Her job was to mount a running horse as it reached the top of a 40-foot (12 m) - sometimes 60-foot (18 m) - tower and sail down on its back as it plunged into an 11-foot (3.4 m) pool of water directly below.

Sonora fell in love with and eventually married Doc's son, Albert (Al) Floyd Carver, in October 1928.

[2] In 1931, Sonora was blinded by retinal detachment, due to hitting the water off balance with her eyes open, while diving her horse, Red Lips, on Atlantic City's Steel Pier,[2] the act's permanent home since 1929.

"[2] Sonora's account can be read in her 1961 book, A Girl and Five Brave Horses, and seen in the fictionalized movie version of her life, Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken, starring Gabrielle Anwar.

She remarked to Arnette after screening the film that "the only thing true in it was that I rode diving horses, I went blind, and I continued to ride for another 11 years.