This year's Butler County Farm Tour was an opportunity for people unfamiliar with farms to get a bit closer to the farm, learning about everything from therapeutic horse riding to bee-keeping and pressing apple cider.

The farm tour, which ran from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, was a self-guided tour sponsored by the Butler County Tourism and Convention

Bureau, featuring six stops: Asgard Acres Alpaca Farm on Nursery Road in Forward Township, Eisler Nurseries and Pine Hall on Dick Road in Connoquenessing Township, Harvest Valley Farms on Ida Lane in Middlesex Township, Lutherlyn Equestrian Center on Adventure Lane in Franklin Township, Metrick's Harvest View Farm and Market on Eagle Mill Road in Connoquenessing Township and Pine Hill Farms on Upper Harmony Road in Connoquenessing Township.

A stop never before featured on the farm tour was the Lutherlyn Equestrian Center at Camp Lutherlyn, according to Carla Babcock, the

program director of the equestrian center. The stop on the tour was an opportunity to show off the recently opened indoor arena, the Harry W. Bost Arena. The $200,000 arena, which was completed in April, allows the equestrian center to host group activities year-round rather than relying on a March to October schedule, Babcock said. Because the Lutherlyn Equestrian Center runs entirely on donations and volunteers, the farm tour could make sure that more people knew about the resource in their own backyard, Babcock said, possibly drawing more volunteers and donors in to the fold.

“(Most people) don't actually know that this is here,” she said. “We want to get more people coming...to let people know about the opportunities.”

Babcock stressed the new therapeutic riding program, which began in the spring under the guidance of Katey Simons, an instructor certified by the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International.

For Nichole Echler of Renfrew, the farm tour, particularly the stop at Lutherlyn Equestrian Center, was an incredible opportunity — one her family “definitely could not” have had a year ago, when they lived in Las Vegas. The farm tour offered a chance for her children — 5-year-old Charlotte and 2-year-old Sawyer — to see what farm life and animals are like, much to the excitement of Sawyer.

“(He) absolutely adores horses,” Echler said, having joked that the family might never be allowed to leave the equestrian center on Saturday

morning.

And this opportunity to connect with farm life is what Ken Metrick, owner of Metrick's Harvest View Farm and Market, enjoys about the farm

tour.

“I think people just like to come out and be on the farm,” he said. “Now, we're getting separated from the farm. Sixty years ago, everybody

had an uncle or family member with a farm. Even if they only went every Sunday, they still had that connection (to farms), and now we're getting away from that.”