🧠 EnrichmentFarrel-McWhirter Park
4.8Redmond, WA
Ages 3–17About this program
Farrel-McWhirter Park is a 68-acre City of Redmond farm park where Redmond Parks & Recreation runs its own children's programming around a working barnyard and horse arena. The Farrel-McWhirter Riding School teaches four levels of equestrian lessons, starting with My Little Pony for 2-and-a-half to 4-year-olds and Beginning Pony for 4- to 5-year-olds using the park's smallest ponies, and progressing into the longer JHA series for older riders; youth and teen riding camps run through age 17. Nature Vision Preschool is a nine-month, nature-based preschool for children who are at least three and a half and fully potty-trained at the start of the school year. Farm school classes, pony rides and seasonal barnyard activities round out the offering. Lessons and camps are sold in seasonal sessions (Redmond runs winter, summer and fall program seasons) and fill quickly; the barnyard itself is free and open daily 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Reviewers call it a hidden gem and rate the barnyard highly for young children: healthy, well-cared-for animals including horses, ponies, cows, goats, sheep, pigs, rabbits and ducks, a clean and well-maintained site, forested trails, a playground with infant swings and picnic areas, all free to visit.
The 1,000-plus reviews are almost entirely about visiting the free park and barnyard rather than the paid riding lessons, preschool or camps, so they say little about instruction. One reviewer noted electric wire around parts of the barnyard, apparently because visitors ignore the no-feeding and no-touching rules, and the barnyard is explicitly not a petting zoo.