Empirical Equestrian- Issy Cless

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Empirical Equestrian- Issy Cless

Empirical Equestrian- Issy Cless Using science-based training & horse care to create fulfilling partnerships between horse and rider She draws from 3 areas of expertise:

1.

Issy’s training approach treats every horse and rider as an individual, and combines elements of classical dressage, centered riding, natural horsemanship, and positive reinforcement/clicker training. She has years of experience working with horses needing either physical or mental rehabilitation including OTTBs and rescue horses. In addition to working with many privately owned horses, she has w

orked for New Vocations thoroughbred adoption program, the MSPCA’s equine program, and currently New England Equine Rescue North. She enjoys sharing this background with her lesson students and teaching them how to be horse trainers and physical therapists, not just riders.

2. She has a classical education with upper level eventing, dressage, and jumper trainers, and has achieved multiple regional and national awards in eventing through Training level for top placings, and has competed successfully through the Preliminary level. She has trained multiple horses from the ground up through Novice level eventing and 2nd level dressage movements, and is comfortable schooling 3rd level dressage. She enjoys coaching her advanced students in lower level eventing and dressage.

3. She has a Master’s degree in Biology specializing in animal behavior and welfare, so her training philosophy is based in science and not just hear-say. She is a continuing student of equine behavior and animal learning, and shares this background with her lesson students.

03/24/2025

It's officially Spring, but this weather has us mentally in Winter 🥶 The last of our Winter Learning Series sessions are OPEN!!!! Bring a friend to one of our low-cost, low-pressure clinics -- no horse required! (In-hand clinics will use Empirical Equestrian horses)

Monday 3/24: Dealing with Spooking, $40 pp
SIGN UP HERE https://forms.gle/9awoMjAd95u7xGrP8

Thursday 3/27: Horse Trivia Night #2, $25 pp
SIGN UP HERE https://forms.gle/MJV8yvz5bW3otDvG8

Saturday 3/29: How to Lunge & Long Line, $50 pp
SIGN UP HERE https://forms.gle/MJV8yvz5bW3otDvG8

Sunday 3/30: Liberty Work 101, $50 pp
SIGN UP HERE https://forms.gle/MJV8yvz5bW3otDvG8

Monday 3/31: Horse Trivia Night #3, $25 pp
SIGN UP HERE https://forms.gle/MJV8yvz5bW3otDvG8

* $5 discount to Empirical Equestrian community
** Signing up is reserving your spot; no-shows or cancellations will still be charged

03/17/2025

Our next round of “Winter Learning” sessions are open NOW! Sessions are 1-2 hours, and may be seminar style, in hand (with our horses), or a mix of both. Grab a friend and head to Sherborn for a fun, affordable, and low-pressure clinic with Issy before show season starts up.

Sign up here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeB2wE8Go571e4CkiNmBqIL6MwNcQU31pceagxQN_oT4T20AQ/viewform

3/19 Wednesday: TRIVIA! $25 per person, winner gets prize

3/22 Saturday: Troubleshooting “Problem Behaviors” $50 pp

3/23 Sunday: Trailering and Loading, $50 pp

3/24 Monday: Dealing with Spooking, $40 pp

03/08/2025

Laddie is looking for more love!
ISO a partial leaser for 16.1hh TB gelding with the best temperament.

Laddie ("Meadow Lad") is a solid and comfortable horse with the sweetest personality looking for a second leaser. Laddie would be a good fit for an intermediate to advanced rider looking to get back in the saddle, bop around on the flat, and bond with. No jumping due to an old injury, but he can do poles and advanced dressage work.

Laddie has excellent ground manners, an in-your-pocket personality, a great brain, loves attention, and is an all-around barn favorite. Plus, he's super handsome. Possibility of trail riding, showing, or off-property events for the right fit. Must be willing to coordinate ride times/days with current partial leaser.

1/4 or 1/3 lease options
1 lesson required/month, additional lessons optional

03/07/2025

PROUD TO OFFER: Captain
5 y/o Shire x TB gelding, approx. 16.3hh

The canter? Uphill.
The personality? Golden retriever.
The face? Beautiful.

