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Horseytalk.net Special Interview
Allyssia Bryant
Fifteen-year-old Allyssia Bryant mucks out her horses’ stalls,
feeds them, grooms them and teaches them to move as one with
her.
All for two reasons: She loves them and is planning a career in the equine field.
“I’ve always loved horses. They’re kids,” Bryant of Livermore Falls said Friday. “You’ve got to feed them. You’ve got to take care of them, and if you don’t, you’ll hear from them."
Dressed in a black-quilted jacket, jeans and riding boots, Bryant stood within a moderate-sized barn with room enough for two large stalls, a tack room and a good-sized work area. Hay is stored in the loft.
Rebel, 22, an Arabian, and Tee, 6, a brown-and-white paint, share those quarters. Lakota, a 3-year-old paint mare, is kept in a smaller barn. But since both geldings were outside this day, Lakota was in their barn checking out one of their stalls.
Bryant likes nothing more than going riding with her horses.
“It’s freeing. It’s enjoyment to go out there and be with your horse,” Bryant said, her dark-brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. “It’s venting. If you’ve got problems, you talk out your problems.”
They don’t talk back.
It’s not just pleasure for her; it’s thinking ahead to adulthood and her plans to pursue a profession working with horses.
She is in charge of her education. She is home-schooled and works for four to five hours a day on schoolwork, she said. Not including her chores.
The sophomore plans to graduate next year. Along the way, she's incorporated several aspects of her work with her horses into her coursework. She is a working student at Welcome Home Farm in Greene, where she cleans the barn and trains younger horses.
She’s training in many styles — western, English, jumping, trail riding, gaming and more.
“My specialty is dressage," Bryant said.
Dressage is the training of 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.
Once a horse's training has reached a certain level, she takes it to shows to demonstrate her skills and connection to her horses. She has earned dozens of awards.
She is a member of the Ellis River Riders in Andover and earned two of their most prestigious awards in 2010.
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.
The second award means she and her horse gained the highest combined points in grooming, showmanship, western and English championship.
She did it using two different horses.
Bryant is taking the dedication and hard work in stride as she works toward her ultimate goal.
This year she and her horses will be competing in the Maine dressage circuit.
“My favorite part is just seeing the results of all the training and all the hard work, the bonds and spending time with them,” she said.