Nasja.com
Title
North American Ski Joring Association | NASJA | What is Ski Joring?
Description
The sport of ski joring began several hundred years ago in Scandinavian countries as a way to travel during the long winters. Laplander's skied on Nordic skis holding the reins attached to reindeer. In the mid 1950's, ski joring found its way to North America, where ranchers attached a long rope to the saddle horn of a horse that was ridden at high speeds down a long straight-away. Currently, the sport of equestrian ski joring has become a highly specialized competitive sport, where competitors must navigate a course of jumps, gates and sometime spear rings. Competitive ski joring competitions are currently taking place in over 5 states in the USA, and in several countries worldwide. In some parts of the world, skiers are pulled behind dogs, mules and snowmobiles. Whatever the means, the sport of ski joring is growing rapidly, and is just as much fun for spectators as it is for competitors.
On April 24th, 1999, directors from almost every major ski joring organization in the Country, rendezvoused in Jackson Hole, Wyoming to begin a process that would change the sport of ski joring forever. After several follow-up meetings, the North American Ski Joring Association (NASJA) was developed. For the first time in history, equestrian ski joring became a sanctioned sport!
NASJA was conceived because of a very basic need to consolidate existing ski joring races into a circuit where competitors can earn points that go toward a National Champion Award. By developing criteria that all NASJA sanctioned events abide by, each competitor will have an equal opportunity at becoming the official National Ski Joring Champion.
Languages
English
