By Draft horses at the National Western Stock Show. Photo: Nathan Walker, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The National Western Stock Show has been running in Denver every January since 1906, and for 2027 it’s adding something new to the grounds: skiers being towed behind galloping horses.
Skijoring will make its Stock Show debut on Monday, Jan. 18, 2027, with 50 teams in an invitational competition on Betty Cram Drive, on the west side of the grounds between the Legacy building and the CSU Spur campus, the Denver Gazette reported. The Stock Show plans to start making snow for the course in late November. Tickets start at $31 for adults and $10 for children.
For anyone who hasn’t seen it, skijoring is about as Western-meets-mountain-town as sports get. A rider on horseback pulls a skier on a rope down a snow-packed course at full speed. The skier has to clear jumps, weave through gates and grab rings hung along the way. Teams are timed, and missed rings, missed gates or going off course add penalties. It takes a fast, steady horse, a rider who can keep a straight line at a run and a skier with strong legs and some nerve.
The sport has deep roots in Scandinavia and has been a winter staple in Colorado and Montana mountain towns for decades. Leadville and Grand Lake both run well-known events, and the Stock Show’s announcement used a photo from Grand Lake Skijoring. Bringing it into Denver puts the sport in front of a much bigger crowd than a typical main-street race in a ski town.
Ranches of the West
The skijoring news came on top of another addition aimed at the people the Stock Show was built for. National Western has created a heritage award called Ranches of the West, and its first class of 10 ranches will be inducted during an expanded, six-day Cattlemen’s Week, Jan. 13 to 18.
The organization said the honorees were picked not for size, age or fame, but for what they’ve added to the beef business: genetics and seedstock, carcass quality, production methods, conservation and land stewardship, and industry leadership. The inaugural class, according to National Western’s announcement:
- Colorado: Bledsoe Ranch and Spann Ranches
- Arizona: K4 Ranch
- New Mexico: CS Ranch
- Montana: Vermilion Ranch
- Nebraska: Timmerman Ranch
- North Dakota/South Dakota: Thomas Ranch
- Utah: Ensign Ranches
- Wyoming: Padlock Ranch and Silver Spur Ranches
An induction ceremony and reception is set for 4 p.m. Jan. 14 at the Legacy, followed by the PRCA rodeo. An exhibit on the honorees will go up in the Wold Heritage Center inside the Legacy and stay through the summer.
“The connection between the National Western Stock Show and Western ranching runs more than 120 years deep,” said Wes Allison, National Western’s president and CEO. He said the award was meant to recognize that history “and share it with a new generation.”
A show working both sides
The two announcements show where the Stock Show is headed. The expanded Cattlemen’s Week is a nod to commercial cattle producers, who still come to Denver each January to show livestock, sell genetics and do business. Skijoring is aimed at everyone else: city families and younger visitors who may never set foot in a sale barn but will pay to watch a horse and skier fly down a street covered in manmade snow.
That balance has been the story at National Western for years, especially since the redevelopment of the grounds brought in the Legacy, the CSU Spur buildings and other new year-round space. The 2027 show runs Jan. 9 to 24. Ticket presales are already underway, and the full schedule, including rodeo performances and the skijoring event, is on the Stock Show’s website.
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