Tom Hoke lands after snagging the ring at the top of a ramp during Skijor Skowhegan, an equestrian time-trial racing event, Saturday at Skowhegan Fairgrounds in Skowhegan. He was being pulled by Kate Dyer, riding Juno. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

SKOWHEGAN — Charlotte Tyler sat atop her horse, Elton, ready to spring out of the gate.

She tried not to let the horse see how nervous she was — nor her little brother, Mitchell, who was holding onto a rope behind Elton and preparing to ski. Charlotte is 17 years old, and it was her first time skijoring in front of a crowd. She didn’t want Elton to spook.

Mitchell, 13, was nervous, too. The brother-sister pairing had only been practicing on tracks through the woods in Winthrop, where they live, since December. They had seen the Skijor Skowhegan event online, and decided it was worth a try.

“I was worried I was going to let go of the rope,” he said.

But he didn’t let go. In fact, the short ride was a “big success,” Charlotte said.

With a big cheer from the crowd, Elton, Charlotte and Mitchell finished their run in 36.98 seconds, plus eight seconds in penalties for barely missing a few gates and rings — an impressive score that placed them fourth in the youth novice division at Skijor Skowhegan and would have beaten many of the adult novice competitors’ times.

“(I was) relieved to be done, yeah,” Charlotte said. “I was just hoping he got all the gates and grabbed all the rings.”

George Yodice, left, flies off a ramp behind Lindsay Farley riding Winchester in the pro ski team class of Skijor Skowhegan, an equestrian time-trial racing event, Saturday at Skowhegan Fairgrounds in Skowhegan.  Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

The Tyler teens were among 53 teams competing in Saturday’s event at the Skowhegan Fairgrounds — an annual time-trial race of skiers pulled by horses, almost like water skiing on snow. This year’s field of competitors was the largest in the event’s history.

Some of those teams fared better than others. While the Tylers’ run was smooth, other teams struggled to convince their horses to keep running forward on the snowy track. One competitor gave up and walked their horse — and, therefore, their skiing teammate — toward the finish line.

Spectators didn’t seem to mind much. Some of the loudest cheers of the day were for the stopped or slow teams.

Skijoring began in Scandinavia, usually with dogs or reindeer instead of horses, and the sport made its way to the U.S. as early as 1915. Maine is now a hub for the sport on the East Coast, with most skijoring races this year being held in Mountain West states such as Colorado, Montana and Wyoming.

Main Street Skowhegan, the town’s major economic development nonprofit, brought skijoring to Maine seven years ago at Eaton Mountain, on the eastern side of town.

“It was started by Mary Haley, who’s our race director,” Kristina Cannon, Main Street Skowhegan’s president and CEO, said. “She said, ‘Let’s host a skijoring event.’ All of us were like, ‘What is that?'”

But after seeing videos of the sport’s success in the West, the group agreed to move forward.

Since then, when Skijor Skowhegan became Maine’s first and New England’s only skijoring event, its popularity has skyrocketed. Thousands of spectators braved the cold and wind Saturday to watch the festivities, hovering right around record attendance.

Not only has the popularity of the event meant that more competitors sign up, Cannon said the event has wide-reaching economic impacts on Skowhegan. Having a big event at the fairgrounds in the dead of winter helps bridge the wintry gap between the more profitable summer tourism seasons, she said.

Fans watch as Alice Callahan goes over a ramp during Skijor Skowhegan, an equestrian time-trial racing event, Saturday at Skowhegan Fairgrounds in Skowhegan. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

“We have a couple thousand people up here, and then not much fewer than that go downtown and spend about an hour downtown,” Cannon said, pausing to cheer on a skijoring duo flying by. “There is so much economic impact that comes in from this event alone.”

The event is part of the larger Somerset SnowFest, a weeklong festival organized by Main Street Skowhegan and Lake George Regional Park, complete with ice fishing, ice skating, horse-drawn sleigh rides and several other winter-themed events. Skijor Skowhegan capped the week’s festivities.

Cannon said the event’s steady growth is a sign that Skowhegan is doing something right — bringing thousands to the fairgrounds to watch a sport that few know anything about before attending.

“It’s just so unique, and it really shows off the character of Skowhegan,” she said. “We’re at our very historic fairgrounds, but we’re using it for a new thing, this outdoor recreation activity — which is what Skowhegan is becoming known for.”