A few years ago, near Bandera, in Pipe Creek, there was another rodeo, in addition to the one in Mansfield Park. The owner of the arena and organizer was Bill Rivers. Bill is 72 years old. He was born in Nebraska but grew up in Missouri. Then he moved to California, where he spent most of his professional life. At the age of 58, he moved to Texas. Like many others, he came to live in Bandera because he was drawn to that lifestyle. One day I asked him why Bandera. He replied with his characteristic honesty:
- Because I like it here, I love this Western vibe.
Bill bought a ranch just outside the city and organized rodeos for many years. However, his professional career has primarily been in training exotic animals. Raised by a father who ran a traveling wild animal show for years, he naturally grew into this business and has spent his whole life training animals. Bill is an incredibly warm and humble person. The way he moves reveals that he has spent his entire life riding various animals, from horses to bulls, and even ostriches. It’s kind of like a stuntman’s life.
One day, while visiting Bill at his home, I saw a black-and-white photograph on the wall. What I saw in it amazed me so much that I had to take a closer look to make sure I was really seeing a horse jumping from a great height, from a platform several meters high, with its legs stretched out in front as it flew down.
- “Bill, what is this?” I asked, astonished.
- “A mule.”
- “A mule? Why is it flying?”
- “It’s a show, called ‘Diving Mules.'”
- “What? ‘Diving mules’?”
- “Yeah, my dad was doing this back in the ’50s. He had a ‘Wild West Show.’ It was a variety of shows with different animals. Part of the attraction was the diving mules. From a platform several meters high, they would jump into a pool of water set below. People always thought that when the mules went up the ramp, we would pull it out from under their feet and they would fall down. That’s not true, they actually slid down. We taught them to do that. We started with jumps into the pool from low heights, and then gradually raised the ramp higher and higher until they learned to jump from a height. And believe me or not, they actually enjoyed it.”
My mouth, wide open in surprise, amused Bill, so he continued his story.
- Here in Bandera, at my rodeo, the mules jumped every Friday. For several years, week after week. Everyone wanted to see it, so that’s why we did it. We stopped doing the show a few years ago. We had been doing it continuously since my father started it in the 1950s. I stopped in 2015, over 60 years of tradition. My father and I were the only ones in the world who did it. In the past, there were diving horses, but we were the only ones with diving mules.
- So many years of tradition, why did you stop?
- I stopped doing it because the mules got old, and I didn’t want to train young ones anymore. I also sold the ranch where we did the shows and I organized the rodeos. Then I sold the land, and now there’s an RV parking lot there.
- How many mules did you train to jump over the years?
- Over twenty. In each show, there were two mules and one pony.
- And what did they get as a reward after jumping?
- Always carrots. Only carrots. They loved carrots.
Bill points to the black-and-white photo and says:
“That’s when my dad trained the first three mules and started performing with them publicly. Then we began training more with my brother, and we did quite well. There’s a modern photo from a show in Bandera.”
I glanced at the photo, where I saw not only the falling mule but also aiming for a flaming hoop, like in a circus. It seemed so abstract to me that later I decided to see it with my own eyes. Below is the video available on YouTube.