With the psychological wounds from a nasty spill finally healed and a cast of experienced skiers in tow, 16-year-old Sydney Pandina took the skijoring circuit by storm this winter.

Atop her 9-year-old paint mare, Sydney, a sophomore at Flathead High School, raced to two first-place finishes as women’s division rookie, including a championship at the National Finals Skijoring Races in Red Lodge.

“She’s a heck of a little rider,” said Samantha Hauke, who introduced Sydney to the sport.

“She rides really well. She’s got that natural glue to her bottom, so she sticks on the horse really well.”

Skijoring is a Norwegian sport where a horse and rider tow a skier over a track featuring jumps and gates. Sydney had never heard of it four years ago, when Hauke, who trains horses for the Pandinas, competed at the annual skijoring event in Whitefish. But she was instantly intrigued.

“I saw (Hauke) do it with her stallion and she was winning and it looked really fun,” Sydney said.

“I always liked running with my horse and stuff, and I never thought you could pull a skier behind you and win money.”

Sydney won a peewee championship in Red Lodge later that winter, but an accident the following summer shook her enthusiasm for the sport. Her mare slipped making a left turn in a round pen, landed on Sydney’s leg and fractured the rider’s tibia.

“I don’t think she ever cared to admit it, but when you get injured to that extent, it’s very hard to get on a horse and not have your body think that’s going to happen again,” Hauke said.

“It kind of knocked down that invincibility factor a little bit. It doesn’t matter if it’s your fault, the horse’s fault or a sheer accident.”

Sydney healed in time to compete the following season, but she found wins tough to come by, in part because of lingering psychological wounds from her broken leg, but mostly because she couldn’t find skiers capable of holding onto a fast horse.

“It was really easy the first year, but the years after that until now it was difficult,” Sydney said. “I didn’t have any wins. No one would hold onto my horse.

“They would always let go of the rope,” she added. “I’d get really frustrated.”

Her fortunes changed this winter when the North American Ski Joring Association dropped the age limit for adult competitions, allowing riders and skiers to compete according to their skill levels rather than their ages. The change allowed Sydney to team up with more experienced skiers, which quickly paid off.

Sydney entered her first women’s competition Feb. 16 in Sandpoint, Idaho, and won along with skier Caroline Suppiger with a two-run time of 35.57 seconds, 1.83 ahead of the second-place team.

Two weeks later in Jackson Hole, Wyo., Sydney’s skier dropped the rope on both her runs in the Sport (novice) Division, but good fortune paired her with Christian Cisco in the Drawpot Division, which combined novice and experienced competitors. Cisco, who won the Open Division, held on as Sydney raced through both of her drawpot runs for a combined time of 35.94. That score blew away most of the field, but not her father, Russell, who posted the winning time of 34.86 on his blue roan stallion.

Russell began skijoring the same winter Sydney started competing. They had never competed directly against each other prior to the Jackson Hole drawpot.

While Sydney was forced to settle for second, she’s confident she’ll win the next time she squares off with her dad.

“Oh I’ll beat him,” she said. “Trust me, I’ll beat him. My horse is faster.”

Russell seems convinced.

“I’m scared now,” he said.

“I have no doubt her horse has the ability to do it and she’s such a better rider. I’m a novice compared to her.”

Sydney finished her season with a first place finish in the Women’s Division of the National Finals in Red Lodge on March 10.

“Red Lodge is the big one,” she said.

“My grandma flew down all the way from New York to come see me and my dad do this, so I was really nervous.”

The sun melted much of the snow, forcing officials to put down a layer of sand to cover up the mud.

“I was a little worried, but I just ran,” Sydney said. “I let my horse run, my skier stayed on and I was really excited.”

Bogged down by the sand and mud, Sydney and Helena skier Ali Havig put together a two-run time of 45.07, edging Billings’ Aunna Bertolino and Bozeman skier Kelsey Boleski by 1.22.

Competing in the Sport Division, Russell was disqualified after both his skiers failed to finish the course.

Sydney finished the season with two wins, a second-place finish and about $1,000 in prize money. Having better skiers helped, but Sydney said finally getting over her broken leg was key to her success.

“Before I’d almost slow my horse completely at the turns,” she said. “I just couldn’t handle it.”

Russell agrees.

“What changed was her confidence in her horse,” he said.

“The horse didn’t do anything wrong when she slipped and fell. It was just as much an accident as any other accident. Duplicating that turn and asking yourself to run faster than you did when you fell is a confidence issue and it is probably what held her back the past couple years.”

Next season, Sydney intends to enter more competitions, including the skijoring event in Whitefish.

Away from the skijoring track, Sydney doesn’t spend much time away from her horses. She takes her horses hunting in the fall with her dad and she leads trail rides in the spring and summer. She also trains her family’s young horses and would like to be a jockey.