On Friday, three films will play at the Sunflower Theatre downtown Cortez to support veterans and the creation of a mustang sanctuary in the San Juan Basin.
Proceeds from the Veterans & Mustangs event will be evenly split between two nonprofits.
The San Juan Basin Mustang sanctuary – a budding offshoot of Four Corners Equine Rescue – is one of them. H.O.O.V.E.S., an established horse sanctuary and healing center for veterans in Ohio, is the other.
Know Before You Go
– Tickets are on a sliding scale and cost $10, $15 or $20.
– Five raffle tickets are included with a ticket purchase.
– Doors open at 6 p.m.
– The first film starts at 6:30 p.m., and event ends at 8:30 p.m.
As present, the San Juan Basin Mustang sanctuary is still in its infancy.
“We’re fundraising for sustainability into the future,” said Lauralee Harper, a local filmmaker, of the sanctuary.
“We need enough money for the land, a ranger and, hopefully, in the future, a mini-house for the ranger to live in,” said Harper.
In April, the sanctuary raised $3,000 at the Equus Mustang Matinee film festival in Farmington.
That money, along with what’s raised on Friday coupled with other donations, will go into an endowment fund.
The San Juan Basin sanctuary will be one of few in the state.
“There’s 30,000 acres near Craig with just over 200 horses,” said Harper, which is technically a refuge the horses share with other animals. There’s also a smaller scale one in Eastern Colorado.
A sanctuary in the San Juan Basin will create a haven for horses removed from neighboring reservation or public lands.
Because “If the horses don’t go to a forever home, they go into an uncertain future that isn’t always positive,” said Harper.
Plus, a sanctuary stands to “help preserve our original Spanish mustang strains that we are finding and preserve those mustangs into the future,” she said.
A real estate agent is shopping for sanctuary land in the San Juan Basin now.
Ideally, it’ll have enough acreage to take in anywhere from 30 to 60 horses, with no more than one horse per acre of “nice grass,” said Harper.
“We’ll raise to one horse per two acres if the grass isn’t as good,” she said.
On Friday evening, the films will all center on horses.
The award-winning feature film of the evening, H.O.O.V. E. S Healing Our Veterans, is an hour long and details the work of the aforementioned sanctuary in Ohio by the same name.
Episode two of Lauralee Harper’s three-part Mustangs of the Carracas Mesa Documentary will also play, as well as a six-minute film called Heart of Trust, which is a healing story between a girl and her horse.
In addition to the films, there will be a 10-minute panel discussion between Amanda Held, the founder of H.O.O.V.E.S., and a veteran.
“It’s a lot more than petting horses,” said Held of her healing work with veterans.
“Horses are really good at showing us our patterning,” Held said. “Any disconnect veterans have shows up in the way they interact with the horses.”
Put simply, “Horses reflect the life inside of humans,” said Held.
Veterans nationwide visit H.O.O.V.E.S., free of charge, and are paired with one of its 32 rescued horses that have “also had a rough time, just like them,” said Held.
In 2003, Held rescued her first wild horse. More recently, she adopted one from Mesa Verde named Kyra, and to her surprise, Kyra was pregnant.
While Held is back in Cortez for the Veterans & Mustangs event on Friday, she will adopt Kyra’s brother, Rumi.
“I feel like these (Mesa Verde) horses have a different energy,” said Held.
Bonnie Anderson of Cortez and treasurer for the National Mustang Association of Colorado, has cared for Rumi in the meantime.
“He’s a very sweet boy; there’s not a mean bone in his body,” said Anderson. “He’s got a typical Mesa Verde personality: Calm, happy and friendly.”
Anderson said she’ll be sad to see Rumi go, but that he’ll be “perfect with veterans.”
“The bond between a wild horse and a person isn’t something I am able to put into words,” said Anderson. “I can tell him anything, take him anywhere. He is my escape from society.”
On Friday, “If we can get those 90 seats filled, that would be fantastic,” said Harper.
Tickets for the event are available online on the Sunflower Theatre’s website.
