GREENE – Seventeen-year-old Allyssia Bryant of Livermore Falls, an aspiring equestrian athlete, rode her 8-year-old paint named Tee around the indoor training arena to the sound of classical music.

The riding pattern changed to figure-eights as they went about their routine Thursday at Welcome Home Farm in Greene.

Riding horses is her passion, she said.

Bryant has been specializing in dressage, the “art of riding and training a horse in a manner that develops obedience, flexibility, and balance” for the past nine years. She has been working under the guidance of trainer Sam Morrison, owner of the farm for four years. Morrison has been a trainer for about 55 years with about 25 years of it in Greene.

She trains in many styles, including western, English, jumping, trail riding and gaming.

“My specialty is dressage,” Bryant said.

Dressage is training a horse to carry out a series of precise, controlled movements in response to minimal signals from its rider, who uses the lightest possible touch of leg, movement of weight or voice.

“It takes steady work, patience and balance,” Bryant said previously.

Bryant has set goals for where she wants to be in five years and in 25 years as an equestrian.

She is intent on being an assistant trainer for a big dressage farm or have a horse farm of her own and teaching and training others in five years. In 25 years, she wants to be able to show competitively in the Grand Prix Circuit, the highest dressage competition.

Bryant is currently saving and raising money to attend a dressage school, put on by Dressage4Kids Emerging Dressage Athlete Program, from Jan. 4 to March 28, 2013, in Wellington, Fla.

“I want to train with one of the best dressage trainers in the world, Lendon Gray,” Bryant said. Gray competed in two Olympics and world championships.

Bryant needs to raise $7,500 for the horse, not including shipping Tee or transportation, housing and food for herself, she said.

She works at Long Green Variety in Livermore and is one of 10 girls from around the country to be selected for the inaugural winter training opportunity at Hampton Green Farm in Florida.

Her father, Jeffrey Bryant, a selectman in Livermore Falls, has put a trailer out for an ongoing bottle collection at the beginning of the family’s driveway on Mercier Lane, which is off Route 133, also known as Park Street. It is located after PalletOne, formerly Isaacson’s Lumber.

She also plans to sell chocolate, have a 50/50 raffle and will put on a dressage schooling/fun show on Oct. 21 at Welcome Home Farm at 8 Gilbert St. in Greene.

Classes during the schooling/fun show will begin at 9 a.m. They will include introductory-training level, western dressage, trail class, dressage seat equitation and a few fun classes, Allyssia Bryant said.

The cost of the classes will be $15 for one, or three for $40.

The entry fees and profit from the food table will help offset the cost of the training program in Florida.

Bryant is already an award-winning equestrian. In 2010 when she brought home two belt buckles as winner of the Gymkhana Versatility Award and Open Versatility Award. The first one means she achieved the highest combined points in versatility events — cloverleaf barrels, poles, hourglass and lancers.

Anyone interested in helping her reach her goal may send donations to Allyssia Bryant, 33 Mercier Lane, Livermore Falls, ME 04254.

dperry@sunjournal.com