Horse racing on ice in Switzerland

The big freeze continues in Ireland with temperatures not getting above zero during the day. The Lithuanians who work here think this is nothing – it’s minus 25 back in their country – but the Irish are struggling! Today the ice was unbreakable in the horse’s water troughs, the taps in the yard were frozen solid and so water had to be transported from our house to the troughs in the fields in a barrel. Even in the stables, water in the buckets is frozen.

It is glamorous St Moritz in Switzerland which hosts the horse racing carnival on a huge, frozen lake where thoroughbreds race across snow covered ice known as ‘White Turf’. The carnival takes place on three Sundays in a row in February each year and the feature race is the Grand Prix of St Mortiz with prize money of about £50,000.

If you think this sounds dangerous, you should try ‘Skijoring’ races where jockeys are towed on skis behind race horses across the ice, reaching top speeds of 50 kilometres per hour. If a jockey is unlucky enough to lose his balance, he is dragged along until the horse decides to stop, apparently. A dangerous but exciting sport if you have the nerve for it!