Empirical Equestrian- Issy Cless

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.

10/11/2024

Might be biased… but we have the best pics tonight💫 🌌

📸
🦄 queen Frankie

09/27/2024

I’m proud to present Captain, a 5 year old Shire/Thoroughbred cross gelding, for sale to a wonderful home! Captain has been under saddle and in professional training for about 6 months. He has taken really well to dressage and shows enormous potential in this discipline, having won both classes at his very first show and getting the high score of the day for all classes.

Captain has never met a person, horse, or animal of any type that he doesn’t want to be best friends with. He is a big puppy dog and loves attention. He has been used lightly in my lesson program for advanced riders and is sensible and safe (no buck/rear/bolt), but forward thinking, a huge mover, and looks to his rider for confidence, so would do best with someone with experience bringing along young horses.

He has also been lightly started over small fences and has been brave and willing. He is 16.2 and still growing, so jumping has not been a focus of our training but I believe down the road he could also make a lovely low level eventer and/or foxhunter. He has been ridden all over the roads in Amish country, and hacks out well on trails with others. He will hack out solo as well but looks to his rider for confidence in this case. Captain also trailers well and has wonderful ground manners. He is clicker trained and responds well to positive reinforcement.

Asking 25😊😊😊. No off-farm leases or trials. Empirical Equestrian is a brick and mortar entity, located in Sherborn, MA.

Video of Captain: https://youtu.be/97w7UaF2zik?si=ZJfIfRADjO8lM3JK

09/16/2024

Big thanks to CRDA for hosting a schooling show yesterday, and I gotta brag about these two 5 year olds- Captain at his FIRST show getting 2 blues and earning the best open score of the entire day for a championship ribbon. And Ranger at his second show looked absolutely phenomenal with Jillian and won an award for doing the most difficult test of the day! In our warmup a lose horse ran up to Ranger and he just stood there and shrugged 🤷‍♂️.

Ranger is taken, but Captain is available for sale to the right match, info coming soon :)

09/01/2024

Words cannot express how proud I am of this amazing horse. Congratulations to “A Beautiful Mind” AKA Nash on his 1st place with a 65.9 at First Level in his first recognized show. Nash is a coming 5 yo Morgan/Draft/? cross who has come from never being in an arena to this in less than a year, because of his intelligence and heart. I feel so blessed that he failed miserably at being an Amish surrey horse and ended up in my life instead!

Huge thank you to Logan for seeing his potential and giving him a good start, Lainey Johnson for her amazing coaching, and my whole barn family for their support and help positively socializing him so he could perform this way at a show, and my parents for their support through all the ups and downs of being in the equine business. So excited to see what the future brings with him!

08/26/2024

Bittersweet pony party tonight as we prepare to send off , , and onto their next adventures! Merls and Bodhi didn’t mind the extra attention 👀

08/01/2024

We have 1 opening for a working/coop boarder starting in September at a 14 stall facility in Sherborn, MA.

We have a great laid back adult community, amazing turnout, a large outdoor ring with lights that is groomed on a regular basis, a jump field, a lit roundpen, and direct access to trails and conservation land to hack out on. Free choice hay, fresh water at all times, up to 3 feedings a day of owner provided grain or the poulin ration balancer we provide, stalls cleaned daily and paddocks on a regular basis.

We are not fancy, and try to keep things simple (ie minimal blanket changes) and let the horses be horses, but the horses’ happiness is our top priority. At this time we can only take a horse who can turnout with at least one friend, and an owner that is generally able to do at least one weekday morning shift per week plus 1-2 other other ~2 hour shifts per week. Friendly dogs are welcome :) Monthly board depends on exact shifts worked, but would start at around 750 per month, or with 7-8 shifts per week someone could work off all their board.

PM for more info!

07/30/2024

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!

07/24/2024

I’m not going to say that I’m a perfect saint and I’ve never made a mistake with a horse or gotten after a horse too much when they’ve misbehaved dangerously towards me or another person… but 24 lashes with a whip simply because the horse lacks impulsion is absolutely morally abhorrent, and furthermore is fundamentally bad training and will just make this poor horse dislike it’s job even more.

