queenofgnarnia:

Horse diving. The eerie, bizarre old pastime that some how manages to sustain a sense of beauty.

 

theeventingblog:

Wasnt there a blind girl who did this? I thought someone said there was a movie or something about her…

 

wishhunter:

Yes there was a movie about her and her blind horse

 

equitating:

She lost her sight diving!

 

train-to-win:

Anyone know the name of the the movie? That would be interesting to see. I can’t believe people did this and got horses to do it, scary as fuck

 

fromthehaunches:

the movie is Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken

 

equestrianchicpoverty:

what the actual fuck? how does one train a horse to jump off that high of a cliff? did the eventers start this? how many people died? i am so interested.

 

fivegaited:

Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken is one of my favorite movies

 

lusitanoqueen:

i feel like i’m the only one who disapproves of making horses jump into water from that great of a height … even if they’re trained it must have been terrifying and i can only imagine the kind of injuries horses sustained

 

fivegaited:

Oh no, I think we all disapprove.  I sincerely doubt anyone is reblogging this thinking, “hey, let’s bring horse diving back!”  I hope, at least, that we’re all pretty glad to see this be a thing of the past, but we can still admire the bravery of the girls and the horses – if you watch the old videos, it’s pretty cool how the horses ran up the ramps at liberty and leapt off.  I’ve done some research on this, and from what i can tell, there are no recorded horse injuries.  The statistics I’ve found showed that the girls  broke bones pretty much annually, but everything I’ve ever read says there were zero horse injuries.  Of course, just because they weren’t recorded doesn’t mean they didn’t happen.  Probably they did, but tbh… I think a lot more horses get hurt in the show jumping ring and on cross country courses every year than ever got hurt doing this.  Horses die on cross country every year, and on the racetrack.  Once the horses were trained and knew the routine, I kind of doubt it would be more terrifying than any of the other dangerous and unnatural things we ask horses to do – like running around with humans clinging to their backs, letting people shoot guns from their backs, chasing cows with big giant horns, jumping over ditches and into water on cross country courses… I have no idea how they trained for this and it wouldn’t surprise me if it was pretty aversive and possibly downright cruel training (a lot of american horse training back then was), but I also have no doubt that a horse could be taught to do this, and to do it eagerly, using positive reenforcement – and some of what I’ve read claims they DID train with food rewards, at least in part – here’s one testimony from a former diving girl:

They went when they were ready. I can’t say the groom would not try to encourage the horse a little bit by gently nudging or pushing, but he wouldn’t dare do anything drastic. That would have upset me to no end. I wouldn’t want to be on a horse that was agitated. My life depended on that horse doing that in a calm way, so there was no electrical devices or trap doors or anything like that during my time.

Lorga (another diving horse) did take a long time. I remember Lorena Carver saying ‘Come,’ with carrots in her hand. But you waited. Sometimes it was five minutes.

…

I would ride the horse until he got out of the tank. Lorena Carver would be standing on the stage of the tank and the horse knew to go to her, get his reward, and the blanket was thrown on quickly. That was the end of the act.

You [the customers] could go in the stalls, along the walkway towards the end of the Pier and in front of the Ballroom, and see the horses through glass panels and how they were kept and fed. They were very well kept. They would ride the horses on the beach in the morning and they loved to go in the water and run along the waves.
We didn’t keep them if they didn’t like the water. I would have noticed if there had been anything unkind because I love animals. They were never in any way hurt or disrespected. In fact, they were taken care of better than the riders were! The ASPCA gave us plaques of approval that were always on the dressing room wall. When Gene was in the show with me he’d bring me a towel, but the horse was the one that got the blanket! The horse was the star.”

Don’t get me wrong, I think diving is pretty damn unnecessary, super dangerous, and I’m very GLAD it’s pretty much a thing of the past.  But what bothers me more than the act itself, actually, is that the horses were kept stalled all the time and led lives on the road traveling in horse vans constantly – that’s a stressful and unhealthy life for any horse (even if the horses don’t know it), and it’s a life that plenty of show and race horses still lead today.  Anyway, I think this diving stuff was ballsy as hell and to me it’s a cool part of horsey history that I enjoy learning about.  I in no way advocate it today.  Sonora, the diving girl who went blind, wrote a book that’s a fun read if you’re interested in learning more.  This article is a fun, brief summary as well :)

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Tags:

#horse #history #the more you know