A "simple" (two areas of focus) lesson

It's simple in the sense that we really only did two things, but they were two very complex things that were hard for me (and obviously Willig has already been trained to do them - the sneaky rat!).
First, Mike gave us a "baby" exercise for shoulder-in and leg yield. We head towards the wall, hit it at about a 30 degree angle, and then move at the angle down the wall. This requires careful coordination of the aids - too much leg and Willig's head obediently (and oddly) smacks into the wall, too much "outside" leg and his angle gets too severe and he can't move "forward", too much "inside" leg and he gets too straight, too much right rain and he gets to bent and can't move, too much left rain (inside) and he straightens out. We are practicing this both directions 30x each way! Woo-wee. It gets boring very, very quickly, which ... makes Willig more than ecstatic to come off the wall and work off the wall or leg yield to the center line. And at about the quarter mark, when his haunches start trailing, I just think of the feeling of being angled at the wall, and whoosh - we're right back on track.
The interesting bit about this was that going with his left shoulder leaning (I'm heavy on the right hand), it was easy and fun.
With his right shoulder leading, it felt all weird and cramped up. Mike said Willig is moving exactly the same way on each side - it's my weird, distorted senses (my words! not Mike's!) that make it feel that way. So these exercises, in addition to helping us do leg yield without trailing haunches, also help me recognize, and ideally, correct, that weird feel I've got.
We did it at the walk, then at the sitting trot, which is harder and also much cooler.
Then Mike explained the difference between shoulder-in, haunches-in, renver, and traver - which are actually four different moves, not just fancy-pants frenchy names for shoulder-in, which made sense while he was explaining (and demonstrating) but which were slippery for my tiny brain. I'm going to have to look at them and draw them and mimic them by marching around on the ground pretending to be a horse. They are about which way the neck is bent and whether haunches or shoulder are on or off the "line".
Then we worked on counter-canter, at my request, since it is the "last" 1st level move that I don't know how to do. This gave us another interesting insight. Well, a few. First - Willig already does it like a champ. Especially when I get out of his way.
So I can scoot him in and out of the centerline on his right lead super easy. When I do it properly (not by scooting my outside leg further back, but by bending his hindquarters out - which is an aid I will need later for flying changes, and lord knows I don't need any more sloppy bad habits to have to fix in the future), it's a little harder but he still does it like a champ.
But when we switched to left lead? Oh my lord. My inability to bend him to the left because my right hand is like a greedy, iron clamp, is suddenly demonstrated for all the world to see. First, I twist to the inside (point my right shoulder back towards his right hip) asking him to pick up the canter, which throws his haunches out, which means he has to pick up the left lead canter. When I twist myself all in a pretzel facing the "wrong" way, he lifts right into the right lead.
When we come around the corner and I push him over to the centerline? As soon as we straighten, ker-flammo! - he falls into the trot. Mike says I'm throwing him away, but I suspect it is also something to do with that pesky right hand that has a mind of its own. Willig was like an x-ray machine today - showing right to my bones where I was making the errors.
Mike put us back on the angly line, and then back into counter canter, but we were at the end of the lesson, so it gave me the tools I need to work on it until my next lesson. It was fascinating how different my right side and left side are.
And just because I haven't mentioned it doesn't mean Mike hasn't - my pesky heels still spring up every single time a single brain cell stops focusing on them, and I am having to think much harder and work with more delicately-tuned aids now, which means I can't get away with as much (that I never knew I was getting away with before).
Mike also gave me a tool for Willig's latest hijinx. Instead of blowing his nose vigorously at the start of the ride (and yanking my shoulders out of their sockets - which Mike fixed a while back with "pretend like your arms are side reins - they would stretch but not drop the contact with Willig when he blows his nose"), once I started to implement that, he started a nose blowing/head toss thing. While I was warming up, he actually spit and then managed to land it on his own forehead. So Mike said he gets a firm "leg/hand" connection - the jiggly reins/jiggly legs, and when he gives with his head, big pats - and if he gets naughty about it - a smack. We're starting to "ride his haunches" in that canter work and our future work, and this is a disconnect and an effort to avoid taking up the bit at the start that is a naughty-can-be-punished (although probably also my heavy hands and weaker legs when we are just getting going).
Along those lines, in warm up, in addition to thinking about my &*#&*(&# heels, which I am beginning to loathe, we are working on "too bent - relax - too bent - relax" so that he starts getting a bit more round and connected and holding it for longer. Willig is such a trooper. He's actually quite a nice, willing worker, aside from how he's scared of the far end of the arena once again.
I also think I'm going to join a nearby gym and work out on my way to/from the barn (depending on how quickly I can get out of work) so that by next spring I've got good aerobic capacity, better muscle tone, and have lost some pesky weight for those white britches.