About the Episode:
Kendra Loring is the owner of Enchanted Equine Adventures, a south valley small business. Enchanted Equine Adventures, LLC was founded in 2012 by Kendra with the support of her family. Kendra utilized all the ABQ small business resources available to find a way to start EEA. We hope her story will inspire you and motivate you to take a chance on your next venture. New Mexico small business resources are listed below.
Links:
Enchanted Equine Adventures LLC
WESST Rio Rancho Women’s Business Center
1 Million Cups ABQ, NM
SCORE Mentors
Small Business Development Centers (NMSBDC)
Accion Opportunity Funds
Bunny’s Website
Bunny’s Instagram
Buy Lifesaving Gratitude the book
Featuring:
Kendra Loring
Kendra has been horse crazy since she was a child. Kendra grew up on Cape Cod, MA and pursued her love of horses through 4-H. She attended Johnson and Wales University and received a BS and AS in Equine Studies/Riding. After college, Kendra spent many years in retail management learning how to run a business. She utilized all the ABQ small business resources available to find a way to start EEA.
EEA began with two horses adopted from the NM Horse Rescue at Walkin n Circles Ranch. That number quickly became three, when we realized that one of the horses was pregnant. Acheron was born in July of 2013 and has become part of the program! They have a birthday party for him every summer at the end of our Horsemanship Program. Kendra is a PATH certified therapeutic riding instructor and has been teaching horseback riding for over 20 years!
Episode Transcript
Bunny: 0:10
Hi there and welcome to the , I love Mexico podcast. I’m Bunny Terry , your host, and I’m joined by my co-host and producer Johanna Medina . And we love everything about New Mexico. We are joined today by our guest Kendra Loring, who has a very interesting story. I read your bio Kendra, but I rather than me trying to tell your story, I’d love to hear your New Mexico story and what it is that you’re doing , um, that our listeners should pay attention to.
Kendra: 0:44
<laugh>. Well, thank you for having me on this is absolutely fantastic. I was born and raised , on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, and I came to New Mexico through college, through a work co-op and I spent, oh, I don’t know, a whole lot of years of my life trying to figure out you know, what I wanted to do. And I knew when I got into college that I wanted out of new England, <laugh> all the snow storms and crazy traffic just the hectic life of new England. So when I was looking for a co-op for my last trimester of my bachelor’s degree, I found this place in New Mexico. And I was like, well, why not? I’ve never been there. I never been anywhere near there. So I jumped on the Amtrak and I came to New Mexico and I got off at Alverado station. And I said, this is it <laugh>
Bunny: 1:48
Oh , wow. <laugh>
Kendra: 1:51
Yep . This is home. I never felt at home anywhere until I got here. Yeah. So , I love it here. I love New Mexico. I’ve been here since ’94. I came and went a few times , um, and then moved back permanently in 2002 excuse me, 2002 , I worked retail for 18 years before I was able to get back to my passion. You know , back in the days when , um, nobody had health insurance and you had to get a corporate job to have health insurance? So I worked retail in order to have health insurance. So my passion as a child has been horses. I was in four-H for my entire childhood and I knew I wanted to do something in horses and I just had no idea what I wanted to do, how I was gonna get there and going to college, getting a bachelor’s in equine studies and writing was the first step to figuring that out was a general degree, kind of a overview of horses. And I came to New Mexico and I said, I’m gonna have a horse business here. <laugh> that’s gonna happen. It took a long time. <laugh> , um, 51 now. So it took a long time to get there. But I’ve been in business for 10 years now.
Bunny: 3:18
So that’s so exciting. And, tell folks what it is that you do.
Kendra: 3:22
So the name of my business is Enchanted Equine Adventures, and I do therapeutic horseback riding horsemanship classes and riding lessons in the south valley of Albuquerque. And I have a certificate to teach therapeutic course back riding . But I’ve been a writing instructor for, oh, I don’t know , a long time, 30 years or so. I started when I was a teenager in four-H teaching the younger kiddos, how to ride. So , I was certified as a writing instructor in Massachusetts before I came here as well.
Bunny: 4:00
And what , for listeners, I do, I’ve had some clients who help with therapeutic equine programs, but for people who don’t have any idea, explain how that works. I mean, we all know unless you’re scared to death to get on one of those large animals, real how does the therapeutic piece work?
Kendra: 4:19
Sure, sure. Yeah. Well, so my intro to that question will be to explain the terminology. So I have people call all the time and say they want equine therapy. Well, that’s not what I do. And equine therapy is not a thing. <laugh> horses don’t need therapy. <laugh> well, okay. That’s not true. One of my horses has PTSD, so he probably does need therapy, but <laugh> , I’m not a therapist. I’m not a medical professional of any kind. My horses do the hard work. They are the therapist. So therapeutic riding is a piece of the field that is called equine assisted activities and therapies. So that can include anything from mental health work , um, equine assisted coaching, equine assisted learning hippotherapy, which involves physical therapy and occupational therapy or speech therapy on the back of a horse. Uh , and then therapeutic riding. So therapeutic riding is riding skills specifically for kids and adults with disabilities. So I had the horse piece when I got certified, I did not have the disability piece. So I had to get that education , um, while it was getting certified. And I learned that the, the folks that I can help the most are the people with anxiety and PTSD . So that’s kind of my specialty is I work with kids and adults who have anxiety and it doesn’t have to be anxiety , uh, around the horse, just in general in life. The horse has this amazing ability to calm people because they’re gigantic prey animals , and they’re also heard animals. So they live together in family groups. So if someone in the herd is upset, there should be a reason. So they should be afraid. So they should all worry. But if they know that there’s nothing to be afraid of, then they have this ability to calm each other down. And that works well with us too. They share their energy with us and they bring down your cortisol level, bring down your blood pressure. It’s just an amazing thing to watch just to be around them, just to brush them, hang out with them, have them follow you around and ask for scratches. <laugh> they’re absolutely amazing animals.
Bunny: 6:55
So Johanna, does that remind you of anything? Does that,
Johanna: 6:59
Oh, what do you mean? Like when I used to take riding lessons?
Bunny: 7:04
Yeah. I mean… and you can, you can edit this out if you want, but when Johanna was small and her dad and I were kind of in the middle of a custody fight, her therapist said you were little too. You were like eight or nine years old. And she said, get her on a horse, get her to some riding lessons. I thought it was the coolest thing. I love those afternoons watching her.
Johanna: 7:27
I didn’t know. That’s why I was doing it. I thought I just really liked horses.
Bunny: 7:35
Well , I think it , I think it was helpful. I don’t know, but
Johanna: 7:38
Yeah, I loved it. Yeah. Because there’s like , um, besides the riding, all the work you do with the horse too, and even, you know, I’d had to muck the stalls and clean up after them and you know, you have to get them to trust you and everything too.
Kendra: 7:54
Yeah, for sure. Yeah. All of that comes with riding and I don’t like to see riding programs where a child is just handed a horse. Who’s ready to go, okay, get up on and go ride your horse. No, no, no. You have to go do the work. You have to go get your horse. You gotta tie ’em up. You gotta brush ’em . You gotta learn how to pick out their feet and put on their saddle and, and do all that stuff. And the same thing goes for adults too. You know, we’re not, you know, all the horses are tied up, tacked up, we go out on trail ride kind of place. That’s not what I do. There’s plenty of people who do that, but that’s not what I do. So that’s kind of my philosophy. Yeah . So that’s cool that you did that and that’s great.
Bunny: 8:34
And it was , I just think it added this whole level of, you know, caring for somebody else, which, and that was the horse. And as I recall, you had the same horse every time, but, you know, caring for the horse and getting outside of whatever’s going on in your own life has to be helpful to the people that you help.
Kendra: 8:54
For sure. For sure. Yeah. And one of the biggest things I see , um, especially with the, the pre-teens and the teens, and, you know, a lot of the clients with , with autism is, is this wave of confidence . You know, I , I ask , I ask my riders a lot when I first meet them, do you know what the word assertive means? And most of them are like, I think so, but I’m not sure. And, and then we start riding and I’m like, okay. So let’s talk about what that word means. You know, if you’re riding a thousand pound animal who doesn’t wanna listen to you, <laugh> wants to go take a nap or have a bite to eat. Yeah. If you’re not assertive, they, they will take advantage of that. So it translates from the saddle to everyday life. It’s amazing.
Bunny: 9:48
Well, and you’re also unplugging them. I mean, they’re not, it’s not like they can tell , take their cell phone , right. <laugh>
Kendra: 9:54
Yes , yes, yes. You don’t wanna ride with , with anything in your, in your back pocket. So some of my clients do like to take pictures, but I try to do those myself <laugh> .
Bunny: 10:06
And so I have this picture in my mind of you in the south valley because I know that part of Albuquerque and it’s, especially in the fall, isn’t that one of the most beautiful places in the world.
Kendra: 10:19
Yes, yes, yes. It sure is. I mean, I’m biased of course, cuz I love it here. But the south valley is, is just beautiful. And of course you hear all kinds of negative things about the south valley, but it, the , where we are is just so beautiful and it’s, it’s about a mile north of the Esleta Pueblo. So it’s about as far south, as you can get and still be in the city, but it’s, it’s quiet and people remark about how quiet it is when they get outta their cars. We’re right on the ditch. So we have egrets and herons and frogs and all kinds snakes. We have all kinds of wildlife out there. So yes, it’s absolutely gorgeous.
Johanna: 11:02
Yes. Yeah. I think people forget how much , um, nature and wildlife, you can get just a little bit outside the city. I mean sometimes even in the city, but Albuquerque’s not just this big city with, you know, built <laugh> , there’s not really skyscrapers or anything, but it’s not just a big city, but you also have water and nature and plants and animals. So , uh, it’s all kind of accessible right there.
Kendra: 11:29
It is.
Bunny: 11:30
Well, and that’s what I was thinking. I was thinking of cotton woods and you know , that whole it’s very pastoral down there for sure. I mean , you do have a lot of water.
Kendra: 11:40
Yeah. Yeah. And I tell people all the time, you know, Albuquerque is the wild west. I mean, in the city of Albuquerque, you can have horses. I mean, that’s pretty amazing, you know, there’s not a lot of cities where you can do that. So yeah, it’s a pretty, pretty fantastic, I mean, definitely take your allergy pill before you come. <laugh> because there’s lots of allergens, but I just live on my allergy pill. So I’m used to it.
Bunny: 12:08
So Kendra, tell us if you can, without revealing anything, some of the transformations that you’ve seen, I’d really like to hear what, you know, because we may have a listener who has a child or may need your help in general. So I’d like to hear what, what do you see people where they go from here to here A to B how do , how does that look?
Kendra: 12:29
Oh, sure. Yeah. I’ve had quite a few clients who have come in who are nonverbal and get on the horse and within that hour they’re speaking and it may not be full sentences, but words, I mean, they’re speaking, they’re saying I want to do this. I want to trot . I want to go over here and go over the bridge. I want to do this or that. Um, so that is, is huge. I’ve seen that many, many times. Yeah. Yeah. I’ve had a few clients who, when they first got there, you know, they’d hide behind their mom. They wouldn’t even speak to me. Um, but then as they’ve grown and as they’ve written now they’re volunteers for me. So they’re leading horse leading for other clients. Like that’s amazing, you know, and there’s, I mean, to me, it’s an up and coming field. I mean, yes, we’ve always been around, but now after the pandemic, everyone wants to be outside. So there’s so much need for riding instructors and therapeutic writing. So I love affecting the youth of Albuquerque in that way and showing them that there are all these other job opportunities out there that are outdoors, you know, that are not connected to a laptop or a cell phone . So yeah, I love , I love seeing that. And even adults, I have some , um, veterans and uh , first responders who have come in with anxiety and, you know, within a few weeks of riding around there caning and you know, really controlling their horse and they’ve, they’ve just completely changed. And I love that. Yeah. And I have a few , uh, like a handful of senior women who ride with me and you know, they’ll contact me and be like, well, I’m not sure if I’m too old to ride. I used to ride when I was a kid, I really wanna get back to it. And then, and now we have like this little circle of women who ride with me and they go out for coffee after and they just have a fantastic time. And they’re riding trotting around on a horse, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s fantastic. I love my job. <laugh> yeah.
Johanna: 14:46
Sounds really amazing.
Kendra: 14:48
Yeah, it is.
Bunny: 14:50
So I’m a person who grew up near horses. I mean, I grew up out in the country and um, I probably have been on the back of a horse, six to eight times in my entire life. I’m a little afraid. I’m a little intimidated. Um, and so what do you and I’ll tell you the last time I was on a horse was , um, like down in Bosque farms, I think. And I got, and I wasn’t assertive, my horse ended up walking in the bar ditch and I couldn’t control her <laugh> and, and so when I think about it, I get anxious about the idea of getting on the back of the horse. What would you say to somebody like me? What’s the story? What do we, how do you deal with scardy cats like me? <laugh>
Kendra: 15:32
Sure. Well, I would say the first thing I would say is let’s do a private lesson. Let’s start with a private lesson and not do a group lesson, move you into a group lesson once you’re comfortable. But I would say the first thing I would do is go out and introduce you to all six of my horses. They’re all rescues of some sort. And I would, I would see which one you connected with. First of all, now I’m gonna guarantee that Cinnabar, who’s our former race horse. She’s gonna connect with anyone cuz she loves people and scratches. But if there’s a horse that connects with you, we’ll put the halter on that horse and take them to the round pin . And we’ll just hang out in there and I’ll teach you how to move the horse around with your body only. And once you feel confident in that, then I’ll have you groom the horse and then see how you feel. If you’re not ready to ride that’s okay . We won’t ride. We can take the horse for a walk down the ditch. We can go back to the round pen and do some more work. We can work on anatomy. We can work on , uh, horse communication. We can do lots of stuff. That’ll make you feel comfortable before you ever even get in the saddle. And that may not even be a goal. Riding a horse may not even be your goal. Maybe it is just communicating with them, you know, or just finding a friend, you know, and that’s absolutely fine. So I , I have a lot of clients who, who come with anxiety, but some of them, their goal is to ride. So we have to find ways to get them comfortable to eventually get in the saddle.
Bunny: 17:10
So there’s another thing that I read and correct me if I get this wrong, but are you rescue horses right. And find homes for them.
Kendra: 17:19
So I rescue horses. All of my horses are rescues either I rescued them or they were rescued by their previous owner. I work closely with the New Mexico horse rescue walking in circles . Two of my initial horses I started with came from there. One of those ladies happened to be pregnant and nobody knew. So I ended up with an extra horse. So yeah, I believe that that rescue horses, unwanted horses, they want a job. You know, they want love and attention, but they want a job. They wanna work. And some horses may not be rideable and that’s okay . Those kind of horses do well with mental health work on the ground, no riding. And they wanna connect with a human with a leader. So that’s, they work really well in that field. And then some horses, they, they just, they literally need work. Especially the older horses, they movement is the best thing for a horse, wild horses walk 15 to 17 miles a day. So they move a lot. So older horses, they start to slow down a little bit, their digestion slows down, but they really need to move. So the best thing for them is to be ridden, whether it’s at a walk or a trot or a trail ride, whatever it is. And most of my guys are older teens end up. And so the best thing for them is, is, is this work and they love it. They really do. I mean, you can see that they love their jobs. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There’s a lot of unwanted horses in the world. <laugh> but in New Mexico, of course we have a lot of unwanted horses and we have , uh, seven certified horse rescues in the state. And I would really like to find a way to partner those rescues with all of the equine assisted activities and therapy facilities in the state so that we can work together to get jobs for those horses, whether it is doing therapeutic riding or hippotherapy or mental health stuff. Yeah.
Bunny: 19:48
What are you keep saying that , are you saying hippotherapy, I’m sorry if I don’t understand it, you I’m sure you guys do because you’re in this, but no. What is that?
Kendra: 19:59
So hippotherapy is a term. Um, the , it sounds to me like they’re trying to actually phase that term out, but hippotherapy specifically is , uh, PT O T or speech on the back of a horse. So the, the therapist does their work on the back of the horse, the horse is there just walking. So they have a horse leader walking them and then sidewalks helping with the work.
Bunny: 20:24
And so if somebody’s been in an accident or , um, I mean, what about stroke victims? Does this work for them or not? Because they always have OT.
Kendra: 20:33
Oh yeah. Yes, definitely therapeutic. Riding’s great for stroke victims. Yes, yes. Yes. And in a, in a textbook therapeutic riding facility, you would have a horse leader. So you would not, the rider would not be in charge of their own horse. You would’ve a horse leader there for safety, and then you would have a sidewalker on the side of you. So people who suffer with seizures mm-hmm <affirmative> would have help if, to get down if they needed to get off the horse. Yeah. Yeah. I personally, I don’t have a lot of volunteers. I like to have my riders independent. So some of my riders do start with a horse leader, but most of them, I try to advance them pretty quickly to get them to be independent and work on the horse .
Johanna: 21:27
Is that something that you’re looking for as more volunteers or do you like to have a limited amount of volunteers?
Kendra: 21:32
That is a good question. I always need good volunteers for sure, for sure. But I try not to rely on volunteers to run my business. I try to keep going as best I can. With just me, I’m a single member LLC, so it’s just me and my business.
Bunny: 21:53
Well, Kendra, I, I am so fascinated by this. I love it. In fact, I, I may have to come down and spend it an afternoon, walking around with a horse please, but I please , I do want to give you a chance to tell us all the things that you love best about New Mexico besides the south valley with the river at the ditch and the cotton woods. What have you always lived in Albuquerque?
Kendra: 22:18
No, I lived, I lived down by Socorro for a little while I lived , um, in Santa Fe for a little while, but , uh, yes, most of my time has been in Albuquerque. Yeah. Lived in Rio Rancho for a little bit, but Albuquerque’s my favorite for sure. <laugh> nice. Nice. And the thing I love best about New Mexico, honestly, especially being from Massachusetts is that I do not I’m 95% certain. I would not have been able to open a business in Massachusetts. Like I have here, the amount of resources for small businesses in this state is phenomenal. And I tried to utilize every one of them as I started my business. Yeah.
Bunny: 23:03
Wow. That’s so interesting. And I do think this is a place where female run businesses are not seen as an anomaly, right? Yeah.
Kendra: 23:11
Yeah. For sure. Yes, definitely. The excuse me, west, the women’s, I’m gonna say the initials wrong. Women’s self . Yep . I’m just gonna say west. West was probably my best partner from the very, very beginning. They have amazing classes and wonderful mentors. I took a bunch of classes there. And before I, even before I even had an LLC an I learned that I wanted to be an LLC and a nonprofit by going to class .
Bunny: 23:47
And it’s W E S it’s several S’s right. It’s a couple of SS. W S S T.
Kendra: 23:52
Yeah. Yeah. W E S S T west.
Bunny: 23:56
Nice, nice. Yes, that’s so cool. Well, if you were coming here for the first time , um, if you had friends coming here for the first time, what would you have them do?
Kendra: 24:06
Well, I mean, there’s so many things to do. I mean, definitely you have to eat. My favorite restaurant is the range. Oh yeah. Course. We <laugh> my wife and I had our very first date at the range. So it’s , um, it’s close to our hearts <laugh> but I mean, it would depend on what they, what the people wanted to do. But I think if, if you really like TV and movies, you know, going on the tours to see, you know, where all these things were filmed I think those are amazing, cuz you’d be like, whoa , I didn’t know. That was filmed here. <laugh> yes, yes. And , um, definitely you have to road trip, so you have to have a car. So going down , to TRC to river bend hot Springs.
Bunny: 24:55
Oh, we have to get there. I’m dying to go there. Yeah.
Kendra: 25:00
Oh my gosh. Right on the river. Oh, it’s gorgeous. It’s gorgeous. Uh , we spent our honeymoon in , um, in RDO and we went, our honeymoon was in November and so we went kind of outta season, but we would love to go back there and go horseback riding. So Ruidosos so’s gorgeous and they have wild horses. So that’s, that’s amazing. That is driving down to see, you know, the pecan trees, the pecan orchards down in Las Cruces and see Alamogordo. And I mean, there’s just, there’s so many things to see when you road trip go to the towels Gorge. I mean, you can’t just stay in the city in Albuquerque. You gotta get out and, you know, go for a drive.
Bunny: 25:47
People are gonna hear me say this all the time, but I always say, get off the freeway. You know, people will, I’ll meet people elsewhere and they’ll say, oh, I drove through, I drove through New Mexico and they’ll kind of scrunch up their face. Like ick . I’m like, no, no, no, no, no. Get off the freeway.
Kendra: 26:01
Yes. Yeah . Right. For sure. I mean, you gotta go if you’re gonna go to Santa Fe. Yeah . They go up through Madrid and have lunch there and experience that and get off at , you know, at Angel Fire and go to the veterans Memorial. Like it’s, I mean, there’s so many things to do and see, there’s so much history. I’ve never been to four corners. That’s one place I’ve never been. And I would like to go there. And just so I can say that I’ve been there one day
Bunny: 26:30
<laugh> and that’s a whole, that’s a whole stunning different kind of beauty. And um, and that’s the cool thing. Is that not , it doesn’t all look the same. I mean, it may be that where you’re from everything kind of looked similar. I don’t know know, but in new England I’ve been there and it, you know, there’s only so many trees, you can look at <laugh>, but yes . We are going to provide a link and let people know how to find you, but you have room for more clients.
Kendra: 27:02
Well, I actually have a waiting list, but I have, I do have some room in my schedule right now. I have a lot of homeschool kiddos as clients. So , my week schedule is, is a little flexible. And I do have a little bit of room on the weekends right now. So especially for adults, if adults wanna ride. But yeah, I do. I do have a wait list. So you’ll have to email me to get on the wait list . Yes. Yes.
Bunny: 27:35
Well, we’ll provide all that, but I love this is a completely different story than we’ve heard so far. And I , I thank you so much for being with us because I you know, I want the one thing that I want people to know who are listening is that New Mexico is very diverse and incredibly interesting and beautiful. And it’s full of people who really care about other people, which is what I hear you say for sure. You’re one of those people,
Kendra: 28:01
For sure. Yeah. Yeah. And if you, if you wanna start a business, I mean, New Mexico is the place to do it. I mean, you go to 1 million cups, go to the SPDC go to WESST or Accion. I mean, those guys are gonna help you tremendously to start your business. And most of those services are free. I mean , where do you find that, you know, you can get a score mentor or to help you start your business for free. That’s just insane. New Mexico’s amazing.
Bunny: 28:29
Right. And score is the service core of retired executives or entrepreneurs or something. I mean, I know people who do that and they just give their time away helping new business people. It’s so cool . It’s amazing. I’m so glad you found those resources.
Kendra: 28:47
Yeah, me too. <laugh> yeah ,
Bunny: 28:50
That is all good news, Kendra. Thank you so much for being part of the podcast. Well, thank
Kendra: 28:56
You for having me and letting me talk about horses and small businesses. I appreciate that. Yeah.
Bunny: 29:01
Thank you. Yeah. Maybe I’ll come down and spend an afternoon under the trees with you.
Kendra: 29:06
Yes, please. Please come down. <laugh> okay .
Bunny: 29:09
Yes. Okay . All right . Thank you so much. Thank you. And I would say, I would say to the people who are listening, thank you for being here and we’ll put up some resources that tell you where you can find all the things that Kendra talked about, especially her. And we just wanna thank you for being here. Thank you for being part of the, I love New Mexico podcast and for listening, for reviewing, for liking, for subscribing . All right . Thanks .