Jumping sans stirrups

Per Shannon's sage advice at my last lesson, I tackled a tiny cross rail without stirrups today. A mere two of my ten times over it were not me jumping ahead. So, this will be the new jumping de rigeur. (Although I like being able to count the good ones, because now I can track it as it improves and feel like I'm actually making progress objectively.)
We hit the weather just right - although the outside arena was soggy, the sun was shining, a weird number of birds (like Hitchcock lots) were out, and Willig was a goof with Jessica earlier in the week, so some lunge manuevering around the bigger puddles and then me slamming around was enough for him to think about. But then, because another part of Shannon's advice was to force myself to do what I need to (see above, jumping without stirrups) after my stirrup-less work, I worked him on a bendy circle over some poles on the ground, and poor ding dong had such a difficult time with that. He wanted to spook at the brick wall, then the birds, then a puddle, then the great outdoors, then we were back at the brick wall and it was still scary ad nauseum both directions.

He also got his first clip of the year yesterday, and a fellow boarder commented that he's getting some nice muscles and looking bigger. THAT'S why his butt has been looking so big! Unfortunately, mine has too, but not for the same good reasons.