During December we featured on BBC 2 "Landward" with Dougie Vipond and Radio Scotland "Out of Doors" with Euan McIlwraith both trying their hand to be best at Horse Ski Jorring at NRC.

Horse Ski Jorring on BBC TV and Radio during December 2011

We had some fantastic media coverage during the month of December for our favourote winter sport of Horse Ski Jorring at Newtonmore Riding Centre. It is the perfect alternative activity when the ski slopes at Cairngorm Mountain are closed because of too much snow or high winds and because we are so close to Aviemore (15 miles) it is almost as easy to come to us as it is to drive to the ski slopes anyway.

Horse Ski Jorring on Landward with Dougie Vipond

When the TV crew arrived from the BBC to film the Horse Ski Jorring we elected to go up Glen Banchor in Newtonmore to find some decent snow. Dougie Vipond had hired skis in Aviemore and was already for the experience. We had four horses all tacked up with Western Saddles and Ski Jorring Rigs and they were, Penguin, Marigold, Kelpie and Sam the Man. We had 4 skiers Bill Shaw, Ian Murray, Ruaridh Ormiston and Dougie Vipond and only one snow boarder, Sandy Stronach. Horse Pilots for the day were Hayley Nairn, Lorraine Duncan and Robyn Dutton. We got some general footage of everybody jorring and interviews with with Bill and Ian. Probably the best bit was Dougie and Ruaridh being towed together behind Kelpie and doing an interview at the same time on Radio mikes discussing how great oit would be to go Ski Touring with Horses at place like Glenmore and Strathmashie.. The footage was shown on BBC2 Landward on the Friday night just before Xmas 2011 and was well received by all.

Ruaridh and Dougie being towed behind Kelpie with Robyn at the reins.

More Horse Ski Jorring with Euan McIlwraith and BBC Scotland "Out of Doors" 

A week after the visit by the TV Crew, Euan came to have a go as well for the "Out of Doors" program broadcast on a Saturday morning with Radio Scotland. Again going out just before Xmas. Dougie and Euan are very competitive and Euan was desperate to come up and prove he was better than Dougue at Horse Ski Jorring. This time we did it down at the Centre in the field just behind us called Eleven Acre. The horses were Marigold and Kelpie, and Lorraine and Robyn were pilots for the day, with both Ruaridh and Euan ski-ing. This time with a horse each instead of both being behind Kelpie. However Euan's horse Marigold, a small Highland Pony, was no match for the speed of Kelpie. Now the big question everybody is asking was, who was the best out of Dougie and Euan?, and I am afraid that is something we cannot answer. However the whole crew from "Landward" and "Out of Doors" have been invited back to have a ski off when we have plenty of snow to see how they get on in a big competition..

 

 Robyn on Kelpie, Ruaridh and Euan on Skis and Lorraine on Marigold.

BELOW: The Team from BBC Landward and the NRC Ski Jorrers with Rosie Russell our mascot.