Alva Review-Courier -

LEADVILLE, Colo. (AP) — Nick Burri clicks into his ski bindings, squats to stretch his knees and scans the snowy race course. Moments later, he's zipping past a series of gates at high speed and hurtling off jumps. But it's not gravity pulling him toward the finish line: It's the brute force of a quarter horse named Sirius.

Welcome to skijoring: an extreme — and quirky — winter sport that celebrates the unlikely melding of rodeo and ski culture in the U.S. Mountain West.

It's a heart-pumping, white-knuckle competition in which horses — and sometimes dogs, snowmobiles and even cars — tow skiers...