The Tunnel/Lane

WHO the exercise is for:

Everyone! Especially horses who tend to drift on a straight line, or who weave around when you transition paces.

HOW to set it up:

Put 4 trotting poles a long distance apart (usually about 1.7m for horses), leave a short gap, then put an additional 4 trotting poles a short distance apart (about 1.2m). After this leave a few strides space then put a narrow faced fence (a 44-gallon drum on it’s side is great) with poles/wings forming a narrow race. The race shouldn’t be smaller than 1m wide, and can be much wider the first few times you try the exercise.

WHAT to do:

This is a trot exercise. Approach in a very forward trot over the first 4 poles, then adjust to a very collected trot for the second set of poles. After this you will need to drive forward again to push your horse through the lane and over the narrow jump (you may want to trot this on greenies, or the first few times you attempt the exercise).

WHY we do it:

We want to be able to make quick changes to our horses stride when jumping and this grid certainly has a lot of practise for that. It also introduces the idea of keeping your horse straight as you make these adjustments (many horses, especially greenies, are prone to weaving a little when we ask for these types of transitions right in front of jumps).

MORE tips:

On very green horses you might like to try this exercise with evenly spaced poles before the jump (and no space between the last pole and beginning of the lane), this will help you achieve a really straight line without the confusion of transitions between collected and forward trot. You can also use a set-up like this to introduce new jumps (Liverpool, bright poles etc) as the lane discourages the horse from running out.