Ripley's Believe It or Not by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for February 22, 2024

…because all of the sighted riders could see what was wrong with that.

I figured it was likely that Sonara Carver did her diving in Atlantic City. Sure enough, she was the first woman to ride the diving horses at Steel Pier in Atlantic City and the inspiration for the 1991 Disney movie “Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken.” In 1924, she made history when she dove 40 feet on horseback into a tank of water. Then, In 1931, she went blind from detached retinas, after one of the horses did a steep nosedive during a performance, causing Sonara to go face-first into the water. She continued to ride the high-diving horses for another 10 years. The diving horses were one of the most popular attractions at the pier from the 1920s into the 1970s. Sonara said that the horses loved the dives and were never forced to jump.

How did they get that pool of water on the horse?

How many tickles does it take to make a squid laugh?

Tentickles.

We’re about to make sure those corals never reach 5,000 years again.

Just as long as there’s no damage to the coral reefs.

And some corals can’t survive five months owing to pollution and climate change.

Was the horse blind too?

Giant squid’s eyes are certainly bigger than its stomach. They’ve been documented to taking on sperm whales.

That was before the ignorance of large boat Captains!

The horse did the jumping. Sonora just went along for the ride.

At which time, man poisons the corals.

Sonora had only one performance…

I had Squid Eyes when I saw a recent piece of Cheesecake!

How did they get the horse to climb that long ladder with those hooves? …..and, now when a coral dies the death is blamed on climate change. The Great Barrier reef, once thought to be suffering from CC is now coming back to life.

That the horse would dive from 40 feet is more amazing.

Seems to me that the horse did all the work and Sonora was just along for the ride.

Most coral will now be lucky if they live 500 years

Why was diving using blind horses a “thing”?

When I was a kid, I saw another lady diving with a horse on the Steel Pier in Atlantic City. I was just a kid (maybe 9 in the late 1960s), but I remember it was quite something.

College housemate was a grad student in Anatomy, whose project was tracing squids’ optic nerves – similar to human, but bigger so easier to see.

JUST old enough to have seen the diving horses in Atlantic City,pre-gambling

The giant squid eye in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was terrifying, for a 6 year old

HORSE diving?!

I can’t believe there are enough blind horses in the world that someone could train one to dive

A small spring fed lake in San Marcos, TX, named Aquarena Springs, for many years featured a swimming and diving pig named Raph. Ralph’s main event was his “Swine Dive”. Ralph got quite a bit of TV coverage before the Springs were sold.