Mike is a genius

Tonight was my second lesson with Mike, about a month after my first one.
It was the best ride I have ever had on Willig, the entire time I've owned him (which is just about a year and a half now), although we spent pretty much 30 straight minutes riding in a tiny circle around Mike at the trot.
The short version is: I have not been communicating properly with Willig, and Mike knows how to do it and is good at telling me how to tell Willig.
The long version:
We started by checking my tack and the bits. The skinnier bit should have been more severe, so it doesn't make much sense how I lost steering and brakes with it. Next lesson I am going to switch to it for the lesson and see how he does. For now, I'm going to keep riding in the Mylar Level 1.
Then I had a few questions about my position (the balancing blocks) because I feel like I'm too far forward (not enough on the two back legs, but on the front leg of the stool). It's a moving target, but it should be pretty evenly distributed.
Mike watched us trot for a few minutes (the only other time he's seen me ride was when my hip and shoulder were excruciating). (Side note here - at the NWEC derby I introduced myself to the couple who caught Willig at AF at the clinic. The guy said he saw me falling and that it was one of the most spectacular falls he'd ever seen, and he knew I was going to the hospital as I was going off because I was so high in the air, then bounced. He was amazed I could walk a month later and nothing was broken.)
Mike said that my lower leg (the back, near my heel) is too busy - it touches, touches, touches Willig and so he tunes me out and then doesn't pay attention to anything I ask of him). This requires a new lower leg position which feels odd and awkward, which means I just need to practice it and get used to it. I can still use my upper lower leg (below the knee) and my foot for a hard squeeze, but I have to hold it off him further all the time.
Then we started to work on my position, and Willig, out of absolutely nowhere, took off bucking, totally, totally naughty. I was so surprised I didn't punish him, and Mike was surprised too, I think. (Suspiciously, this is the second time he's bucked majorly since I fell off on the big huge bucks at the clinic.)
So instead of going straight to working on my position, we went to making Willig work, which ended up being an amazing experience for me. Actually, first Mike showed me how to stiff arm jab him in the mouth when he's terrible, and said I need to get his head in the air faster (hands up) to keep him from keeping going and eventually getting me off.
Ok, so first Mike held the reins and showed me the difference between rounded back/hunched shoulders (Willig can pull me out of position with barely any effort) and straight back/pushed out belly (Willig can hardly pull me out of position at all). We did a tiny amount of position work in a two point, and how if you push your butt back - like you're pushing it over the back of the saddle - your position (closing over your hips) actually gets really super solid, in contrast to if you round over his neck, where then you're just topsy turvy.
So then I put my hands on each side of his withers and held them completely solid and then tapped tapped tapped ("the police knocking at the door") with my leg until Willig gave with his head. Then I released the tapping and hard hands until he flung his head in the air, then I started tapping and hard hands again.
Then we did it at the walk, and I basically learned I have no capacity to walk and chew gum at the same time.
Then we did it at the trot, and a few miraculous things happened:
- Willig breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, you're finally RIDING me. Thank god."
- I sort of got it together and could totally, absolutely FEEL the difference in him - not just in his nice soft back, but in his nice, calm demeanor.
- We were a team! It was fabulous. I just went around grinning.
- He is responding to me. Each time I loosened to try to readjust my position, his head flung up (well, most of the beginning, then he "got it" and his head lowered when he had a chance), so all along it's been because I'm spastic up there on top of him and he doesn't know what I want him to do.
- I need to work on the release/praise/pat and then immediate firmness when he disobeys. I'm slow on the draw.
Willig took the bit and chewed it and lowered his head (we even did some stretchy circles!) and quit flinging his head around, and so then we:
- Bent to the inside. Interestingly, without his head flinging all around, I was able to notice he preferentially bends to the right.
- Worked, very slightly, on transitions. Again, I "throw him away", and so my job was to keep it all together and regroup and do it again if I messed up.
- Then started working on me. No news to me, I can't sit the trot. It makes Mike cringe. I also pull my heels up, and so I have to push-push-push them down, and think toes raised too. I click instead of using my leg or whip. And, the canter, which I told him I've been having problems with, was still a struggle. (It's weird, because it's so nice on Merc.) I don't "wipe" the saddle with my seat, so then we tried some just seat exercises (hold the pommel and pull myself down and towards it while looking up at the rafters - then lifting my legs off and letting them relax back down). I can feel the seat then, but as soon as we canter, I lock up my knees and back. So then we tried to think legs open and wiping the seat, and although it felt like my knees were flapping around on the front of the saddle, I could feel the proper seat in my hips. Mike says we can fix my knees later, but to work on my hips.
So ...
that's not all of it, but it's a huge amount for me to work on and practice before our next lesson. I'm hopeful again now that Willig and I can be a team. I just didn't know how to ask him properly, and he was really great and willing once I got the hang of how to do it - he was a totally different horse and an absolute delight to ride. I really like Mike's descriptive style and corrections, and how amazing it feels when we do it properly.
It made my entire day - possibly the whole month!
(Oh yeah, so just to put things in perspective, we still can't do transitions, canter, sitting trot, or, oh, anything that's even remotely dressage. But I am so excited to have a great trainer again. The sky's the limit!)