Theme of last lessons: Lower leg

I am woefully behind in my Willig news and my lesson reports, which as it turns out, makes it very difficult for me to remember my take away messages from the lessons.
First, the barn news. Willig has had a few spotted hives on two or three occassions now. Oddly, they seem to go away when I ride, and they don't seem to bother him, but they're bothering me as an ominous sign they might be coming back. He also seems to have, if he has a couple of days off from riding, puffy lower legs. Odd.
He has continued to rub his tail, and I've just about exhausted the things to try (MTG, that sweet itch spray stuff, betadine soaking, iodine shampoo, regular shampoo, lotion, panacur powerpac, and now baby shampoo followed by aloe). Today, however, I cleaned his sheath - something I was trying to wait on until I was going to bathe him to clip him (next weekend, probably, and in phases - just not enough hours in the week), but he was actually quite dirty for him. Three beans and a lot of smegma. So if that doesn't clear up the tail itching, then I'm going to have to call the vet.
Second, my last two lessons. Last week I had a great jump lesson with Shannon and a great time watching Mike ride Willig again, and then a half a lesson. Although I remember the Mike lesson as magical, by the next day I had completely forgotten how to do everything he told me (which was getting Willig to lift up into the canter instead of stumble and run into it). This was an unusual amount of forgetting, but I'm trying to take a lot more lessons for the next six months, so we "fixed" it this week. My jump lesson with Shannon was outside, and we continued to work on my lower leg (that dirty stinking moving lower leg), and we took my stirrups up another hole (we actually had to twist them and then I punched a hole after). They are SHORT. And therefore, I feel solid. Willig did great.
Finally, this week's lesson with Mike. Mike helped by giving me the take aways at the end:
1. Work on my lower leg. I hate my lower leg.
2. Work on my following hip. I also hate my stiff, rigid hip. (This is work without stirrups, holding on to the pommel with one hand, and thinking about relaxing my legs and pushing them down and back, while thinking about a headlight on my belt and the bouncing, moving ball.)
3. Work on my half halts (first, though, a forward aid, which I'm also working on - a flutter for an aid instead of the long, steady squeeze where I raise my heel), so I think of Willig rearing, or popping a wheelie on a bike. This is especially easy to work on in canter.
4. Work on Willig's bend/counterbend. In circles, on the straight line, the backward bend, serpentines, and doing a little bit of a side pass (?) coming down the long side. Turns out I'm heavy on my right hand and leg. Coincidence with how Willig "leans" to the left?
Mike also pointed out that Willig has a really good walk (when he is, ahem, moving forward) and that he has been quite sweet about all this "new" stuff.
Until today, when he tried to spook at something (I have no idea what), but thanks to my rotten lower leg (that is a better lower leg than it was a few months ago), which meant I didn't tilt, which meant I kept my rein aids, which meant I was yanking his head to the left as he was trying to buck, which meant the whole thing was over with almost immediately after it started. Nice.
Mike also said it usually takes about a year of work to move up one level, depending on the horse's and the rider's "disabilities". My lower leg is perhaps what he had in mind.
Seriously though, there are two lower leg positions - my jumping position and my dressage position. Dressage is this standing position, where I think from my hip to push my leg back and back and back. What I haven't been doing, it turns out, is straightening my knee (that's how I think of it), so my lower leg comes forward while my thigh is going back. Thinking to straighten my knee makes the whole leg in the right place. My heel always wants to be up and my toe always wants to point out, AND I grip like I'll fly into space if I don't grip with my upper thigh. So one of the many, many checklists in my head is from my hip all the way down to my heel now.
Jumping, on the other hand, is a feeling of pushing my leg out in front of me (and my butt back over the saddle for the "hinge" to close and the position to be solid). Oddly, though, the pushing in front is the same feeling from the knee down - a flattening/straightening of the knee, and that relaxed but pushing down to get the solid heel down feeling. I can only get it if I think "relax."
Willig has been doing great. Today I noticed some floppy ears for me while we were working. I think he actually prefers to work most days of the week (like 6) although he has been working so hard that I've had a couple days when he's so tired I end up giving him the next day off.