The equestrian community MUST embrace positive reinforcement, and follow in the steps of the zoo/aquarium world and most canine trainers. Little children learning to ride should be taught clicker training first, before putting a crop in their hands. Every trainer should demonstrate a basic understanding of the science behind animal learning. The crop and the whip should only be used as a cue or gentle correction, not as punishment.

Animal rights group Peta has called for equestrian events to be banned from the Olympics after a video emerged showing Charlotte Dujardin whipping a horse

07/22/2024

Amazing weekend at CBF! Congrats to Bri & Merlin, Carley & Frankie, Alyssa & Ollie, Hannah & Wisely, and Taylor & Wyn on great rides and lots of ribbons. Bodhi & Nash also had good outings. Big thanks to everyone who made it possible!

07/19/2024

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.

07/10/2024

Welcome to Captain, an adorable 5 yo shire/TB cross on consignment! He will be available for sale after getting some more training under his belt and some show/off property miles!

07/05/2024

Horse care is a labor of love, and most people who are hired as farm employees and who aren’t actively invested in the horses’ welfare by owning/leasing or lessoning are going to quit or start slacking off. This is why so many boarding barns/lesson programs are closing: between the incredible expenses and not being able to find good help, it’s not worth it. And this is why I have focused on a cooperative boarding model, where boarders and my students are helping with the horse care instead of full time employees. We all take turns with the horse care, so that we all get breaks (I’m lucky to be having a 2 day break right now!).

Horse owners can no longer expect to saddle other people with the care for their horses, and actually receive any kind of decent care (unless they are paying incredibly high boarding fees).

I am incredibly lucky and thankful to have the students and boarders I have who actively contribute to the horse care and the barn environment. Big thanks to all of them!

This is a hard post to write. I thought about sharing this news in a purely positive way. But I think I’d rather be 100% honest. And I’m happy if this leads to a discussion on how our industry can change for the better?

I’ve decided to stop leasing the gorgeous farm where I’ve been for the past few years. I’m no longer going to have horses in full training (which for those who know me, you know that is my absolute love) and just be a freelance instructor teaching a couple days a week in the area.

I sat down and did the math on what my finances would be like if I just taught two days a week and had no expenses outside insurance, my car, memberships, etc. I would make MORE working that little than I do right now. And I run a pretty great program - my barn is always full with a wait list, about half super nice young horses and half FEI horses. My students and I compete a lot, very successfully. But the cost of running a program like this is so high, that even though I am “successful”, I barely make a living wage. I pay my wonderful assistant trainers more than I make (because they 100% deserve that salary and more!) And of course I could raise prices even more, but I think I charge an awful lot, and at the end of the day, I just feel awful about expecting people to pay SO much for a luxurious hobby.

Of course, people don’t go into this business with a dream of making a big profit each year. And that is a legitimate argument - you do this for the love of horses and riding. But when the costs and the stress of running a big barn start piling up, that argument gets pretty tired pretty quickly.

By far the biggest struggle I’ve had over the last few years is keeping good employees. And I know all my fellow barn owners and trainers are struggling as much as I am. I have a few AMAZING employees (endless thanks to Kate Tackett & Nicole Wilbur) and right now my best workers are 15, 16, and 22. So the argument that “kids these days are awful” is not true. But the instances of employees quitting with no notice, being offended at having to physically work hard, having incredibly low standards for the work they do, and outright lying have been more and more and more lately. It’s exhausting, and the fact that I’m paying $20/hour, run a great program, and am STILL getting these kind of workers makes me feel no optimism for the future. 😞

In the past I didn’t pay hardly anyone. I just had working students who worked off their housing, board and training. And that worked much better. But that seems to be a thing of the past? People now expect all that AND $600+ a week. And if my business made so much money that I could do that, I would love to. But the math just flat out doesn’t work.

My social media feeds are FILLED with barns begging for good help. I don’t know what the answer is. But I know I’m at the point where I would like to have the time to look at what else life has to offer. I’ve done this professionally for 20 years (and for fun since I could walk.) It’s a huge deal for me to imagine that I won’t be riding every day here on out. But it’s also incredibly exciting to imagine my life without these stresses. What if I didn’t have to get up at 5:30 and feed and muck because the weekend worker quit at 10pm the night before? Maybe I’ll start a hobby. 🤪 Or maybe I’ll just hang out with my wonderful husband and beautiful kids and have a coffee at the table instead of racing down the road in my car…