High Diving Horses

At one time, the easiest way to experience the “Old West” was to go and see a wild west show. Of course, the most famous of those was Buffalo Bill Cody’s, but there were other wild west shows around, including one put on by William “Doc” Carver.

Doc Carver was a consummate showman, and most of his story was told by him, so how much of it is believable was up to the audience listening. He was trained as a dentist, hence the nickname “Doc”. He lived in western Nebraska and became an excellent marksman, and his skills with a rifle were noted in Buffalo Bill Cody’s autobiography. In 1883 Cody and Carver started a Wild West show, but the two never really got along from the get-go, and after one season, parted ways. Cody teamed up with Nate Salsbury and went on to great success and fame with his show called Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. Carver started his own show also billed as the Wild West Show. Multiple lawsuits ensued over many issues including the name. Carver eventually ran out of money and disbanded his show. He travelled with other shows for a time utilizing his sharpshooting skills, and finally started another show of his own called Wild America. An economic depression in the 1890s hit the show hard and a glut of similar shows had sprung up diluting the market, and once again Carver’s troupe disbanded.

Carver started a much smaller show that focused on his specialties, sharpshooting and trained animals. They were interesting, but the real draw for the crowds came when he introduced his most popular attraction, the high diving horses. There are multiple stories about where the idea for his biggest act came from, Carver told multiple tales of his inspiration himself. One story had that he was racing away from bandits and had to jump his horse into the river off a steep bank to escape, another tale had his horse falling into a deep hole in Medicine Creek, Nebraska. The most repeated story was that he was crossing a bridge over the Platte River in Nebraska which collapsed when he was part way across and the horse fell/dove into the water below. He claimed he had the idea for the attraction before he and his horse had made their way back to dry land.

“The Great Carver Show” was a family affair. William Carver’s son Al was also his business partner. Al invented and built the ramp and diving platform that the horses would dive off. He made sure the equipment was all mobile so they could take the show on the road. Al also trained the horses. It wasn’t exciting enough just to have a horse jump off a ramp into a pool though, it needed an added element, like someone riding it. William’s daughter Lorena became the first to do so. Lorena would wear a trim bathing suit, climb a wooden tower at the end of the pier, jump on a horse as it passed her while sprinting up the ramp to the platform then plunge 40 feet into a tank of 12-foot-deep water. The act was performed 2-6 times a day. Carver only used women to ride the horses as the maximum carrying weight for the stunt was 135 pounds.

The show was instantly popular. So popular in fact that by 1923 Carver had two platforms travelling the country at the same time. Unfortunately, in 1927, William Carver passed away due to ill health, and his condition was aggravated by the loss of his favourite horse as well. They said once his horse passed away, he just gave up his will to live. The show continued with Al at the wheel, and by 1928, the act had become a permanent attraction at Steel Pier in Atlantic City.

There was never a reported injury to a horse in all the years the show went on, though everyone who worked for the Carvers said there was a constant presence of the SPCA lurking and reporting on their every move. The same could not be said of the riders. Bruises and injuries were a constant occurrence. In training, one unnamed rider panicked when the horse jumped off the ramp. She thought the horse was going to do a summersault and land on top of her, so she jumped off the horse. This led to her missing the water and landing beside the pool leading to serious injury.

Sonora Webster perhaps the most famous of the high dive riders, was one who suffered a life changing accident while riding. Joining the show in 1923, she would eventually go on to marry Al Carver in 1928. In 1931, a veteran of the shows, Sonora’s horse “Red Lips” lost its balance on one of their dives causing both to hit the water awkwardly. Sonora hit face first causing both retinas to become detached causing her to lose sight in both. She continued to dive for another 11 years retiring from diving at the age of 38. The crowd was never told of her ailment. Sonora published her story “A Girl and Five Brave Horses” in 1961 and it was later made into a Disney movie “Wild Hearts Can’t be Broken” in 1991, though she was quite disgusted by the inaccuracies portrayed in it.  After going to see the movie in the theatre with her sister (who also rode the high dive horses) she said “the only thing true in it was that I rode diving horses, I went blind and I continued to ride for another 11 years.”

Al and Sonora Carver retired in 1942, though the act continued without them. Finally, in 1978 the act closed for good due to pressure from animal rights groups. In 1994, Donald Trump, who owned Atlantic City’s Steel Pier at the time, tried to revive the show with a diving mule and miniature horses, but it was quickly shut down by protestors.