We love sharing our mission, but due to the nature of our programs and the availability of our staff, visits and tours must be prearranged by calling 781-862-5020 or email info@binafarm.org.

Visits and Tours are 30-minutes long and available on Thursdays between 10 AM - 2 PM, and on the 3rd Sunday of the month (time TBD). We are not able to accommodate tours at our Dana Hall School satellite location.

Unscheduled drop-in visitors will most likely be asked to return after making an appointment at another time.

No, we do not offer trail riding or riding lessons to those not enrolled in our programming.

Mounted Programs: A program where a participant rides a horse is referred to as a “mounted program” These programs are Adaptive Riding (formerly called Therapeutic Riding) Recreational Riding, the Horsing Around Summer Program. The objective of these programs is to teach horseback riding skills.

Participants in our Occupational and Physical Therapy Program do ride on a horse, but the objective is to use the horse’s movement to achieve clinical OT/PT goals, NOT to teach them how to ride a horse.

Unmounted Programs: A program working with, but not riding, a horse. Activities in these programs include grooming and leading the horse, bonding activities with the horse, and other horse-related activities such as learning about breeds, coloration, and care. Equine-Facilitated Psychotherapy, Equine-Assisted Learning and Horsemanship are all unmounted programs.

Adaptive Horseback Riding (formerly called Therapeutic Riding) is an equine-assisted activity in which the primary goal is to teach riding skills to individuals with special needs. Specially trained instructors provide lesson plans that contribute to the individual’s cognitive, physical, emotional and social well-being. While accomplishing the goal of learning to ride a horse, our students experience improved strength, coordination, balance, focus and self-esteem.

Adaptive Riding Students can generally begin riding at 6 years of age. An initial consultation and evaluation is required.

Recreational Riding (RR) lessons are for horse enthusiasts of all abilities. MA-licensed riding instructors help students progress in a healthy, fun and nurturing environment. Our RR program is built on the fundamentals of excellent horsemanship, and effective and correct equitation. Children and adult riders are encouraged to develop a working, respectful and rewarding relationship with the horse on the ground, as well as in the saddle, fostering a culture of kindness. All participants develop short- and long-term riding goals, leading to increased confidence, independence and joy.

Our mission allows volunteers and family members of therapeutic participants to enjoy a common love for horses and farm activities at BINA, including having an opportunity to sign up for one of our limited Recreational Riding lesson spots.  Separately, if and when there were more slots available, we opened those up to committee members and donors of our program who support BINA even if they are not directly benefiting from our therapy programs. 

Depending on what the abilities and goals are of an individual whether therapeutic, clinical, recreational or educational, we have a variety of programs for you to consider.

If you are unsure which of our program(s) best suits your needs, please contact us for assistance.

In many cases, we will schedule an evaluation to confirm which program is best suited for what you desire.

Please note, some programs that utilize equines may require medical clearance from a physician.

Contact us at info@binafarm.org for more information, or begin by filling out our application here.

The Dana Hall School (DHS) is a satellite location for BINA Farm Center’s Therapeutic Riding lessons only. There are limited spots available at this location. The BINA team does all the scheduling for our program at DHS.

You will begin by filling out your information on the registration portal.

Although we do not work directly with insurance providers for any of our programs, some participants in our Therapy Programs (Occupational and Physical Therapy Utilizing Hippotherapy and Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy) have had success with reimbursement for their therapeutic or clinical services. We recommend calling your insurance provider to determine if this is an option for you.

Adaptive Riding (formerly Therapeutic Riding) is not typically covered under most insurance providers as the instructor is not a therapist; however, some schools do have their students with IEP’s partake in certain therapeutic programs at BINA. We suggest asking your school if they are involved at BINA and, if not, feel free to recommend the program. School budgets would determine if they are active in such programs.

Check with your insurance provider if Music Therapy is covered.

Recreational Riding, Gardening and Horsemanship are not covered by insurance providers, but again, ask your school if they are involved with those programs.

Session Schedule: Our programming schedule is divided into 4 sessions per year; Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall. Each session is between 8-13 weeks long. (see our calendar for session dates).

Specialty Spring Vacation and Summer Programming (Horsing Around or BINA Buddies) are designated by the week. (See our Summer Programs Page)

Once accepted into one of our programs, you will be invoiced for the appropriate number of lessons/clinical sessions in your season’s session. We have an indoor riding space and covered round pen, so lessons/clinical sessions can, and do, take place in inclement weather.

Cancellations: If we determine we need to cancel programming due to weather or some other reason, you will be notified by email/text/phon call and are credited for that lesson. We generally do not offer make-up lessons as finding time to schedule an appropriate instructor, with the appropriate horse, at an appropriate time becomes very challenging.

If you need to miss a lesson (outside of BINA cancelling it), we generally do not offer credits. Your payment would be forfeited due to the costs of holding that slot for a participant. In extreme or pre-arranged circumstances, we may offer exceptions.

End of Session, Whats Next? As each session comes to an end, we consult with you as to whether you will continue into the next session. We then determine, with your input, when your riding time slot would be as we know your schedule may change, as well as ours. Please note, we have a very long waitlist, thus a decision to continue to the next session must be made by the date we extend for decisions. If we don’t hear from you, we will offer the slot to someone on the waitlist. All pre-payments must be made before showing up for the first day of the next session.

Roll-in Admissions & Waitlist: Pending any openings, we offer roll-in admissions. In order to be considered, all of your paperwork must be submitted to our portal.

When you are ready to inquire about your Program of Interest, first complete your New Participant Registration Portal in Better Impact. You will be asked to create a username and password within Better Impact and enter the information that will allow us to best direct your inquiry.

Once we have reviewed your submission we will contact you.

You can also call us at 781-862-5020 or email us at info@binafarm.org.

Yes, we offer these programs, please click here to see an overview of these programs.