Thursday, October 1, 2026
Bryan Coll did not grow up dreaming of a career in skijoring. His early athletic focus was on more familiar pursuits, including wrestling. But years after growing up in Bayville and graduating from Locust Valley High School in 2016, Coll has emerged as one of the newest professional competitors in a sport that blends alpine skiing, rodeo and equestrian teamwork.
Now 28, Coll is competing in the Pro Skijor Frontier Tour, a six-event series in Utah, Montana and Idaho. The sport pairs a skier with, most often, a horse and rider, which pull the skier at high speeds through a snow-packed course lined with gates, jumps and rings to grab for points.
“I always loved competing,” Coll said. “But I didn’t reach the Olympic caliber to compete with wrestling, and I always loved skiing.”
At Locust Valley High, wrestling dominated Coll’s winters and limited his time on the slopes. He had skied occasionally as a child, usually just a few days a year.
“I would go as a kid maybe once a year for a couple days,” he recalled. “But as I progressed with my wrestling, I couldn’t take time off.”
At SUNY Oswego, Coll enrolled in a science- and engineering-focused program involving facilities planning and manufacturing. He graduated in 2021 and soon headed west, where he began skiing more regularly. He initially moved to Sun Valley, Idaho, and later spent winters in Breckenridge, Colo., and eventually settled in Park City, Utah. He first encountered skijoring in Colorado.
“I was more into free skiing and park skiing,” Coll said. “I thought I’d go that avenue, but I saw, when I lived in Colorado, a poster for an event, and I’d had some experience with horses as well, so I went to it and I saw what it was all about, and I thought I could do pretty good with it.”
Skijoring demands far more than simply staying upright behind a horse. Athletes must carve turns at high speeds while maintaining balance and timing, and communicating with the two other members of the team, human and equine. His wrestling background, Coll said, gave him the physical ability and discipline to adapt to the sport’s unique demands.
“It certainly is a sport for athletes — it takes a lot to compete,” he said. “With the mentality I had from wrestling, I think that really helped me.”
He entered his first skijoring competitions in 2024, and quickly became a top competitor. After his third major race that season, in Heber City, Utah, he stood atop the award podium.
“That’s where I just really couldn’t get enough of it,” Coll said, “and fell in love with the sport.”
That breakthrough helped propel him onto the professional circuit, where he is now in his third competitive season. This season’s Pro Skijor event in Heber City takes place this weekend, and Coll will be there.
Training for the sport, Coll said, is relentless and year-round. “I’m skiing every day,” he explained, “and I’ve transitioned from more freestyle skis to race skis to focus on skijoring more these past two seasons.”
He added that physical conditioning, recovery and mental preparation are just as important as time on snow. “I’m very serious when it comes to competing,” Coll said, “taking care of my body, recovering, and just treating my body as well as I can, to perform as well as I can.”
Other forms of skijoring make use of tow power ranging from dogs to snowmobiles, but Pro Skijor focuses on horses. Coll said that combination gives the sport a unique identity.
“Skijoring really combines the sport of skiing with equine sports and rodeo,” he said. “It really is a three-entity team. We all have to be working together.”
According to Coll, the background of the horse, the skill of the rider and the experience of the skier all influence the outcome of a race. Success depends as much on trust and coordination as on individual athletic ability.
“I think the difficulty of it, with both the mental and physical and teaming-up aspect of it, is what draws me to it,” he said. “It really is a very unique sport, and I don’t think people really understand it until they come out and see it.”
Though skijoring remains rare on the East Coast, Coll believes it could catch on here as the sport continues to grow. “East Coast skiers are pretty used to skiing on ice as it is,” he said.
He credits the professional circuit with helping standardize and promote the sport nationwide. As his skijoring career grows, Coll said he is grateful for the support that allows him to compete at the professional level. This year, he said he is skiing with the support of Happy Cow vodka.
He encouraged the curious to watch the competition in person. “If they’re interested in this, they should check out ProSkijor.com and look at the different dates throughout the West, and possibly make a trip out of it,” Coll said. “It really is a great thing to see.”
