Poro Races

The reindeer are not too keen on it to start with. There is a kind of starting gate like they have for greyhounds but it is not used. When there is only one reindeer and driver in a kind of time trial - they do a kilometre course in under 1m 30 - it seems to only take one guy to wrestle the reindeer. When there are four in a proper race it sometimes takes two guys to get the reindeer into position. When they start quite how no one is mown down or trampled I’m not sure as all hell breaks loose.

These guys who drive are on downhill skis holding onto the reins and by the time they pass us are really shifting. Down the far end of the course.there are various mishaps. When the driver overtakes his steed this is not a good sign. This race finished with two neck and neck, the third trailing and the fourth reindeer having lost his driver, galloping in on his own like a grand national horse that had unseated his rider. In a previous race one lost his driver, made a break for the Forest and had to be retrieved by a man on a snowmobile.

A bit of a bonkers event. We passed on the Poro sausage though