Shoulder-in, small canter, and general mushiness

We had another wowzer of a lesson with Mike today. I started by listing the issues I thought I had with the 1st level movements: I don't know how to counter canter (ignoring the entire movement on the wrong lead at Training 4 a few weeks ago), I don't "know" how to do the trot-halt transition, when we leg yield, Willig's back legs trail, and I'm having trouble getting the "floaty" canter to trot transition.
We worked primarily on two things, the first of which took me forever to catch on to, but when I did - once again, angels were singing and I was just grinning ear to ear.
Ok, so for hind legs trailing at leg yield. To teach me how to avoid the hind legs trailing, Mike taught me shoulder-in. This required MUCH demonstration on his part (trotting around on the ground) and then physically moving my body, which stubbornly refused to catch on for the first 30 minutes. Mike has the patience of a saint.
As we got to the point where I could move and try it (vs. just dumbly stare at him from a standstill), I had to ride with my tongue sticking out because I was concentrating so hard.
And all I can really say is ... well, you had to be there. Sort of. I don't know if it's because we're moving into uncharted territory for me, but it is so much more a feeling that I don't know how to describe it well.
A leg yield is walking, then holding the outside rein constant, squeeze and release on the inside rein, and then asking for him to move his hind leg under when it lifts up. (I need to go back and work on making sure I've got the feel right for when that leg is lifting.) Sounds easy, right? While Willig is a champ at it, everything has to be just so or it doesn't work right.
A shoulder-in is very similar, but produces a very different response. It is outside rein constant - kind of lightly pressure on his neck, the inside leg is like a pivot pole that is nice and solid, and then the inside rein bends his neck to the inside with the squeeze and release. And when you get this one just so - which is purely a feeling - I have no words to describe how it is different - just Mike's vigorous demonstrations - Willig goes on two tracks - when the wall is to the right, his right front and left hind leg track in the same track, while his left front and right hind have their own individual tracks. In the mirror, I can see the one line for those two legs, and the other two legs out to either side which is just crazy!
So, like I said, it took most of half an hour for me to catch onto that, which is just crazy and new and I just need to time to work on it and start to feel it and make it a habit.
So then we worked on the "float" transition from canter to trot. Mike had us get on a small circle around him (I suspect, although don't know, that it was smaller than 10 m), and then I'd ask Willig to canter, and then do a LOT of asking with my inside leg while I "lifted" with both hands. This was crazy hard, but then his back and shoulders would lift up like he was a hot air balloon blowing up, and then (most of the time) I'd get so excited I'd drop everything and we'd plummet into trot, but a few times (bless Mike's sweet patience), I'd hold it together long enough for him to talk us into the trot, and we'd float, like a leaf falling onto a still lake, into the trot. HOLY COOLNESS.
It was the craziest coolest thing.
And then he had us do it to the right (my dominant side), where I had another breakthrough. Willig had a harder time picking up the canter this direction, which was weird since it's his "easy" bend side since I overbend him by riding all heavy on that side. Well, on the little circle, another flaw of mine popped into view - to encourage the canter, I twist to the inside. Sweet sensitive Willig feels that twist, and has to throw his butt out to the outside to compensate for it, which makes him off-balance and have to pick up the wrong lead. Which he can't do when we're on a tiny circle. When I twist the "wrong" way, so I'm looking over my outside shoulder, he moves his butt almost into the center of the circle.
It did a great job illuminating Willig's patience with me. He's a nicer horse than I've ever owned before, and I'm sure that the last couple years with me, being ridden by me has been like somebody playing the radio at full blast between two stations. I'm all over the place! He can stop on a dime when I just stop the motion with my hips, and just a year ago I was flapping around like a wet noodle!
Which brings me to being grateful. I am so fortunate to board at a place that has such amazing facilities and such spectacular care. I am so fortunate to be able to ride with someone like Mike, who has brought me in a year farther than I went in the first 20 years. I am so fortunate to have Shannon for jumping, to help me build confidence without pushing me so hard we both get scared. I am so fortunate to have Jess, #1 in the nation!, able to ride Willig once a week to build an upward spiral of confidence for both of us over fences. I don't understand how a few flakes of hay and a roof could possibly make things even between us and our horse friends, but I'm grateful every time I get out there and get to mash my face into Willig's neck. He has been a huge challenge for me, but now I'm grateful for it. He's pushed me harder than I would have pushed myself, and he's making me a far superior rider than I ever would have been. This stuff is really, really cool, and right now, this is the most fun I've had riding in my life, and I just want to do more of it every day.