Childhood friends defend skijoring title, training by strapping skateboards onto skis in Meath

Childhood friends who won a major skijoring event, despite only having a tractor and no snow to practice on are returning to defend their title this week - and have upped their training game by strapping skateboards to the end of skis.

Skijoring is North America's fastest growing winter sport and consists of a horse pulling a skier over obstacles through the snow at breakneck speeds of up to 65km per hour.

Total underdogs, Susan Oakes and her best friend Barry O'Brien Lynch, shocked the skijoring world when they became the first Irish team ever to win the prestigious feature 2.5 furlong sprint race in the Skijordue Festival in Calgary, Canada in 2020.

Barry was even dubbed the 'Tractor guy' by competitors who marvelled at how the duo had trained without any snow.

The win was even more impressive considering that accomplished horsewoman Susan was told by doctors in 2005 that she'd only have two years left of being able to ride a horse due to an autoimmune disease and that she made a remarkable recovery after a fall from a horse in 2016 left her with an acquired brain injury.

Now, the couple, who will also be the only European entry, are returning to defend their title this weekend in the first contest held since Covid-19 hit just weeks after they won in 2020

Back in 2020, Barry (43) laughed that he practiced his pace and balance being pulled on a kids sledge by a tractor over a roll of carpet.

He had never completed ski jumps before and Susan (39) had never been on horseback on snow.

They entered the competition after Susan, who holds a Guinness world record for the highest jump side-saddle at six foot, eight inches, met Skijor event organiser Sam Mitchell while competing in Canada

Sam then visited Ireland where she told