1st level - woot woot!

Although I laughed and laughed last week when Mike suggested that I sit the trot while asking Willig to do his working/lengthening trot, it turns out it was only a week away. Honestly, every single time I sit the trot, I want to pat myself on the back. It took 20 years, but I can sit the trot. Yee-haw!
Today, we continued our foray into 1st level with a dash here and there of what will come in 2nd level. It was sooooo cool.
We started with the working trot. Willig needs to WORK it. I am so lazy on my own, it's not even funny. And once he's moving, he is just a gorgeous mover.
Then we worked on - oh, drat, Mike had a catchy phrase for this - at training level, the horse accepts the bit by putting his head down. At 1st level, he starts to accept the bit while lifting through his back from his hindquarters. At 2nd level, he's expected to always lift for his bit acceptance. We started working on the lifting connection - it feels like Willig's back arcs up like a rainbow (a soft, easy to ride, cushiony rainbow) when he lifts up, but he only does it a couple of steps at a time, and then he plummets forward onto his forehand again and my arms go GROAN from the weight of his head.
Then we worked on a german word that I also forgot (uberstriken?), where for one stride, once I've got him connected and in a nice frame, I put my inside hand forward.
Then Mike took the stirrups away and we did about a million hours (good ones, but my thighs were screaming) of sitting trot work. This was the lengthening mentioned above and then also some transitions - slowing him down as much as I can before he does a down transition, and also some interesting rapid changes. Walk - sitting trot - canter - trot - halt, each just a few seconds apart.
And we did some leg yields both directions. Willig was doing these like he does them in his sleep (next time I bet it won't be so easy), but the pointers were not to move my leg back, to bend him opposite the way I'm going (if we're going right, his neck bends left), and to "straighten" him by using a tap-tap with my "outside" (the direction we're moving) leg.
This was another amazing lesson. It gave me plenty to work on, in addition to the huge list that I already work on each time I ride.
I've noticed another big shift when I look back also. I can ride Willig outside now without fear - all the way down to the poodle end of the arena and out in the pasture. Even when he spooks, because my seat and legs are so much better (I think), I don't move as much, and I can correct it faster (I can also feel it coming). I'm actually starting to have fun on him again because I'm not so afraid anymore. And I'm starting to really look forward to working through the winter so we can really show next year. I hope (!) we'll be ready for 1st level.
I was sure that I would have plateaued in my lessons with Mike a while back, but each lesson, I feel like a sponge, just absorbing as much as he can say in 45 minutes, and then working on improving it until the next lesson. I wish I had the time to take a lesson from him every week.