Leg yields, bend, and lengthening

I asked for help with three issues in today's lesson: test 1-3's right hand 10 meter circle at X to a left leg yield to H we're still trailing the haunches; Shannon's observation that I ride heavy on the hand corrections and not so much on the leg; and the lengthenings might just be "speedenings".
Since I had, remarkably, already warmed up by the time my lesson started (instead of racing in the arena 5 minutes before it started, despite my best efforts to be early, which is my usual m.o.), we got right into leg yields. First we rode shoulder-in down the walls, then down the fake line that is the test size. Then we started riding from the corner to the center line. Big message here: make him do it. Ask for it and then demand it if he doesn't fly off my leg.
By the way, that's the theme from today's lesson. When I ask, he should do. Crisp, prompt responses to my aids, not 4-5 steps of slugging around.
Second big message: counterbend a bit as we come around the corner. So to start the leg yield at K, at A I start preparing by bending him a bit left.
Another big message: my motorcycle corners? This is how I need to fix them. I bend him more and more the direction we're going (for A to K, that's right) and he collapses further and further in. I need to counter bend him to the left so that we come around the corner (deeply) and emerge a straight horse. While this feels crooked, like we're all crazy bent to the left - not only is the feeling deceptive, but Mike says over time, you go from gross scale (yelling) to fine scale (whispering).
In addition to the shoulder-ins for warm up, also just do the western straight across side pass. Then the leg yield feels easy.
Willig was actually doing this really well today. It's mostly me bending him the "wrong" way, and then preparing and applying that same activity on the last quarter of the 10 meter circle, which is harder.
It's ok also to think "shoulder-in" if he's trailing, so if we're going from X to H, shoulder in for a moment to the right and then it fixes the trailing.
The next big thing we did, after the light bulb moment about the corners, was my difficulty with the physical part of the big circle haunches in we started last lesson. With Mike, it makes sense. On my one, I get all confused about where everything is supposed to be. I can think of 3 new things at once, but not 6, and Mike pointed out it pulls a lot of things together. So if you're making a big haunches in circle to the right, it's your right leg and right rein 'steady', and then your left leg asking WHEN THE LEFT HIND LIFTS (this is hard to feel on a little circle for me) and the left rein flexing and the left hand using the whip. So mostly, I think I just need to keep working on this until it starts to congeal in my head.
Then we did another huge epiphany - we were trotting to get ready for canter to get ready for lenghtening, and Mike made me really ride him, not to dawdle around and let him crash around on his forehand. And when I pulled him all together and really pushed (this was, by the way, at least 10x harder than my normal riding; I was almost instantly out of breath), I felt the puff in his shoulders!! The puff that is there when Mike gets off that makes him so easy to sit on?!? I did it! I made the puff happen!! I couldn't even listen to Mike for like half a lap because I was ecstatic that I felt how to make the puff.
Now, how to describe it in words? It's above my head right now. It's all about pushing and holding together, but beyond that, it was just a feeling. And wow. There's our baby step towards being able to create that lift in the shoulders. Wow.
So then we did some trot lengthening, and I was right that Willig doesn't do it consistently. When he is really lengthening, there's that "skip" feeling at the end of the stride, and the skip throws me up out of the saddle. And Mike said we're past that - last year I flopped and flailed around, but this year, I know better, so when it gets big, sink my heels, drop my legs, and stay steady contact. Think about how I corrected it last year, and correct it here too. Don't let Willig go all crazy and lose all connection. Just ride the damn thing.
So the big take aways are the same message as always: work on prompt, responsiveness to the aids (like with the leg yield, I'm losing four steps getting him ready to go); prepare ahead of time for the next movement; and demand excellence from myself and Willig.
It was another GREAT lesson. We are definitely in territory that is new to me, so it's a little harder for me to retain it and translate it, even just a few hours later, but it is so fun to be learning so much and making so much progress. I had been sure after how far we've come since last year that there'd be a big long plateau, but this is just one cool thing after another.