Captain is a stunning, in-your-pocket gelding ready for his next home. Captain has never met a person or animal he didn’t want to be best friends with. Under saddle, Captain is forward and sensitive but SAFE. In addition to his training, he’s been part of an advanced lesson program for 6+ months and has never had a buck/rear/bolt. Still, he is young and would benefit from a confident rider with experience bringing along greenies.

Captain is a huge mover with lovely, eye-catching gaits. He won both classes at his very first dressage show, and shows lots of promise in this discipline. He has been started over fences, and has been foxhunting as well, so you can take him to the hunters/jumpers or eventing paths if you like.

He does well on trails in a group but when hacking solo, looks to his rider for confidence. Captain trailers well, has great ground manners, and responds well to positive reinforcement. So far, we haven't found anything Captain CAN'T do.

Asking ☝️8️⃣ooo OR on-farm lease-to-own
Short trials considered, price will increase with continued training over fences

03/07/2025

PROUD TO OFFER: Bodhi, "Yet To Be"
12y/o 16.2hh thoroughbred gelding
Perfect USEA record

Need a confidence-building partner who’s been-there-done-that? Teen or adult ammy looking to take the next step in your showing career? Look no further.

Bodhi is a training-level packer that loves cross country and has never had a XC penalty. He is forward but ratable, a super mover with a great brain who takes care of his rider over fences – safe safe safe. He has a win at prelim & knows his stuff through 3rd level, but is not push button on the flat.

He can hack out on the buckle alone or with others. He’s the same horse on-property and off – take him eventing one day and trail ride the next, he doesn’t care! Bodhi is also a great foxhunting prospect or could dabble in the hunters/jumpers.

His ideal home would be someone looking to get experience at training level and below, trail ride, or foxhunt, and won’t mind spending time getting to know him on the flat. Only maintenance required is acupuncture. He does best with ample turnout and opportunity to play with other horses. Bodhi also loves attention and has a sweet, curious personality.

Asking 3️⃣🖐️ooo
Willing to consider on-farm 3/4 lease with lessons

02/28/2025

*Update: Sunday 3/2 canceled due to weather

Next Winter Learning session is TOMORROW, Saturday, 2:00pm. No horse required -- bring a friend and learn the basics of equine clicker training in this ~2-hour, hands-on session.

📍Sherborn, MA
💸$50 per person, cash, check, or venmo
🙋Sign up here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdas70XRujNA-G7OYqeb3kZVzsOtJBOJutIyxon_NuVCEXkRA/viewform?usp=header

Later this week:
SUNDAY: Groundwork 101, $50pp
TUESDAY: Science-based management and nutrition, $28pp

02/24/2025

Beat the winter blues! ❄️ We're hosting a series of fun, science-based equestrian workshops to get us through the last few weeks of winter.

Sessions will be hosted by Issy in Sherborn, MA ( The Stables at Green Acres Farm), with Empirical Equestrian horses. They will be led in small groups (2-10 people) to maximize learning and hands-on participation, so reserve your spots now!

Prices vary between sessions. Discount for Empirical Equestrian community, but open to the general public -- bring your friends!

Sign ups will open on a rolling basis so check back often! Next 4 sessions are open now ⬇️

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdas70XRujNA-G7OYqeb3kZVzsOtJBOJutIyxon_NuVCEXkRA/viewform?usp=sharing

02/24/2025

Just checking in on fellow New England equestrians. 👋 How you holding up?
This field has been our saving grace all winter long but especially during the ice age that has been the last 2 weeks 🥶

📸

02/07/2025

You can understand a lot about an animal’s behavior by examining its evolutionary history. In the case of modern horses, it’s really important to remember when working work with them that they have only been domesticated for about 5000 years, which is thousands of years after the domestication of dogs, cattle, pigs, sheep and goats. 5000 years is a drop in the hat for equines, who diverged from other mammalian species 4 million years ago.

For most of their evolutionary history, equines were the size of miniature horses or even smaller, and therefore highly susceptible to predation. They survived like most prey animals, by strength of numbers in open terrain, keen sensory abilities, and excellent flight responses.

