Skijoring for MS raises over $27,000

On March 11, the skijoring provided by MS Ain’t Purdy brought a show to the Cold Lake Exhibition Park. 

When mixing horses with skiing and snowboarding and adding some jumps in the mix you’re in for a show.  

Over the weekend 38 teams competed against each other in multiple categories such as Big Air Freestyle, Sprint and Circuit. 

“Totally blown away, we never knew how many people would come. So many volunteers that helped out from doing little things to sleepless nights getting ready days before,” said James Purdy, Captain of MS Ain’t Purdy. 

The fundraising goal of the day was $25,000 and as of right now, MS ain’t PURDY is almost at $27,000. 

And after 14 years of raising money for the MS Society of Canada, Team MS Ain’t Purdy has almost $700,000. 

Other prizes that participants were eligible for were the best crash, best costume, fastest run, and the iron man which was given to participants who both were riders and sliders. 

The event opened with a pancake breakfast and got right into the circuit and sprints before ending off with the big air freestyle which consists of crazy jumps, flips, spins and tricks. 

“It was spectacular, those guys are nuts, like mixing two different breeds of people, the horse people don’t know much about skiing or snowboarding and vice versa, so nice to see a combination like this,” said Purdy, talking about the Big Air event. 

The Results 

Big Air/ Freestyle

First Place – Dawson Waller (Score of 90), Scott Makay 

Second Place – Ethan Lessard (Score of 86), Hailey Lobe 

Third Place – Alex Young (Score of 85.5), Griffin Purdy 

Best Crash 

Circuit event – Russ and Derek Griffith 

Big Air event – Griffin Purdy and Alex Young 

Iron Man (both a rider and slider) 

First Place – Jeff Hallwachs 

Second Place – Shae Worthington 

Third Place – Kelsey Purdy 

Sprint event

First Place – Hailey Lobe and Ethan Lessard (6.82 sec) 

Second Place – Chase Soderburg and Dustin Collette (7.76 sec) 

Fastest Circuit run (youth)

First Place – Hailey Lobe and Ethan Lessard (20.1 sec) 

Second Place – Iris Dort and Ethan Lessard (20.63 sec) 

Third Place  – Amy Krywolt and Maddy Mawson (24.57 sec) 

Fastest Circuit run (adult) 

A Division 

First Place – Josh Leslie and Darcy Pashak (12.59 sec) 

Second Place – Tim Hiller and Seth Hiller (12.68 sec) 

Third Place – Jeff Hallwachs and Sam Wheeler (13.29 sec) 

B Division

First Place – James Purdy and Nathan Taylor (17.07 sec) 

Second Place – Russ Griffith and Dan Iverson (17.48 sec) 

Third Place – Cory Styba and Alex Young (18.98 sec) 

Best costume 

First Place – Norah Benoit and Tory Mahe 

Second Place – Tim Hiller and Seth Hiller 

Best aggregate time 

First Place – Josh Leslie and Darcy Pashak (26.45 sec)

Second Place – Tim Hiller and Seth Hiller (28.46 sec)

Stolen Moments Photography by Jadie