A Girl and Five Brave Horses

By Sonora Carver

A Girl and Five Brave Horses is the story of Sonora Carver and was the basis for the movie Wild Hearts Can't be Broken. Carver answered the following want ad: Wanted: Attractive young woman who can swim and dive. Likes horses, desires to travel. See Dr. W. F. Carver, Savannah Hotel. From there she became the first woman to jump from forty and sixty feet into a pool of water with diving horses. Carver was blinded during a jump as a result of hitting the water off balance and detaching both of her retinas. Despite this she continued to jump for another eleven years. An amazing and inspiring story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wilder Publications
• Release date: Jun 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9781633840683

Reviews for A Girl and Five Brave Horses

[klburnside · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I recently re-watched the movie Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken, which was one of my favorite movies as a kid. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the movie has not lost all of its charm over the years, and even more surprised when my sister discovered that the real life person the main character is based on had written an autobiography.

I had a number of issues with this book. First, the book itself was just ugly. It seemed to be a hastily thrown together reprint of the first edition, and it was just unpleasant to look at. Second, I'm not a huge fan of horses, so all the descriptions of the horses and their personalities were really boring. Also, the book was really poorly written. Finally, (and I realize this is my issue), I had a hard time letting go of how the characters were portrayed in the movie. I kept waiting for Sonora's husband, Al, to figure more prominently into the book as a loving husband and companion, but he was barely mentioned.

It was funny to see the little things the movie did keep in her story... like how she cut her own hair, and her mom made her wear a bag over her head, and how she didn't want to bow after diving...

Overall, I would not recommend this book to anyone.

[bevyann · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I first heard about this amazing person by watching the movie made by Disney. I fell in love with every one of the characters and have worn out a VHS copy and had to purchase DVD. Sonora Carver lived during the Great Depression and was a dreamer who only wanted to be great. Her love for horses led her to Carvers Wild West Show and the owner taught her all he knew about diving horses. She became his star attraction. The horses and characters are all amazing and I strongly recommend any young horse lover read this book and then watch the movie.

[earthwind_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An amazing true story of a young woman who dared to dive a horse off a 40 ft tower into a tank at Atlantic City for the amusement of crowds. Early in her career she was blinded by the impact with the water but continued to perform for many years after this, listening to the hooves of the horse coming up the ramp toward her and jumping onto his back to climb the tower and dive.