oregon Nordic Club.

While she is definitely coming from the angle of ski joring with dogs, her e-mail gave me an idea. The fact that people keep telling me they have only heard about ski joring with dogs makes me wonder if I need to shift my focus. Maybe I should be contacting dog ski-jorers and see if any of them are breaking the mold and ski joring with horses?