Pedro de Mendoza, an importer of Andalusians from Spain to Buenos Aires in 1535, is shown in a sketch riding a horse in an enclosure resembling a passage. King Frederik II, who set up the Royal Frederiksburg Stud in Denmark in 1562 is said to have endorsed “the art of schooling the horse on the straights”.

The Kentucky Saddlebred and its evolution in the southern states of America in the 19th century also seems to walk a path with the concept of the passage, possibly the reason why many Saddle Horse trainers today still use, or have heard of the concept of the passage, although it is relatively unknown in other disciplines.

But regardless of its hazy origins, the so-called “passage”, “jog track”, “drukgang” or “lane” as it is also known, can be a valuable tool in training any horse, no matter what discipline he is destined to partake in.

The dimensions

The passage is a rectangular working arena, traditionally enclosed with a solid surround, measuring roughly 8 x 60 m, although there are no fixed measurements.

Enclosing the sides of the passage is preferable, since it helps with the exercises to be performed within it, but you can create a “passage” almost anywhere, from using the longside or centerline of a dressage arena, to finding a level, straight footpath on an outride and mentally creating a start and finish point.

Often our arenas are waterlogged in summer with the rain, putting to an end any noble ideals you may have had of schooling your horse. Even if you can just find a dry 2 x 40 m line to ride on, the exercises the passage can offer you, will allow you not only to ride, but constructively school your horse in a small space.

Riding the pass

Each length of the passage you ride is called a “pass”, and by riding up and down the length of the passage, you can perform various movements to develop your horse’s suppleness, strength, fitness, agility and make him super attentive to the rider!

At the end of each pass, the horse must turn either by walking a tight half circle, doing a turn on the forehand, turn on the haunches or spin. Remember to turn equally in both directions to avoid one sidedness. A horse trotting or cantering his passes knows he has to stop at the end, so he tends to be easier to collect and push on safely. A newly backed horse would also feel more secure in the smaller space, and if he does run off, would be easier to stop at the end of the passage than in a larger arena.

Since you have to stop at the end of each pass and turn around, you are forced to do frequent transitions followed by a tight turn, which is good for developing collection, hindquarter engagement and strength, and attentiveness to the aids. The guidance of the long sides helps to keep the horse straight during the turns and passes.

At the walk, tight figures-of-eight and serpentines can be executed down the passage, interspersed with periods of walking straight and flexing the horse laterally, where the walls would help to keep a green or stiff horse straight. Play with variations within the gaits: At the trot the horse can be pushed forward into an extended trot and then collected back, all the time using the long sides to help you keep him straight when increasing the impulsion and demands of collection.

The work done during a full pass happens quickly (it takes about 20-30 seconds to trot down the length of the track) after which a “break” is given by the need to turn around. So the demands made on the horse to execute a spectacular extended trot down the full pass, ends shortly after it began with a halt and a pat, teaching him to stay enthusiastic with each pass and respond quickly to your aids.

Don’t be boring

Each pass should demand something different, start with easier work to warm him up, and progress to harder movements. Don’t become repetitive, perform one pass at a walk, one at a canter, one at a trot, then canter again … avoid just mechanically trotting up and down, boring both you and the horse.

Throwing in a reinback at the ends of the track, or even in the middle of a pass, keeps the horse thinking and on his hind quarters, as would a walk pirouette in the middle of a canter pass. Simple changes and flying changes at the canter can be practiced here too, working on the straightness and fluency of transitions. When practicing canter-walk-canter transitions on a pass, ask for specific leads each time.

Lateral work throws an exciting dimension into the passage. At any gait, lateral work can be performed either from long side to long side (along the narrow width of the passage in a zigzagging “V” shape), or short side to short side (along the centre line of the passage that runs parallel to the long side).

Any lateral movements can be used, but the leg yield and half-pass are two common ones. In order to work laterally long side to long side, you would keep the horse roughly parallel to the long sides, moving the lines of the zigzag at 45º to the long sides in order to move forwards down the passage.

You do not work on the centre line, you would half-pass left from the right to the left long side, and then half-pass right from the left to the right long side repeatedly, until you reach the end of the passage, or decide to trot forward straight along the centre line again.

In order to work laterally short side to short side, you keep the horse’s body moving on the centre line, but alternate a leg yield left with a leg yield right repeatedly until you reach the end of the pass. Alternately, trot straight down the pass until you are halfway, then do a half pass left down the centre line to the end.

Moving from a leg yield right into a half-pass left while maintaining your rhythm and direction of movement on the centre line helps you to refine your aids, teach your horse suppleness, obedience and balance. Lateral work of this nature can tend to fizzle the horse's impulsion down, so doing one pass lateral work, followed by a halt, turn and dramatic trot extension, will help to revive any lost impulsion.

Work both sides

Remember with your lateral work to work both sides equally – a half-pass left and a leg-yield right should be followed up by a half-pass right and a leg yield left on the next pass. Don’t forget to give the horse regular mental “breaks” every now and then, allow a good pass to be followed by a full pass of walk on a loose rein. This will function as a reward and rest period after such intense work, especially if the horse gets excitable.

People who use the passage regularly find that the surround of the passage helps to focus the horse and has more value as a mental “restraining” aid than a physical one. If the horse can see where the track of the pass is, and travels along it a few times, he is mentally prepared to move straight and turn at the end, allowing you to push up his level of impulsion and collection without exciting him to the extent that doing the same thing in a large open space would have. With this in mind, expressive extension along with more collected work can be practiced.

If the horse starts anticipating the halts at the end of the pass, and wants to halt too early, do not halt at the end – choose instead to walk a half a circle without stopping. Similarly, if he approaches the end of the pass, anticipates the coming turn and subsequent moving off by not wanting to go to the end and spinning around before you ask him to turn (“cutting his corner”), then ride him right to the end, halt, relax your reins and stand there for a while without turning around.

Enjoy the ride!

If you keep your sessions interesting, you’ll soon find that the horse enjoys it, and wants to start anticipating the next move, so being one step ahead of him mentally will have to be top priority!

Remember, various in-hand exercises can be worked on here too, from the basics of teaching a horse to trot and halt next to you, reinback, and basic lateral work, to the more advanced high school movements like piaffe, passage, terre-a-terre (a very collected canter on the spot), the levade, capriole and courbette. The western rider can practice his sliding stop and a jumper can place trotting and cantering poles along the track, possibly building up to a small gymnastic exercise.

The combination of movements you can use in the passage are almost endless, so don’t let the exercise degenerate into a pointless ambling up and down! Make it an exciting, interesting schooling session by thinking ahead!