When Linnea Seaman opened Center Line Dressage South, she brought a touch of class to Suwannee County. Seaman is an International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI) rider and competitor, a United States Dressage Federation (USDF) bronze and silver medallist and totally committed to classical dressage.

“I love the harmony of two living things coming together, dancing with perfect rhythm and harmony,” Seaman said about why her chosen equine discipline is dressage. “It’s euphoric.”

Before Seaman took up dressage, she rode hunter/jumpers in Birdsboro, Pa. Then she was “smitten with the challenge of dressage.”

Seaman has been riding since she was seven, and she is now 53. She said she learned from all her trainers. “I am the product of all my trainers,” Seaman said. “I’ve gotten bits and pieces from all of them. Each trainer gave me a piece of the puzzle. It’s the journey that makes the puzzle complete.”

A web definition of dressage says it’s a French word that means training. A discipline of riding that is sometimes referred to as ballet on horseback. A good example would be the Austrian Lippizaner horses. It involves subtle control and compulsory movements. The Grand Prix level is the Olympic level and is the highest level of dressage a horse and rider can achieve.

Seaman’s horse Ikon, a 19-year old Trakaener, currently is schooling at the Grand Prix level. At the Grand Prix level, horses perform flying lead changes at every stride, the piaffe (trotting in place) and the passage, a very elevated measured trot where the horse and rider seem to float across the ground, along with many other movements and gaits.

Seaman, barely over five-feet tall, lightly stepped aboard her 17-hand Ikon at her training facility located out Mattress Factory Road and demonstrated some of these gaits in the dressage arena located at Center Line South. She and Ikon seemed to be perfectly in tune with one another as she guided the huge animal around the arena.

Center Line Dressage South is in Suwannee County. There is also a Center Line North and that facility is in Birdsboro, Pa. In the summers Seaman will run the Pennsylvania training center and in the winter she is here in Suwannee County. While Seaman is in Birdsboro, Richard Bauder, currently head rider at Valhalla Farms in Wellborn, runs the center.

Bauder met Seaman in Pennsylvania two years ago. The dressage bug bit him, and Seaman has been coaching him since.

Center Line South offers boarding, training and lessons. Lessons can get the beginner started or offer advanced training to those wishing to expand their knowledge of dressage and classical riding.

Teaching is Seaman’s greatest love. She also judges and holds clinics, but loves to teach the most. “I love helping people enjoy their relationship with their horse,” Seaman said.

A student, Lisa Bolen, visiting Center Line for the weekend all the way from Georgia, said, “It was easy to click with her, and I was able to take something home.”

For more information about Center Line Dressage call Linnea Seaman at 386-364-6652. She will be glad to introduce you to the classical art of dressage.

Janet Schrader may be reached by calling 1-386-362-1734 ext. 134 or by emailing janet.schrader@gaflnews.com.