Farm Policies

Our goal at The Farm at Millstone Oaks is to provide children and families with a fun, hands on family oriented experience! Whether you are taking riding lessons, enjoying a homeschool class or summer camp we want you to feel like part of our family! We aim to keep our costs for these programs as low as possible while still being able to provide feed and care for the animals that are here for everyone to enjoy! We hope that you love being around the farm as much as we love having you here! We are grateful to all of the wonderful families who come each week and make this farm such a great place to be! Each horse and animal here is our family member; they are so incredibly important to us! We are so happy to be able to share them with all of you! We appreciate your understanding that in order to share our farm with you, we need to communicate and work together, and keep a consistent schedule! We look forward to having you join us!

GENERAL FARM RULES: 1) Children must be supervised by a responsible adult at all times. 2) Riders under 18 must wear a properly fitted helmet when riding. 3) No running, shouting, banging on or throwing things 4) Please wear safe footwear around horses. No sandals or flip-flops. 5) Absolutely NO smoking inside the barn or on the property. Hay is dry grass and easily catches fire! All barn staff have been trained in the use of hoses, and if we see smoke will assume you are on fire...No joke. 6) Always clean up after yourself and your horse. If you open it, close it. if you borrow it return it...please take care to ALWAYS close gates behind yourself for your safety and the horses! 7) All equipment and tools that you take out return to their proper place. 8) Do not allow visitors, friends, or family to handle the horse without a signed release form. 9) Dogs: Visiting dogs are always permitted on the farm (we adore your 4 legged family members). They MUST get along with farm dogs. We will NOT lock up or put away farm dogs for visiting dogs. They may NOT go into any horse, goat, sheep, or chicken enclosures. Owners MUST clean up after them. They can NOT interfere with riding lessons or safety. We reserve the right at ANY time to ask them to be taken off the property. 10) Parking area: We have signs designating the best parking areas to keep your vehicle free of muddy paw prints. Our wireless dog fence does not allow the farm dogs to go to certain areas of the parking lot. If you would prefer them to stay away from your vehicle, we highly recommend parking in the designated areas. If you choose to park elsewhere, you are doing so AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Payment Policies and Lesson Cancellations *Lesson payments are MONTHLY payments and are due in full at the beginning of each month. Our booking system will NOT allow lessons to be scheduled without payment unless you are on a scheduled payment plan. *Remember you are reserving this spot for the entire month *You MUST book ALL your regular scheduled lesson days no later than the 5th of the month. Lessons booked after the 5th will NOT be held for you. If this happens, payment will still be expected per our 2-week written notice cancellation policy. *Late Payments on payment plans OR invoices WILL result in a $10 office fee for EACH week they are late. *Lesson Cancellation: Please give us 24 hours' notice for missing a lesson. If it is less than that NO MAKE-UP option will be available, no tokens will be credited. (In the case of illness, a doctor's note can be provided, and a token will be issued) *Frequent last-minute canceling of lessons will result in giving up your lesson spot. We understand this may not be a priority for you but we are able to feed our horse based on lessons. We will give a more consistent client the spot as we have limited lesson openings. * Bad Weather: New England can be tough! If we have gross weather that is unsafe for riding in (but not extreme) we will run the lesson as a horsemanship lesson. Horsemanship is the foundation of riding. These lessons may include groundwork, learning about feed, learning parts of the horse, learning about equipment, basic horse first aid and general horse care...CHOOSING to not attend a horsemanship lessons will NOT be considered for a makeup lesson. This same policy applies to ANY lesson that we hold and you choose not to attend. *Extreme weather cancelation OR Emergency/Illness: Make-up lessons will be offered. We are very flexible and happy to accommodate most schedules, and will schedule a makeup lesson with you. If you miss a lesson due to one of these reasons above, you will be given a makeup token. This credit is to be used within 4 months of the canceled lesson, or it WILL expire. This makeup credit is in addition to your regular weekly lesson (not in place of it) *Scheduling Make-up lessons- You may schedule a make-up lesson IN the month you canceled at any time. If you would like to wait until the upcoming month, they MUST be schedules AFTER the 5th of the month (for example: You miss April 15th, you can use your toke anytime in April OR wait until May 5th and schedule anytime in May) *Make-up tokens may NOT be used to schedule your regular monthly lessons. Each month, you will receive a new set of tokens for that particular month. *ALL Tokens have an EXPIRATION date. Regular lessons MUST be scheduled BEFORE the 5th of the month, and use your OLDER make-up tokens first! *Regular lessons are 2-5 riders if due to cancellations, there is only 1 rider, the lesson will run approx. 40 minutes unless the rider/parent would like to increase (pay the difference) to the private lesson price of $75 due to the day of the lesson. please notify us right away if you would like to do this. *Canceling lesson spot: We understand things come up and life happens and sometimes a break is needed from lessons. We do require a 2 week WRITTEN notice of cancellation so that we have adequate time to fill the opening.

We are so happy you have decided to come ride with us! We are a family run farm and our horses and animals are part of that family. We are excited to share them with you and hope you enjoy learning and spending time with us as much as we enjoy your company! From our family to yours, Chin up and heels down ~ Enjoy the ride!!! The Farm at Millstone Oaks 978-350-4196 “Under Massachusetts law, an equine professional is not liable for an injury to, or the death of, a participant in equine activities resulting from the inherent risks of equine activities, pursuant to section 2D of chapter 128 of the General Laws.”