William Frank Carver - Diving Horses

Diving Horses

After the breakup of his show Carver put together a smaller show, which featured various trained animals and shooting exhibitions. His biographer wrote that Carver added the diving horse act to this show at Kansas City in August 1894. Carver told several versions of a story describing an exciting escape from bandits, which inspired the diving horse act, but those who remembered him in Nebraska, said he got the idea after plunging horseback off a bank into a deep hole in the Medicine Creek. Over the next few years the other acts were eliminated, and the horse diving exhibition became Carver’s primary endeavor. Included in the touring company was his son Al, who helped train and take care of the horses, and his daughter Lorena, said to be the first rider. By the time his future daughter-in-law Sonora Webster joined the show in 1924, Carver had two diving teams on the road, each performing in a different city.

In June 1927, Doc Carver attended an Old-Timers’ Convention in Norfolk, Nebraska, where he enjoyed reuniting with other frontiersmen. Following the convention he traveled to Omaha, Nebraska, and it was while there that Carver received word that his favorite horse had drowned following a dive into the Pacific Ocean. Sonora later wrote that the loss of the horse coupled with failing health seemed to diminish Carver’s desire to live. W. F. “Doc” Carver died on August 31, 1927, at Sacramento, California, and was buried beside his mother and sister in Winslow, Illinois. Sonora remembered that although Doc Carver was a stern and taciturn man, he loved his horses and was unfailingly insistent that they be given the best of care.

Following Doc Carver’s death, the diving horse show continued with Al Carver at the helm. In October 1928 Al Carver and Sonora Webster were married. A short time later Al signed a contract for a season’s engagement at Atlantic City's Steel Pier, and the diving horse act became a permanent fixture there for several years. Sonora Webster Carver lost her eyesight in 1931 when her horse "Red Lips" dove into the tank off-balance, causing her to hit the water face first. She failed to close her eyes quickly enough, resulting in detached retinas. Though now blinded, Sonora continued with the act for eleven years. Sonora’s younger sister, Arnette Webster (later French) had joined the show in 1930 and started diving in 1931.

Al and Sonora Carver retired in 1942. The act finally closed as a result of pressure from animal rights groups in the 1970s. Sonora Carver, however, always contended that the horses were never forced to dive and, in fact, enjoyed the act. Sonora Carver died in September 2003, age 99. Her early career inspired the 1991 Disney movie Wild Hearts Can't be Broken starring Gabrielle Anwar and based on Carver's memoir A Girl and Five Brave Horses.