<p>It seems the people with the least horse experience are the most vocal against this. I do not consider this abuse, it isn’t even on the spectrum of horse abuse in 2012.</p>
<p>The horses are trained. Read up on it. </p>
<p>Time to watch “Portlandia”.</p>
<p>I fail to see how training a horse to do this is abuse. Thats like saying training one to ride or to jump is as well.</p>
<p>I grew up around horses. The ones i knew loved to do what they were trained for.</p>
<p>That being said, there is no proof that the animal was neglected or abused (in the sense that it was beaten).</p>
<p>I agree with cottonwood.</p>
<p>Horse websites are flooded with anger about the diving horse. Seems like you are in the minority. </p>
<p>Peta wrote this response:
Thank you for writing to PETA. We agree that forcing horses to “dive” in Atlantic City—or anywhere—is cruel and unacceptable. PETA successfully campaigned to get the original horse-diving “act” on Atlantic City’s pier canceled in 1993, and we will strongly oppose the new proposal. We have sent an urgent appeal to all those involved in the plan asking that the horse-diving show be stopped in its tracks.** We pointed out that in addition to being cruel, the show would likely violate New Jersey’s anti-cruelty statute (4:22-17), which prohibits inflicting “unnecessary cruelty upon a living animal.”**
If this show is allowed to continue, we suspect that the promoters will likely hire exhibitor Tim Rivers, who has a notoriously awful history of forcing horses and mules to “dive,” or Rivers’ son Bill, who carried on his father’s abusive business. Veterinarian and equine expert Dr. Holly Cheever said of these tawdry shows, “Horses are prey animals, not predators, and their instinct is to flee rather than face fear. There is nothing in their evolution that has prepared them to do this; it is contrary to their nature. …</p>
<p>To overcome their fear, the horses would had to have been subjected to stimuli that they feared more than the ramp and the water, such as electric shock, beatings, or food deprivation.” Please help stop this cruel spectacle by spreading the word on Facebook, Twitter, and message boards and to family and friends. Ask them to make their objections to this plan known, and remind them that a few fleeting moments of distraction for humans mean a lifetime of misery for animals.</p>
<p>To learn more about our campaigns to help animals used in entertainment, get tips on how you can get active to help these animals, and make a donation to support our efforts, please visit [Animals</a> Used for Entertainment | PETA.org](<a href=“http://www.PETA.org/issues/Animals-In-Entertainment/default.aspx]Animals”>Animals in Entertainment: Circuses, SeaWorld, and Beyond | PETA). Thank you for caring and for everything that you do to help animals. Sincerely, The PETA Staffhttp://<a href="http://www.PETA.org/“>www.PETA.org/</a>”</p>
<p>Sorry but i’m hard pressed to believe anything from PETA due to their recent behavior alone.</p>
<p>I find PETA absolutely vile. Show me evidence from a reputable source (vet, etc) that shows me it’s humane. </p>
<p>FWIW- I’m still not buying the “horses do it willingly, so it must be humane” bull since animals do things willingly that we absolutely do not consider humane (again, I go back to dog fighting).</p>
<p>[Pet</a> Pardons News | Atlantic City Attraction Makes Plans To Revive “Appalling” Horse Diving Show](<a href=“http://news.petpardons.com/atlantic-city-attraction-makes-plans-to-revive-appalling-horse-diving-show/]Pet”>http://news.petpardons.com/atlantic-city-attraction-makes-plans-to-revive-appalling-horse-diving-show/)</p>
<p>The history of this act is that Dr Carver was crossing a bridge and the bridge collapsed, he was riding a horse and they fell 40 ft. The horse survived, swam to shore. So he started the act. FYI</p>
<p>Keith Dane, director of equine protection for the Humane Society of the United States, said the attraction exploits participating animals and puts them at risk.</p>
<p>“The stress and trauma endured by these animals—in addition to the risk of injury to them—make these acts unacceptable,” Dane said. “There is no justification for such treatment of animals.”</p>
<p>Icedragon-years ago, the horses were kept in their stalls all the time when not jumping— according to one of the grooms- and, he says now that was not the way horses should be treated. Also, the fact that they didn’t prod in front of an audience of thousands, is meaningless, because the families, children viewing that would have objected! </p>
<p>“I worked at the pier for years,” Morley says. “I knew the act, I knew the riders, I knew the trainer, and Mrs. Carver. I also knew a few of the horses. Sometimes two horses would perform and sometimes only one. Gamal, Powderface, and Shiloh were a few I had interactions with. I could go in between the shows and feed them oats or pet them.”</p>
<p>Morley says he finds himself involved in an interesting dichotomy, because he is now a member of PETA and is thoroughly involved in animal rights. Although he is completely against any animal acts today, including circuses and rodeos, his memories of the diving horse act aren’t necessarily what you might expect.</p>
<p>“A lot of people only see pictures of the high ramp,” he says. “They don’t see the much lower ramp, or the six foot lead out. The horses did about four shows a day, weather permitting.”</p>
<p>“Owen was the leader, so he took the horses out to the tower, but they were not pushed, prodded, or beaten in any way shape or form to jump. There was a ramp that led up to a little ledge at about 10 ft. intervals for the horses to look out.”</p>
<p>“They would look at the crowd and waited their turn to jump.** Some jumped right away, but others waited 15-20 minutes. Sometimes, a horse would shake his head no and just not jump**. But they were never ever pushed, prodded, beaten, or whipped to jump. They could back down if they wanted do, and some did. They weren’t forced. The only thing I hated was that they were kept in their stalls all day, when they weren’t performing.”</p>
<p>Icedragon- a question for you? When you look at the diving horse picture do you see an animal hitting the water forcefully, perhaps painfully? A monumental BELLY FLOP? Would you ever fall from 40 ft into pool, doing a belly flop?</p>
<p>When humans dive, we put our hands out to make impact less forceful. But for huge horse, hurtling down from 40 ft, into water, don’t ya’ think that belly flop is painful. Horses don’t cry out like dogs.</p>
<p>Here’s some more info:</p>
<p>anonymous person’s first person account (posted on the Circus No-Spin blog) that suggests horses didn’t always want to jump:</p>
<p>They didn’t like doing it at all, and I saw numerous times the cosequence (sic) for refusing. Of course the shpeel was how they looked forward to the jump because of the carrot they got at the end.