A modern horse, such as Wynston, an 1800 lb Percheron cross shown here, still has the behavioral predispositions of his tiny ancestors. He has no idea that he could physically dominate pretty much any living thing in Massachusetts. Instead, he assumes that most strange noises or movements are predators coming to eat him. It is only with training that he has learned to suppress his flight response.

Now imagine from a horse’s perspective, being asked to go into an enclosed box with minimal view of his surroundings, by himself, with no escape route. I.e. a stall. This is not a horse’s idea of “cozy,” it is our idea. But, because they are such incredibly trusting and adaptable animals, they routinely do this, and many other unnatural things for us.

For more on horse evolution: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5068837/

02/04/2025

We’re hiring! 🤩🤩🤩
Empirical Equestrian is a community-centered boarding, training, and lesson barn looking for horse care help. Multiple days and times available — let us know what sounds good to you!

Riding & educational opportunities for the right candidate 🐴 We are focused on eventing, but welcome people from all disciplines and backgrounds.

01/01/2025

We can use the wisdom of an old horse. Release the old horses and follow them, and thereby reach the right road. -Guan Zhong, Chinese politician and scholar (725-645 BC)

Happy new years! Sharing some of our favorite memories from 2024. This is the tip of the iceberg, what you don’t see (and hardly ever see on social media), are the hours of blood, sweat, and tears behind these photos. Caring for horses’ physical and mental well-being properly (and not just keeping them locked away like pieces of sporting equipment), is incredibly demanding, unglamorous work, especially in New England. I am so lucky that my love of horses has led to me finding a community of fellow horse lovers, who share the physical labor and support each other emotionally when things get tough.

12/14/2024

Happy ! Some moments from the Empirical Equestrian ponies over the past few weeks 🐴 are you a Merlin or a Frankie?

12/06/2024

Friday Fact-

To the naked eye, horses are mature at 2-3 years of age. X-rays also show that their bones are fully formed at this time, which has led to the common practice of starting horses under saddle at this age and is even the basis for racing horses of this age. However, post-mortem examinations of equine skeletons from horses that died at a variety of ages have found that their spinal processes (parts of their vertebrae that connect to ligaments and tendons) are not fully formed until between 4.9 and 7.2 years depending on the individual horse and specific region of the spine. Radiographs have a hard time capturing detailed images of the spinal processes, due to how fine they are, so radiographic studies used to determine the right age to start horses may not be that reliable.

That being said, there is also a lot of data that shows free movement and even training under saddle in horses 3 and younger increases their resilience to tendon and ligament injuries in their legs. All of this to say, exercise is helpful and very important for developing young equines. But pushing them up the levels.. probably not so much. And continual training without a rider is probably equally, if not more important for their development.

I’ve been dismayed while marketing a 5 year old horse for sale at how many people have been confused as to why he was not started until 4 years old, and why he’s barely been jumped, and why his gaits under saddle are still developing. It’s certainly hard to compete with people selling 5 year olds with tons of experience jumping 3’+ courses or showing 3rd level. But there are no studies yet telling us what the effect of intense training in various disciplines at 4 or 5 years old is on a horse’s overall career, and such a study is badly needed. Just because a horse *can* do something, doesn’t mean he should be asked to.

https://avmajournals.avma.org/downloadpdf/view/journals/ajvr/58/10/ajvr.1997.58.10.1083.pdf

Thanks to flatlands photography for this gorgeous photo of my 5 yo gelding, Nash! He has shown all the scope and bravery to move up the levels and jumps 3’6 gates for fun in turnout, but he will be staying at 2’6 for at least another year.

11/22/2024

Friday Fact- Horses have an advanced sense of hearing fairly similar to that of humans. They also use auditory signals (whinnying, sighing, grunting, squealing, screaming, etc) as one of their primary forms of social communication similar to human beings. Because of this, researchers have hypothesized that music may elicit emotional responses in horses, similar to what it’s intended to do in human beings. Research in this area is fairly new, but a couple studies including the one below indicate that classical music may soothe horses. This study in particular found that classical music significantly decreased stereotypic behaviors such as cribbing. If you’ve tried playing music for your horses, we’d love to hear if you noticed any change in their behavior!

