Dressage Wiki The independent dressage encyclopedia

Passage

By the Dressage Wiki Editorial Board · Updated 9 July 2026

Contents
  1. The FEI standard
  2. Where passage appears
  3. The passage tours at Grand Prix
  4. What judges reward and penalise
  5. How passage is trained
  6. Passage and the horse’s aptitude
  7. Passage in the horse’s development
  8. Sources

Passage is a very elevated, very collected, cadenced trot, characterised by a pronounced engagement of the hindquarters, accentuated flexion of the knees and hocks, and a prolonged moment of suspension: each diagonal pair of legs lifts, hangs, and returns to the ground with spring. Under the FEI’s specification, the toe of the raised foreleg lifts until the forearm approaches the horizontal, and the toe of the raised hind foot reaches about the height of the fetlock joint of the opposite hind leg. Passage enters competition at Intermediate II and, together with piaffe, defines the Grand Prix test.

The FEI standard

The definition makes passage the trot at the extreme of collection in motion. Where the collected trot shortens and elevates the working trot, passage transforms it: the tempo slows, the flexion of the joints increases, the moment of suspension lengthens until the horse appears to float from diagonal to diagonal, and the hindquarters carry visibly more of the weight. As with all good trot work, the back remains supple and swinging, the contact soft, and the rhythm absolutely even — the FEI’s educational material summarises the ideal as a very elevated and cadenced trot with clear suspension, remaining soft through the back.

Cadence is the operative word. Elevation without an even, unhurried beat is not passage but effort; the movement’s identity lies in the combination of height, slowness and regularity, delivered with visible ease.

Where passage appears

Passage enters the tests at Intermediate II, after reduced introductions in Intermediate A and B, and runs through the Grand Prix, the Grand Prix Special and the Freestyle. At Grand Prix the passage tours, long stretches of the movement on straight and curved lines, are marked with coefficients, and the transitions into and out of piaffe are scored as movements in their own right. In the Freestyle, passage is compulsory at Grand Prix level, and choreography can raise the difficulty further: half-passes ridden in passage are among the combinations the degree-of-difficulty mark rewards.

The passage tours at Grand Prix

At Grand Prix the passage is ridden in tours: sustained stretches on the long sides, the diagonal and the centreline, interleaved with the piaffes and punctuated by transitions the test sheet marks explicitly — into and out of piaffe, and directly between passage and the extended trot, the widest single contrast of collection the sport asks in one movement pair. The tours carry coefficients, and their length is the point: a horse can produce ten good passage steps on adrenaline, and only genuine carrying power sustains cadence and suspension down a sixty-metre long side twice in a test. Judges accordingly mark the tour’s consistency, not its best moment, and the remarks on a Grand Prix sheet name where in the tour the cadence changed.

What judges reward and penalise

  • Cadence and regularity. The even, slow, two-beat rhythm sustained across the whole tour. Any unevenness between diagonals (one hind leg stepping shorter or lower than the other) is the movement’s cardinal fault.
  • Suspension. The prolonged airborne moment that separates passage from an elevated collected trot. Flat passage without suspension is marked as exactly that.
  • Engagement and uphill balance. The hindquarters lowered and carrying; a passage balanced on the forehand fails the definition regardless of knee action.
  • Suppleness and ease. A swinging back, a quiet mouth, and the impression that the horse offers the movement. Tension stiffens the picture instantly and depresses the harmony marks with it.
  • Straightness and line. The movement held on the prescribed line, without the haunches drifting.

The characteristic faults have names. Balancé, the swinging of the forehand or the whole horse from side to side with each stride, is the best known, reading as a lateral rocking that betrays a straightness or evenness gap. Unlevel steps behind, an irregular or hurried beat, loss of suspension, and visible tension complete the standard list. One fault runs in the opposite direction: the passagey trot, in which a horse offers passage-like elevation uninvited in the extended or medium work, is penalised there as an evasion: impressive-looking suspension in the wrong place is a submission problem, not a bonus.

How passage is trained

Passage is conventionally developed after, or alongside, the piaffe work, from one of two directions. From below, the collected trot is compressed and animated, often through transitions and half-halts out of very collected work or from the half-steps of the piaffe development, letting the horse rise into suspension as the carrying power allows. From the piaffe itself, the horse is asked to travel forward out of the cadenced steps, carrying the elevation with it. Which route suits which horse is a matter of professional judgment: horses with natural suspension often find passage before piaffe, and horses with quick, active hind legs the reverse, one reason the transitions between the two are the last element to become reliable.

As with piaffe, the abort criterion defines sound work: the moment the rhythm breaks, the back tightens or the horse leans on the hand, the movement is abandoned for forward work and rebuilt later. Passage held together by the rider’s strength is visible to any panel and marked accordingly.

Passage and the horse’s aptitude

Passage sits with piaffe behind the sport’s biggest selection gate, but the aptitudes are not identical. Natural suspension and cadence, qualities visible in a young horse’s trot, predict passage more directly than piaffe, while piaffe leans harder on the willingness to contain impulsion in place. Horses exist with brilliant passage and laboured piaffe, and the reverse; the Grand Prix requires both, plus the transitions, which is why the complete high-school package remains rare and why it anchors the top of the price structure documented in the cost section. Within a pedigree, trot mechanics and natural cadence are among the traits breeders select for most deliberately, as covered in the bloodlines section.

Passage in the horse’s development

Passage belongs to the last chapter of the education. The preparatory qualities are visible years earlier — natural cadence and suspension in the trot are among the aspects young horse classes mark directly, and among the traits pedigrees predict best — but the movement itself is conventionally developed at eight to ten, in parallel with the piaffe, through the Medium Tour year and into the first Grand Prix starts. A horse with brilliant natural suspension is not thereby a passage horse: the movement is the collection, and the suspension merely decorates it.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

What is passage in dressage? A very elevated, very collected, cadenced trot with a prolonged moment of suspension: each diagonal pair of legs lifts and hangs before returning to the ground, with the forearm approaching horizontal and pronounced engagement of the hindquarters, per the FEI definition.

At what level is passage required? Passage enters in reduced form in the Intermediate A and B tests, properly at Intermediate II, and runs with coefficients through the Grand Prix, the Grand Prix Special and the Grand Prix Freestyle. It is never asked below the FEI Medium Tour.

What is balancé in passage? The characteristic lateral fault: the forehand (or the whole horse) rocks from side to side with each stride instead of travelling straight. It reads as a straightness or evenness gap and is marked down accordingly.

What is a passagey trot? Passage-like elevation offered where it is not asked — typically in the medium or extended trot. Judges treat it as an evasion of the forward work rather than a display of talent, and mark the intended movement down.

Is passage faster or slower than the trot? Slower in tempo and shorter in ground covered, but not in energy: the slow, elevated beat is produced by full impulsion redirected upward into suspension rather than forward into ground cover. A passage that is merely slow, without the spring, is marked as lacking impulsion.

Which comes first in training, piaffe or passage? It varies by horse. Horses with natural suspension often find passage first; horses with quick, active hind legs often find piaffe first. The transitions between the two are conventionally the last element of the Grand Prix education to become reliable.