One windy day, the granstand (sic) was half full and the horse refused to jump. There was no way to get down except for backing down the ramp or jumping. They tried to get the people to leave, but no one budged. ** The horse stood up there for close to an hour before the crowd finally left and they could go up and push him off. **Believe me, there was no carrot waiting that time.</p>
<p>Cottonwood I know plenty of people with horse experience who are very unhappy about this, myself included, as are most people on the Jersey equine boards so I am thinking you are in the minority or are misinformed. Just because you can train an animal to do something doesn’t mean they enjoy doing it and I can present plenty of examples to support that. Let me know when you’re ready for them. 
It’s cruel, and I am hopeful this will be stopped. Friends in the know in AC are saying it is prob not going to happen.</p>
<p>Thanks Lulusmom2- I am reading the equine boards, and find no one sharing Icedragon’s view.
I can only hope you have friends in the know. Because CRDA, the Casino Reinvestment Development Agency approved $6 Million dollars for Steel Pier. The Atlantic City Press is giving front page coverage, and serializing a book, by Steve Liebowitz entitled “Steel Pier , Atlantic City Showplace of the Nation”- front page interviews with William and Tony Catanoso, Steel Pier owners.
Gov Christie, lauded the overall "CRDA development plan as “visionary”. (I hope he wasn’t specifically including the Diving Horse) </p>
<p>I HOPE you are right, but the AC wheels are turning and in this recently hard hit economic area, I’m not so sure!</p>
<p>Where ever did i say i supported bring it back?</p>
<p>I mearly stated that i did not agree that it was abuse.</p>
<p>I’m a long time resident of the AC area. I remember Steel Pier fondly. We lived maybe ten miles from AC. I remember the diving bell, the dances (Summertime on the Pier) the games…and the Diving Horse. I do recall the horse, with female rider on its back, jumping from a rather high perch. Mostly I remember the rider “coaxing” the horse to jump. This took quite a while, like a good minute or two. I recall the horse did not, no way, just eagerly jump. I remember feeling sorry for the poor thing. We all did. Not abuse? imo it certainly was, I was there. Finally the horse gives up the fight and does a belly flop…uh, you can’t really teach the poor thing to do a half gainer or whatever, it’s just a big old belly flop (I know it’s a strong horse but this cannot possibly feel too good) and the water flies all over the people. Believe me it’s not nice.</p>
<p>2331clk, won’t you sign the petition- now 17,000 and growing and spread the word. You know how Atlantic City works----stopping this is going to take a HUGE, HUGE effort, way beyond anything they expected, and clearly they expected something!
It’s a change.org website -<a href=“Petition · Stop the Reopening of the Cruel Diving Horse Show · Change.org”>http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-the-reopening-of-the-cruel-diving-horse-show</a></p>
<p>Just signed, thanks and will spread the word. I read about this planned revival recently in the AC Press and have skimmed the twice weekly excerpts from the Liebowitz book. “Diving” horse as I mentioned is a misnomer. No way was this anything resembling a dive. Again, I remember well, the horse is not a willing participant, it’s basically goaded and pushed off the platform, ending in a big (ouch) belly flop. What fun.</p>
<p>The horse “willingly” dives because there is some consequence for NOT diving that the horse fears more (electric shock, pain, etc.). No fun for the horse.</p>
<p>In the video, it looks like the horse is diving to rejoin its stablemate, waiting below on the opposite side of the pool.</p>
<pre><code>On a brighter note, in Karen Pryor’s book REACHING THE ANIMAL MIND she writes about her experiences raising Welsh ponies in Hawaii. She hires and teaches children to train the ponies and then sells them on the mainland. One day the kids are calling out to her to come watch the ponies surf. The kids are riding the ponies out, the ponies watch for a big wave, ride it in and run up on the beach to roll in the sand. Then shake themselves off, the kids remount and they all do it again. The only reason the activity didn’t continue was because it was too risky to ride along the highway to reach the beach.
</code></pre>
<p>Thanks for sharing the info…I signed the petition and passed the link on.
YEARS ago, I saw a show like this in Lake George. Poor “Rex the Wonder Horse” was terrified, shaking and getting dragged against his will. He finally jumped in the pool after much coaxing. I walked away with his image in my head. Wrote lots of letters…it was eventually shut down. I absolutely can’t believe they’re going ahead with this. My prediction…it will not happen. Fingers crossed!!!</p>
<p>Toneranger, all the articles in Atlantic City press quote the owner Bill Catanoso, saying they expect ‘animal rights’ backlash, that this isn’t abusive, ect ect ect. </p>
<p>I hope you are right that this will not happen. Next Tuesday, Feb 21st the Casino Reinvestment authority is holding a board meeting. Everyone opposing this must make their voices heard now. Here is link to get PETAs Alert, and email addresses to contact CRDA now. <a href=“https://www.facebook.com/DivingHorseCruelty[/url]”>https://www.facebook.com/DivingHorseCruelty</a></p>
<p>Toneranger-- kudos to you for writing letters, after the abuse you witnessed. I wish you could be calling in to the talk radio stations around here, where people are thinking this is just fine to bring back. Ugh</p>