Stumbled upon a video today showing a crazy stunt thingie that is no longer practiced and probably for a good reason.
My first thought was.. This is just so wrong:
Here's another one, rider free
What you just witnessed was known as horse diving (duh!):
A diving horse is an attraction that was popular in the mid-1880s, in which a horse would dive into a pool of water, sometimes from as high as 60 feet. source
Creator of the attraction was William "Doc" Carver, a late 19th-century sharpshooter. Supposedly, he came up with the idea when he was crossing a bridge which partially collapsed and his horse fell into the waters below. And that's pretty much how he got the inspiration for one the most unique ways to abuse animals for profit!
After doing some digging it seems the stunt was somewhat popular in various versions until the end of World War II, when shows became rarer and rarer until the eventual death of the exhibit in 1970s.
Apparently there is also some shitty movie about a female rider who got blind after her eyes where fucked during a dive. Serves that bitch right if you ask me...Unfortunately she continued the dives despite her handicap:
In 1931, Sonora and her horse Red Lips lost their balance on the platform. Sonora survived the fall, but was blinded due to detached retinas in both eyes as a result of keeping her eyes open. She continued horse-diving while blind. A film based on her life, Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken, was released in 1991 and was based on her memoir A Girl and Five Brave Horses. source
Yeah not watching that shit 馃槀
Here are a couple links if you want to learn more about the history of horse diving: