ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Kendra Loring has been working with rescue horses at Enchanted Equine Adventures since 2013. That’s when she set out to give the horses a new purpose in life. 

Loring says they work to teach the horses to be used for riding lessons, including therapy rides.

“Therapeutic horseback riding is for kids and adults with disabilities. And it is utilizing the movement of the horse to help the human deal with whatever it is they’re dealing with. It can be stress, it can be post-traumatic stress, it can be autism, Down syndrome, it can be any number of things,” said Kendra Loring, founder of Enchanted Equine Adventure. 

She says the humans help the horses just as much back. 

“One of our horses is blind. Some of our horses have ulcers, one of our horses was off the track thoroughbred, one of our horses was pregnant and nobody knew it,” said Loring. 

Since opening, they have rescues more than a dozen horses, including “Henry Standing Bear” – named for the Longmire character.

Loring says Henry overcame a traumatic injury that ended his ranch horse career. He had a massive wound in his neck.

“So when he first came I could fit my fist in it, so now it’s nice and clean,” Loring said. “He lost his job, he lost his kind of his will. And then he ended up here just by circumstance, and we listened to him. We listened to what he needed, what he wanted. And now, as you can see, he’s doing fantastic.”

Now she’s written a children’s book detailing how they found him, and his story of recovery. 

“I knew that Henry had to be the first story. His story is about resilience. It’s a fantastic story, and to see him today and what he’s capable of now. It’s just heartwarming,” Loring said.

She says it’s the first in a series sharing the recovery stories of these horses. 

“Writing this book has been years and years of putting all the pieces together in my brain, you know, I used to write when I was in college, I covered the local music scene in Providence, Rhode Island. And so I wrote all the time, but writing a horse story has been in my heart for a long time,” said Loring. 

The book will be available on Amazon starting next week. Kendra says the next installment will feature the story of the rescue horse “Pony-boy” and all his adventures.