Have you ever heard about the high diving horse show?

I forgot about it.. Haven’t ever seen it in real life but there’s a video on YouTube that has a clip of it. I can’t believe they actually did this.
Info: http://www.petticoated.com/pdqwinter04/otherdocs/divinghorsesW04.html

Yes, I can give you a first hand account.

My parent had a beach house at the NJ shore when I was little.

The high diving horse show was a huge boardwalk draw.
Me, being a girl who lived and breathed horses and only horses, I was a daily pest. I would do anything. They let me sweep up and clean stalls.

The horses had box stalls under the board walk and they lived there all summer long. They conditions would never have been permitted now. The stalls were dark, musty and damp with the constant ocean air and incoming tides. They bed down in straw which was always wet, as I recall.

Each horse had a sheet with the High Diving Horse Logo on it. The riders were always attractive women in bathing suits and swim caps.
But the thing that I noticed, even as a kid was that the horses did not dive at all.

The ramp had a “trip” underneath. At the riders signal, they would pull the trip and horse and rider fell into the water. There was no “diving” about it. I knew there were plenty of injuries even at my young age, because the horse vet van was often there.

The only other thing I recall was that every summer the horses changed. They always had 3 or 4 on hand, but the next year the horses were always different ones.
If I can remember more later, I will add it.

Kenny Rhoades High Diving

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