Cortez firefighter and longtime skijoring competitor Noah Gregory is receiving treatment at a Denver hospital after he and his horse tangled in a fall at the Grand Lake skijoring competition on Feb. 28.
Gregory, who competes riding horses with a skier in tow, shattered his pelvis and broke a vertebra after his horse stumbled in competition.
“The horse did a front flip with me in the saddle,” Gregory said. “His body of 1,300 pounds came and landed directly on my pelvis.”
Gregory runs Telluride Wranglers, which advertises guided trail rides, and has worked as a firefighter for the Cortez Fire Protection District for the past three years. With an estimated recovery time of nine months, it will be a long road back to the saddle – and to the fire station.
“There’s no discharge dates for me right now at all. There’s certain milestones that I have to hit, and I’m not really close to those milestones yet,” Gregory said.
After his eventual discharge, Gregory faces up to three weeks of physical therapy. He’ll then be confined to a wheelchair for eight to 12 weeks, followed by a transition to using a walker or a cane before fully recovering.
Shortly after his air transport to Denver for emergency surgery, a friend began a GoFundMe campaign to support his hospital bills and his family. Friends and skijoring fanatics donated over $40,000 of the $55,000 requested.
“It’s really brought tears to me and my wife’s face to see the support of everybody that’s come out of the woodwork,” Gregory said.
However, Gregory, who began his skijoring career at a 2018 Silverton competition, won’t compete for the rest of the season – a fact he’s not too happy about.
“I specifically asked, ‘when can I be back in the saddle?’” Gregory said of his conversation with his doctors after surgery.
Skijoring, with origins in Europe, Scandinavia and Asia, became popular among Coloradans after Steamboat’s first Winter Carnival in 1914. The sport’s followers enjoy the blend of cowboy and skiing culture as skiers attached to horses and guided by riders weave through obstacles at high speeds.
“You as a skier are doing something completely different than you would on a mountain,” said Loren Zhimanskova, the president and founder of Skijor USA, a national alliance that supports skijoring events and education. “It appeals to people who have a need for speed, competition spirit and love an adrenaline rush.”
Injuries are more common among skiers, according to Zhimanskova, who said well over 3,000 skijoring teams have competed so far this year. While less common, horsemen like Gregory can see pelvis, collarbone and back injuries if thrown off.
“Seldom do we have people that are airlifted to a major hospital,” Zhimanskova said. “We have an excellent track record when it comes to safety when you think of the thousands of people competing every year.”
Zhimanskova, who saw a video of Gregory’s accident, sympathized with the financial and emotional loss of missing a competition season. However, she said the risks of skijoring are not unique to the sport.
“There’s increased risk in any sport that you’re engaged in especially if it involves speed or slippery surfaces,” Zhimanskova said, noting the 1,000‑pound animal in the mix of it all. “It’s part of the fabric of the sport.”
Gregory, despite the skijoring event that’s turned his life around, agrees.
“Injuries happen on the NFL football fields. Injuries happen in all sports,” Gregory said. “The type of accident that I sustained in skijoring is very, very rare.”
Event organizers in Grand Lake canceled the next day of competition after Gregory’s accident, as warm weather created suboptimal conditions on the track.
“Overnight, the temperatures never froze or got cold enough for the track to reset,” Zhimanskova said.
Meeker, a small mountain town in northwestern Colorado, canceled its January competition that was meant to kick off the season. Zhimanskova said organizers now use more artificial snow, with some events opting to reduce the amount of snow by only covering enough track for the skiers and not the horses.
She added that skijoring communities are developing in more northern areas with higher elevations as global warming makes for milder winters.
“As new regions start to develop, they’ll have their own style,” Zhimanskova said.
But the Western flair of Colorado’s skijoring competitions will remain a personal touch. The Leadville skijoring event, the last of Colorado’s for the season, begins Saturday.
While he can’t attend because of the accident, Gregory’s humor remains unaffected. He compared his broken body to Humpty Dumpty’s. After falling off the ledge, he’s shattered, but all the king’s horses, all the king’s men and donations from the skijoring community are piecing him back together again.
avanderveen@the‑journal.com
