{"id":18361,"date":"2025-08-05T17:26:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T17:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sunflower-theatre-hosts-night-of-films-to-support-horses-and-heroes\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:03:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:03:30","slug":"sunflower-theatre-hosts-night-of-films-to-support-horses-and-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sunflower-theatre-hosts-night-of-films-to-support-horses-and-heroes\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunflower Theatre hosts night of films to support horses and heroes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A fundraiser Aug. 8 at the Sunflower Theatre in Cortez will support veterans and a mustang sanctuary in the San Juan Basin. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Proceeds from the Veterans & Mustangs<\/a> event will be evenly split between two nonprofits.<\/p>\n

The San Juan Basin Mustang sanctuary \u2013 a budding offshoot of Four Corners Equine Rescue<\/a> \u2013 is one of them. H.O.O.V.E.S.<\/a>, an established horse sanctuary and healing center for veterans in Ohio, is the other.<\/p>\n

\n

Know Before You Go<\/h4>\n

\u2013 Tickets are on a sliding scale and cost $10, $15 or $20.\u2013 Five raffle tickets are included with a ticket purchase.\u2013 Doors open at 6 p.m.\u2013 The first film starts at 6:30 p.m., and event ends at 8:30 p.m.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

As present, the San Juan Basin Mustang sanctuary<\/a> is still in its infancy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re fundraising for sustainability into the future,\u201d said Lauralee Harper, a local filmmaker, of the sanctuary.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need enough money for the land, a ranger and, hopefully, in the future, a mini-house for the ranger to live in,\u201d said Harper.<\/p>\n

In April, the sanctuary raised $3,000 at the Equus Mustang Matinee film festival in Farmington.<\/p>\n

That money, along with what\u2019s raised on Friday coupled with other donations,<\/a> will go into an endowment fund.<\/p>\n

The San Juan Basin sanctuary will be one of few in the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s 30,000 acres near Craig with just over 200 horses,\u201d said Harper, which is technically a refuge the horses share with other animals. There\u2019s also a smaller scale one in Eastern Colorado.<\/p>\n

A sanctuary in the San Juan Basin will create a haven for horses removed from neighboring reservation or public lands.<\/p>\n

Because \u201cIf the horses don\u2019t go to a forever home, they go into an uncertain future that isn\u2019t always positive,\u201d said Harper.<\/p>\n

Plus, a sanctuary stands to \u201chelp preserve our original Spanish mustang strains that we are finding and preserve those mustangs into the future,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"A
A map of the San Juan Basin. The up and coming San Juan Basin mustang sanctuary will be somewhere within its limits.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A real estate agent is shopping for sanctuary land in the San Juan Basin now.<\/p>\n

Ideally, it\u2019ll have enough acreage to take in anywhere from 30 to 60 horses, with no more than one horse per acre of \u201cnice grass,\u201d said Harper.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll raise to one horse per two acres if the grass isn\u2019t as good,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Veterans & mustangs<\/div>\n

On Friday evening, the films will all center on horses.<\/p>\n

The award-winning feature film of the evening, H.O.O.V. E. S Healing Our Vetera<\/em>ns, is an hour long and details the work of the aforementioned sanctuary in Ohio by the same name.<\/p>\n

\"A
A poster for the award winning feature film that will play at the Sunflower Theatre Friday, Aug. 8. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Episode two of Lauralee Harper\u2019s three-part Mustangs of the Carracas Mesa Documentary<\/em> will also play, as well as a six-minute film called Heart of Trust<\/em>, which is a healing story between a girl and her horse.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot more than petting horses,\u201d said Held of her healing work with veterans.<\/p>\n

\u201cHorses are really good at showing us our patterning,\u201d Held said. \u201cAny disconnect veterans have shows up in the way they interact with the horses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Put simply, \u201cHorses reflect the life inside of humans,\u201d said Held.<\/p>\n

Veterans nationwide visit H.O.O.V.E.S., free of charge, and are paired with one of its 32 rescued horses that have \u201calso had a rough time, just like them,\u201d said Held.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

While Held is back in Cortez for the Veterans & Mustangs event on Friday, she will adopt Kyra\u2019s brother, Rumi.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like these (Mesa Verde) horses have a different energy,\u201d said Held.<\/p>\n

Bonnie Anderson of Cortez and treasurer for the National Mustang Association of Colorado, has cared for Rumi in the meantime.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a very sweet boy; there\u2019s not a mean bone in his body,\u201d said Anderson. \u201cHe\u2019s got a typical Mesa Verde personality: Calm, happy and friendly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u201cMarvel
\u201cMarvel is a very patient guy and gets along with any horse so we decided to have Rumi (right) stay with him,\u201d said Bonnie Anderson, who\u2019s been caring for Rumi. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Anderson said she\u2019ll be sad to see Rumi go, but that he\u2019ll be \u201cperfect with veterans.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bond between a wild horse and a person isn\u2019t something I am able to put into words,\u201d said Anderson. \u201cI can tell him anything, take him anywhere. He is my escape from society.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Friday, \u201cIf we can get those 90 seats filled, that would be fantastic,\u201d said Harper.<\/p>\n

Tickets for the event are available online<\/a> on the Sunflower Theatre\u2019s website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Proceeds will benefit veterans and mustangs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,29,185],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-18361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-serving-veterans"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18361"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20546,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18361\/revisions\/20546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18361"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=18361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}