Dressage and SJ at Lincoln Creek; dressage practice with John

Yesterday John and I practiced my Training A test.  He had several suggestions which were easy to remember and made a huge difference in my test.  Which was good because as I'll write in a minute, I got clobbered today, even with the tips.
First, when I enter, bend Charlie just a tiny bit to the right, to make up for his tendency to go left.
In the 15 meter circles, I push him out with inside leg for the first half of the circle, then he will try to fall in for 1/4, then I push him out again for the last quarter.  This is trying to go to the wall in horse logic.
I had one perfect lengthening out of four tries, so it's really a 25% gamble at the show.  And after the perfect one, I got greedy and totally blew the next one.
For the stretchy circle, do a half halt before I go back to regular trot and another half halt just before the walk.  This makes for a nice down transition instead of plummeting down into walk.
Then the final canter on the left lead, after the 15 meter circle, do just a touch of shoulder in and half halt before the trot transition.
For the halt transition, just as I finish, bend him to the right to prevent him from swinging his haunches out to the left.

Charlie was much more responsive to my aids after his two days of being ridden by the working students (I didn't have to nag-nag-nag each stride) but he was also a bit stiff in the jaw, and I think he was a little confused by the aids.  I wonder if his "head tilting" comment in the judge's comments was what I call him stiff in the jaw.

The show was a little disappointing.  I felt like we had a really good ride, pretty consistent with the rest of this year, but we were in 13th place (out of like 16!).  The comments were fair, but still felt harsh compared to our other tests.  Then for show jumping (same day), Charlie was a total slug.  I had to kick him, with the jabby end of the spurs, and whip him, and yell at him, just to get around the course.  We went double clear, but it felt like riding a heaving sack of oats.
Then when I got home, I looked up our class.  9 professionals, and the other 7(ish) of us regular people.  The other training class is all regular people.  And both classes didn't have any really good scores, even for the professionals.  Our class had like three people with rails down; other training had like 9.
So I am going to go with my gut was right, and it was a decent ride for us - one that would have had us in about 4th if we weren't in a class of professionals.
But is that something that happens in training and up?  Do we not have amateur/horse/rider classes anymore?
Cross country looks fun tomorrow.  A couple new things, but nothing that looked too intimidating.
We're up to about six people asking when we're going prelim.  I'll have to ask John when he thinks we'll be ready.