OBX’s wild horses star in ‘The Secret of Corolla’

By Mark Jurkowitz | Outer Banks Voice on April 22, 2022

Jerry Thompson can recall when, where and what it was that inspired him to make “The Secret of Corolla.”

Back in 2016, the Tennessee resident was on a vacation on the Currituck Outer Banks “and we were staying up on the 4×4” area, he recounted. “You know, you sit out there on the deck with your coffee in the morning and you’re looking out. And on the dune, there’s this big black stallion with his mane blowing in the wind.”

“It’s such a peaceful, wonderful place and it occurred to me, I didn’t know how it got there, what made it like this,” he added. “Cause it’s the only place like that I’ve ever visited in my life.”

Thompson’s quest to find out “what made it like this” ended up as a 30-minute film, completed in 2021, that stands as a moving and enlightening tribute to the wild horses and the story of their survival to this day. The film has won several awards, including being honored for Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking at The Foothills Film Festival in Shelby, NC and being selected as runner-up for Best Film Overall at the Equus Film and Arts Festival in Ocala FL. It has also been submitted as an entry to the Equus International Film Festival in Dillon, Montana, slated for September.

One other goal, Thompson explained, is to have “a showing in or as close to Corolla as possible. Maybe doing sort of a fundraiser for the [Corolla Wild Horse] Fund…and making a kind of festival out of it there.” Alluding to restrictions caused by the COVID pandemic in the past few years that have affected the film industry along with just about everyone else, Thompson said simply: “We’d like to have a big party.”

A Norfolk native, Thompson said that growing up, the Outer Banks “was my dad’s favorite place in the world to go to.” And he has continued the tradition as he grew up and had children. Once Thompson decided to embark on this project, he connected with Corolla Wild Horse Fund, noting, “that’s where we started our research.”

Meg Puckett, the Herd Manager for the Corolla Wild Horse Fund which worked closely with Thompson, said of the film, “It’s not just the story of the horses, but the story of the people and the places and the history [and] the way he was able to tell that story while keeping the dignity…of the horses intact.”

Thompson acknowledged that, “I learned a ton about horses doing this film. But I approached the film from the standpoint of a visitor because that’s what I was. It’s such an amazing place. And what I found out was that it got to be the way it is through a lot of struggle. The horses were being hit by cars running up and down Highway 12, and when the paved road went into Corolla, that’s really what changed everything.”

As the Corolla Wild Horse Fund’s web page explains, the paving of the road between Duck and Corolla in the mid-80’s ushered in a new era of danger for the horses. In total, 20 of them were killed by vehicles in the stretch from 1985-1996, with the eventual solution being to transport the remaining horses to that 4×4 area. The Wild Horse Fund was officially formed in 1989, during the heart of that period of peril for the animals.

One of the most significant deaths in that era occurred when the iconic stallion named Star was fatally struck by a vehicle in 1991. In the film, that accident is dramatically recounted and portrayed as a kind of turning point in the struggle to protect the wild horses.

Puckett concurs, telling the Voice that “there are certainly horses that are just iconic. The [Star] tragedy was on top of the tragedy” of the numerous deaths of other horses, she explained. “That was absolutely the catalyst for change.”

That change, “The Secret of Corolla” strongly suggests, is why Jerry Thompson got to enjoy that breathtaking vacation view six years ago.

People can buy ‘The Secret of Corolla’ through this link to the Corolla Wild Horse Fund, The Secret of Corolla – Corolla Wild Horse Fund (corollawildhorses.com) or through the “The Secret of Corolla” website.