Riding correctly

Today is noteworthy only in that I could finally see a direct result of all the past lessons during today's lesson where I actually could feel and had time to make the changes. We rode a very similar course to last week's at John's, only the long line had gotten longer and was a big 5 now. The light bulb that finally went off for me was the feeling of riding a big canter, but using the half halt around the corners and in between the fences to turn the big canter from a strung out, on the forehand canter to a ready to launch canter. Charlie helped by making it totally obvious: first time through line - long and strung out - horrible jumping on both our parts and he knocked the fence; second time through the line - big canter down the long side, half halt in the corner, half halt in between while keeping the big canter - perfectly flowing and harmonious fences. I still ride timid, and I'm prone to scrunching Charlie up slower and slower instead of getting him back on his haunches, but the feeling was so obvious and different when we jumped off the haunches instead of the forehand that I'm going to work really hard to make sure we never go back to forehand jumping. The other thing I caught onto was the importance of the line and the distances - we still had the bendy line, and my last line through I snipped part of it off, and it put us there at the wrong spot. While Charlie is experienced enough to get himself over the fence, I could really feel the difference from when we rode it on the correct bend. John said if you feel that you're off the line but can't fix it, you can do a bigger half halt, and it solves the problem also. It was another great lesson, and satisfying because I felt like I am not impossibly slow and am finally starting to put this stuff together. Also, gray horses make Charlie anxious.