Saddle up, your majesty.

“The Cowboy and the Queen” was the Closing Night film at the Boulder International Film Festival (BIFF), and is also a terrific and emotional documentary about how Monty Roberts and Queen Elizabeth II loved horses enough to see that there’s a better way to train them without violence: peace, love, and understanding. If only the whole world got their message for both humans and animals.

Co-written and directed by Andrea Blaugrund Nevins (“Tiny Shoulders, Rethinking Barbie”) and co-written by Graham Clark (the sound designer for “Play it Forward” and “State of Play”), the movie serves as a haiku to these majestic animals and how society has treated them through the years. And it also wants people to wake up and acknowledge there are people out there who believe they can tame them peacefully.

We see Monty in his youth when he competed and won his first Rodeo award at the age of 4, when his abusive father beat him and killed some of his beloved injured horses, and when he saw that the movie industry was killing horses.

Animals have feelings, too, and how they’re mistreated by those is unimaginable. And in my opinion, and I’m sure it’s in yours as well, I think it’s also depressing that if a horse injures his leg, he gets put down, because they practically impossible to heel. I’m also ashamed at how movies have put these animals at risk, and seeing “The Cowboy and the Queen” through Monty’s eyes is really heartbreaking.

We also see how Elizabeth had a passion for horses, and eventually when she hears of Monty’s horse whispering gifts, she puts him to the test, which he passes with flying colors. 

Running at 84 minutes, there should be some patience within the story, but there’s enough love and support in “The Cowboy and the Queen” for us to be reminded by these two celebrities that horses have feelings, too, and that breaking them shouldn’t require violence. It’s also complex when the movie tells us how Monty and Elizabeth went through life in various circumstances, and how they learned to overcome them.

This doc was a great way to close the film festival I attended last March, because it has a soul inside that reminds us on how things should be in the connection between humans and animals. I did mention in my review of “You Can Call Me Bill” that maybe William Shatner would love to see this movie, because of his love for the animals and how he connects with them. Maybe he already knows this true story. I don’t know. But I do know that “The Cowboy and the Queen” has more entertainment value than how Kevin Costner recently presented the first part of his western “Horizon: An American Saga.” And I’m sure my posse will agree with me on this.

In Select Theaters This Friday

Streaming on September 12