Elbows glued to hips

Today's dressage lesson was back to the good ol' days of progress into new areas, instead of working on going past the &#*(# scary side. Whew. Although it made my legs burn, and (disgusting alert) when I was all done and changing clothes to smell slightly less bad, I was soaking wet under my vest. Blech, but kind of satisfying.
We started with a brief discussion about my ride on Charlie, and how useful it was for me to ride another horse and then ride Willig. Mike pointed out that all horses are different, and while Charlie has some strengths, with some work, Willig will have strengths too (and different ones). A lot of what I commented on was training, that, over time, Willig will also (presumably) attain. Mike said that although frustrating now, Willig's jitteriness could transform into attentiveness for higher level riding, where every single step is something different that you're asking for. But he has to focus on me instead of the outside world, to be able to do that.
Then we started with some trot work, with Mike telling me, well, ok, you can be all floppy around when you start, but why don't you start pulling things together right away? Even though I had been out there 20 minutes warming up, most of that we walked past the scary side, and I don't know why it takes a good 10-15 minutes to really get him connected - I mean, obviously it's me. Maybe I need to warm up?
Anyway, so then we started pulling him together, Mike checked in on his responsiveness to the aids (those walk-trot-canter-trot-walk we've been doing have made a huge difference, and see Charlie discussion where I'd lurch forward at each down transition because it turns out I didn't actually expect him to do it when I asked him to) and my sitting trot, which, thanks to the chiropractor, his homework, and those miracle balls, has gone back to being doable.
Then Mike had us do something terrible, which was hold onto to the pommel (couldn't do) so saddle pad (could only barely do), at which point we lost all steering and careened around totally out of control (from my perspective). Little did I know that this was going to lead to today's big lesson.
Then we did a bit of canter, which Mike said was just so much better than last year because he's pulled together.
Then I asked about him flinging his neck around, and Mike said that was soft hands - I give away the connection ALL THE TIME, and then he showed me how if I think about keeping him bent to the left, and maintain the connection, the head flinging stops. It doesn't really exist when we're going right, because of that iron right hand I've got.
So then we worked on Test 1-2, just going through it. It was rough around the edges, but not so bad. The only part that's still sticking for me is the down transition from canter to trot or from lengthened trot to sitting trot again. Mike said that working on the simple lead change (which is not a canter, trot, canter, like I thought, but canter - walk - canter) for 2nd level (because if something is hard for you, you shouldn't be showing that yet, but working on it at home, BUT working on canter-walk-canter will help us do canter-trot or lengthen-sit). But to get there, we went back to connection.
Mike had me stop and imagine my arms as side reins. The way I think about this is elbows clamped to hips. Then Willig's neck arched up and tucked and got all 'waterfall' (and he wanted to back up), so then we did walk-halt-walk-trot-canter with the connection staying constant. This was hard for Willig - he wanted to avoid working - but he wasn't being naughty. So then we made the canter a bit smaller (just around Mike) and it was divine. He'd just LIFT his back and be cantering and it was so soft and easy to ride. This made me grin each time he did it.
Mike said to warm up for about 15 minutes, then work on elbows clamped to hips for about 15 minutes, then do something he knows how to do (that we've been working on) for about 15 minutes. But not to do 100% of elbows clamped to hips because it's new and hard.
It was a great lesson. Then we walked outside and did a quick, short lap in the pasture, and a tired Willig is a much more relaxed Willig.
He does have a little patch of hives on the left side (the same two big and deflated) and then the right side looks like the same mess of them but not yet blown up. It just looks like he slept on his hair wet right now. So (fingers crossed) hopefully our little system is holding them at bay until whatever allergen is setting them off again goes away.