It’s Ireland’s answer to Cool Runnings!
Team trained with no snow and a tractor for the horse
A PAIR of childhood friends have become the first Irish team ever to take part in – and win – a major skijoring event, despite no snow to practice on and using a tractor as a substitute for a horse.
In a victory reminiscent of the famous film Cool Runnings, where a Jamaican bobsled team competed against the odds in the 1988 Winter Olympics, the Meath couple scooped the feature sprint race in the Skijordue Festival in Calgary, Canada, last Saturday.
Co. Meath wouldn’t be a skijoring stronghold, but the pair dominated the event, which is North America’s fasting growing winter sport and consists of a horse pulling a skier over obstacles through the snow at breakneck speeds of up to 65km per hour.
Accomplished horserider Susan Oakes, 37, and her best friend Barry O’Brien Lynch, 40, from Navan, Co.
Meath won the 2.5furlong event against 50 competitors – mainly from the US and Canada – over four heats. The friends decided to take part – despite having any snow to practice on.
‘The lack of snow in Ireland was definitely a problem but I practised my pace and balance by being pulled on a kids’ sledge by a tractor over a roll of carpet, and it obviously worked,’ said Mr Lynch.
‘It wasn’t something on my bucket list, but the adrenaline was huge. It’s unbelievable to think that we are the very first Irish team to take part in a skijoring contest and we won.’
Ms Oakes – who holds a world record for a side-saddle high jump of six foot, eight inches – was competing in Canada when she met event organiser Sam Mitchell and decided to take part.
‘I roped in Barry and I’m glad I did,’ she said.
‘We had signed in for all five races not thinking it through at all. I lost my hat, my boot and my spur in the race and I had never ridden in a western saddle before either or hadn’t neck reined since playing polo about 15 years ago. I had never ridden on snow before either and Barry had never jumped on skis.
She said: ‘It’s kind of like Cool Runnings, I guess. Everyone was behind the Irish and I always feel like the underdog taking on something that is probably out of reach and in most cases and for most people it would be but it’s the driving hunger inside me that is longing for something extra all the time.
‘It’s like winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup and we will definitely be back again next year.’
It’s the latest event for Ms Oakes who made a full recovery after a fall from a horse in New York in 2016 when the saddle broke, left her with an acquired brain injury.’
Skijor Canada formed as a volunteer organisation in 2017 to develop the sport on a national level.
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‘Like winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup’