{"id":74883,"date":"2020-02-15T18:42:55","date_gmt":"2020-02-16T01:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/silverton-opens-blair-street-to-skijoring\/"},"modified":"2020-02-16T01:42:55","modified_gmt":"2020-02-16T01:42:55","slug":"silverton-opens-blair-street-to-skijoring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/silverton-opens-blair-street-to-skijoring\/","title":{"rendered":"Silverton opens Blair Street to Skijoring"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The town of Silverton braces for thousands of visitors Presidents Day weekend for Silverton Skijoring, an event that locals say grows each year.<\/span>Bret Hauff\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

SILVERTON \u2013 There\u2019s not a whole lot of difference between skiers and cowboys, Tarah O\u2019Connor said in Silverton. Both enjoy string music and drinking in the wilderness, she said; \u201cWe just wear different clothes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any similarities between the two identities were on full display Saturday at Silverton Skijoring, where horse riders pulled daring skiers along the a snow-covered Blair Street in front of a crowd of hundreds.<\/p>\n

Dozens of skiers and riders paired and raced hundreds of yards, the horses pulling people on skis who hit jumps, collected rings and tried to cross a finish line with the fastest time.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor said she has a friend where she lives in Ogden, Utah, who skis behind horses. She\u2019s never done it, but she rides horses and skis.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s super-alluring,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Skier
Skier Duffy Counsell rides behind Kimber Cook and her horse Badger on Blair Street for Silverton Skijoring on Saturday.<\/span>Bret Hauff\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Skijoring in Silverton began in 2010, just a year before Pete Sampson moved to the isolated town nestled in the San Juan Mountains. The crowds for Silverton Skijoring have grown each year, and the event brings thousands to the town that is \u201ca little hard to get to\u201d after snow falls, Sampson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re used to it being on the quiet side in the winter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Organizers of 2020 Silverton Skijoring event saw a flurry of donations late last year after considering canceling the event for lack of funding<\/a>. It costs about $30,000 to operate the two-day event, and by mid-November, with less than a month to raise the money, organizers were $10,000 short<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More than 2,500 people have filled Silverton\u2019s streets in recent years for Silverton Skijoring<\/a>, according to the event\u2019s website. The town of Silverton gave a $5,000 matching donation to ensure the event was a go.<\/p>\n

\"George
George Kuckly rides behind Tate Rogers and his horse Chief on Blair Street on Saturday during Silverton Skijoring.<\/span>Bret Hauff\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Al and Max Lindaman said they\u2019ve come for years from Las Vegas with their parents to Silverton for Skijoring \u2013 the 10- and 11-year-olds\u2019 grandparents live in the mountain town.<\/p>\n

The siblings were building a snowman in a storefront along Blair Street as skiers and riders raced behind a crowd of spectators. Max said it\u2019s \u201creally exciting to watch\u201d \u2013 some people fall, and \u201cit\u2019s really cool\u201d if a woman wins.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re underrated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Al said she and her brother built a \u201csnowman army\u201d at their grandparents place in Silverton a couple years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Nevada, there\u2019s not a lot of snow \u2013 so this is our only chance,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd, it\u2019s really boring to stand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Al
Al Lindaman, 10, and her brother Max, 11, said they\u2019ve come to Silverton for years with their parents. They\u2019re from Las Vegas, and their trip to Southwest Colorado is their only chance to play in the snow.<\/span>Bret Hauff\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

bhauff@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cowboys and skiers have more in common than one might think<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[13,28,29,327],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-74883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-silverton"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74883"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=74883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}