Square - turn on the forehand, leg yield, repeat

During today's dressage lesson with John, he gave me an alternative way to soften Charlie when I don't have draw reins.  But it was a lot of work.
We started at the walk with a turn on the forehand, then a leg yield, and repeat to make a square.  From there, we did it at the trot, and then just a hint of it at the canter.
Charlie started stiff in his jaw before we even got going, which he also was for jumping on Thursday night, but John said he didn't care since Charlie was jumping 3'11" like it was no big deal.
We would do a couple squares struggling through each corner, then go to a big circle.  Doing the forehand/leg yield/forehand/leg yield made Charlie even and balanced in his shoulders, and he must have been using his back legs more underneath him, because it felt like his shoulders lifted.  When he was particularly slow and struggling and I would start to get frustrated, John pointed out that he was really stepping underneath himself with his hind legs.
John was telling me how to ride everything - both hands, seat, and legs doing all kinds of things - so at the end I told him there was no way I could do it by myself at home, and he said yes I could - to just break it down into the steps, and then do a bit more, then do a big circle to take a break, then do it again.
We had a bit of inside leg back and outside leg up at the girth (sometimes with toe pointed out so I could use the spur) - inside leg was back a couple ribs back.  This kept Charlie bent somewhat around the leg and not bulging out so much through his outside shoulder.  John had me doing the same thing at the jump lesson - bending him to the outside as I came around the corner to the fence, so that he wouldn't swing out through the outside shoulder and then get the distance wrong.
When Charlie got stiff in his jaw, which was always the worst going to the left, John had me lift the inside hand.
At one point, he told me to use my inside leg and outside leg at the same time, but to use my inside leg more.  I told him afterwards that's way out of my league, and he said yes, but if he didn't tell me I wouldn't even think to try.  I was just pleased that I could use only one leg at a time when he asked me to.
While it got good results, (John said it looked like Major Beale and then laughed and laughed), he was telling me every single step (right leg now - now - now, now move your inside hand, now do a half halt with your outside rein, etc.) and so I know what he was asking and I could feel the results, but I couldn't feel why it was needed, and it was way more than my brain could have possibly processed that fast on its own.
Because now I can at least ride with my legs and hands doing different things - even if not at different intensities - and I can sit the trot, and I can do a lot more than I could do last year when I really think about it (even if my stupid heels still aren't beautiful), I think there's hope that one day I will also feel all those different things (outside leg forward, aid now, inside hand squeeze, inside hand relax) as fast as John can say them.  That would be pretty cool.
And good old champ Charlie.  He had caked up sweat afterwards, but gave it his all.  We had a few circles where John just had us keep going; he said that Charlie was trying to figure out how to move to flex himself under and really use himself - that he just doesn't know how and has to figure it out.  That's pretty cool that I'm getting to ride him while he learns that.