Not music related- but we’ve noticed that Ollie gets very excited when he hears the sounds of waves before seeing the ocean, and he also has the cutest ears :)

To read more:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Xin-Huo/publication/351281339_Effects_of_playing_classical_music_on_behavior_of_stabled_horses/links/608f81fe299bf1ad8d729e3f/Effects-of-playing-classical-music-on-behavior-of-stabled-horses.pdf

10/27/2024

Big thanks to Course Brook Farm for hosting the Halloween schooling trials! They were a great wrap to the 2024 show season. I’m so impressed with all of our horses and riders who attended- great riding by the riders and 3 wonderful horses who tried their hearts out and could not have been better behaved . Big congrats to Mackenzie and Ollie for winning their class, and Jillian and Ranger also placed 2nd in their class and Carley and Frankie 3rd in their first outing at beginner novice and Emily for her first show in over 10 years!

And thanks to everyone in our community who makes showing possible by helping care for the horses at home and helping each other out at shows. The success of our riders/horses is a wonderful reflection of the strength of our community and the hard work everyone has put in to keep our horses happy/thriving!

10/26/2024

Who let the dogs out?! 🐶
Our farm, The Stables at Green Acres Farm, hosted the Norfolk Hunt Club on the perfect fall day. Some of our own EE riders joined the hunt: Jillian & Ranger and Brianna & Merlin 🐴💚 Have you ever hunted?

📸: Alyssa Osterhoff

10/20/2024

Happy Fall :)

10/13/2024

⚠️High vis reminder!⚠️

Who doesn’t love leaf peeping from horseback? 🍁 Trail season is also hunting season, so remember to don your high visibility gear like Marshy, Ranger, and Moo 🐮 when venturing outside the ring this fall.

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https://www.equinenow.com/farm/empirical-equestrian.htm

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Videos

Springtime naps just hit different at Empirical Equestrian. #equestrian #farmlife #horses #mudseason

Adventures of Captain! We haven't found anything he CAN'T do yet.

SJ & XC compilation

Novice/BN packer available for on farm lease in Sherborn, MA: Frankie has extensive experience at the Novice and BN levels in recognized eventing, and would be a super fun step-up horse for a capable teen or adult with some eventing experience. She is forward thinking, but incredibly safe and will absolutely take care of her rider. She also loves hacking out on trails and being groomed and doted on, she’s an absolute barn favorite and a one in a million mare. PM for more info!

Friday Fact: People sometimes wonder why Ollie wears a nose net attached to his bridle year-round. Ollie is one of the 1% of horses who have a condition called Trigeminal Mediated Headshaking. This is a syndrome that involves nerve pain, similar to sciatica in people, except it happens on horses’ faces- ouch! It is not understood what causes the condition, which is often made worse by sunlight. However, a nose net, which Ollie is modeling here, provides relief in 25% of cases, and thankfully Ollie is one of those cases! When I first adopted Ollie 2 years ago, his head-shaking would be quite bad in the sun and he would shove people a lot with his nose, which I think was a related behavior. Over time, as he has gotten stronger and more fit, the head-shaking has all but disappeared, and he’s becoming quite the fancy pony! Thank you to NEER North for bringing him into my life, he is the bestest boy. To read more about Trigeminal Mediated Headshaking: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6330979/#:~:text=Trigeminal%2Dmediated%20headshaking%20is%20a,sufficient%20to%20require%20veterinary%20attention.

The ponies having some fun in the jump field with our items repurposed from the Sherborn town dump!

Nash was a superstar for his first cross country school. He seems to have a little bit of scope :) Thanks Stephie Baer for the clinic! #noscopenohope #babyhorses

One way of teaching a horse impulsion without the use of force! What horse will give you his best work doing circles in an indoor day after day? Maybe there are exceptions, but I haven’t met one yet who doesn’t benefit from getting out of the ring. Horses weren’t designed to continuously move in repetitive circles. Ollie & Nash, Crowe’s Pasture, Dennis.

Empirical Equestrian- Issy Cless

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