Jump lesson on the last hot day of the year

It was beautiful out - 83 with clear skies, and we got to jump outside.
First, John said that Duke was stiff in the base of his neck and had me work to get him to bend by doing a leg yield out (off the inside leg) and bending his neck to the inside with the open inside hand. He said that the first day of work after a show should be long and slow, to help him stretch over his back.  (I did transitions yesterday, Tuesday off, and Monday was a hack.). We did this for both trot and canter both directions.
We started jumping over a little yellow vertical, doing it a few times, then changing direction.  This seemed pretty a-ok, and Duke was very good about responding to the leg aid so we'd land on the correct lead, regardless of whether we were going the same direction again or switching.  From there, without pausing, John had us go over a decent sized oxer, which he gradually moved up to be a very respectable oxer (for me and Duke).  Then he added a ground pole in front of it, and then had us switch from the "easy" left turn to the incredibly hard right turn - the turn that feels like we're going to crash into the fence and that I panic about doing and somehow get Duke to consistently land on the left lead.  It was much harder to make both right turns (off of the fence and then back to the fence), keep the momentum, but half halt him before the turn to balance him to go back to the oxer.  But I think it was better than last week (?) when we did it the first time.
Then we took a walk break, and I was oddly, so out of breath I was getting faint.  John had to let me have a few extra minutes.  (Foreshadowing, it happened again after our next round, and on the way home, I started getting very clammy, so maybe I wasn't just holding my breath over the fences but have a legitimate excuse.  We will see.)
After the break, John put some fences together - we did an oxer - four stride to a vertical - turn left to a vertical that had a gate - turn left to the yellow vertical - turn right back to the oxer/4/vertical.  The combination was ok (although I undershot the turn the first time), but only twice out of all the attempts did I get the gate vertical correctly.  All the times I missed it, we'd have to spin around to make it to the yellow vertical, but the times I got the spot, it was easy to turn on the line to the yellow.  So there was a good lesson in there about the importance of making your lines.  John said we kept missing it because I was overshooting the turn, then pushing him back over, which I took to mean I was zig-zagging all the way down to the fence, so Duke couldn't tell quite where we were going to jump it until we got right up on it.  He had to put some effort in a couple times, but that sweet boy would try.
John gradually added a couple of ground poles on the left in between the two combinations.  The first time through I thought Duke was going to just land on them and clamber around, but he stayed just to the inside.  John thinks it's probably the way Duke was ridden (and not entirely me riding him drifting to the left), but he said we will be doing a lot of those placer poles over the winter.
I talked to John beforehand a bit about the show.  He said he could see my show jumping round, and that's how he would have ridden it too - forward but cautious (my words).  I asked if he thought it was the hills that made horses tired that got so many rails, and he thought it was the standing around waiting to go in.  He said standing there three horses before is too many, that it can be just one horse goes in, and when they start, you walk over.
I asked him about dressage, and said the transitions needed work but the long rein walk wasn't good, and he said we haven't even worked on it in our lessons yet, and with a horse like Duke, we need to be careful so he doesn't get jiggy.
He said trotting into the water is ok - that Duke is just being cautious when he isn't sure what's going on, and not to worry about it.
And at the end of the lesson, he said - in John words - that Duke was doing really well so far, but that he was glad we didn't push it and go training level this year.  That we needed to work together first, and I totally agree.  I think we both would have gotten scared instead of getting more confident with each other.  But thank god I've had John to help me getting to know Duke these last few months.
I wish I hadn't been feeling so bad (and so quickly) but it was a great lesson, and I made mom go past the oxer at the end because when we were finished, I was impressed how big it was.  For us.  That sweet Duke likes to give it his all.  He got pretty sweaty too.

EI wrap up

Mom might want to stay here in the future:  http://asterinn.com

Duke didn't want to do a free walk in dressage, and I entered before the whistle (for the first time ever), but he was great in the stable and traveling and being on the road.
For cross country, he was a little strong (there were two long stretches of road to run on), and then trotted through the water.  He trotted into the water at Aspen and towards the water at Lincoln Creek, but I think he cantered into it fine at the Caber derby and show.  There were two big hills on cross country, and I was a little nervous but he balanced himself fine down and charged back up (I had to slow him down).
John warmed us up for xc and he said not to worry about the distance, but just to ride what he gives me, and that helps Duke relax.
For show jumping, it was early and chilly and we were the fourth to go, and he was a bit tense in the warm up, and he looked quite a bit in the arena (even though the fences were pretty bland compared to the rest this year), but he went double clear, even though I took all the available space to line him up to the fences.  It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty good, and I feel like we're really coming along as a team.
He was a good boy, easy for mom to handle, and good in his stall, even with a horse across the aisle screaming his fool head off every time his friend left.

2nd cross country lesson with amazing cloud backdrop

John had a rush of evening students, so we got to ride cross country instead of show jumping.  It started raining two days ago, but we lucked out and didn't get rained on during loading, grooming, the lesson, or unloading at home, and even better, the sky had super interesting clouds and great evening light across the cross country field.
Duke warmed up great; pretty calm and not so looky at the big boxy jumps.  He stayed soft and pleasant, so I gave him a quick warm up and then just let him walk around.  Last night, at home, he got tenser and tenser riding in the indoor arena - I don't know if it was because Luca was in there, because of something I was doing, or what - but eventually I gave up trying to get him to relax in there (when Jazz came in) and rode him outside in what was almost dark and a drizzle, and he calmed down a lot.  He's around other horses in the warm up, so I'm not sure what it was.
John had us start with a little log, jumping it toward the water and the other fences.  He said to ride it like a show jump, that Duke is perfectly good at cross country, so work more on thinking show jump to the fence.  We rode it turning left, then right, then left, and at first, although Duke was jumping just fine, I kept trying to cut the corners and instead of going straight a stride or two (there was plenty of space), I would haul him around the corner immediately.
From there, we jumped a little A frame, then a little wide table, then a table with a rolled log on top, then the roll top headed back towards the barn.
The A frame I had a bit of a hard time lining it up the first few times, but sweet Duke kept trying.  We had to ride just past a whopper upper level fence, but Duke hardly even gave it a glance.
We did a bit of drifting, and Duke is very good about landing on the lead when I use my leg aid in the air, but when I use my left leg to scoot him over, it means we're going to land on the right lead.
He got a wee bit strong, but stayed obedient, halted when John told us to, and was easy to bring back, so I thought it was a great lesson in how far we've come in just a few months and what a great horse he is.  We walked around the fields with mom a bit, and he stayed all Cool Hand Duke, even when other horses came and went nearby and in the distance.  He's a good boy.  I'm glad I got to work him a bit before fall and winter, so we have a good idea of stuff to work on over the winter to get ready for spring.  I'm excited about how much better we'll know each other by the time show season starts next year.

Beth at Northwind

I rode with Beth for the first time in probably a year, and the first time with Duke.  She liked him.
We started with my position, and she said that although the shimmy is gone (and my core is stronger), I am rounding my shoulders much worse than I was before, and that tendency, combined with Duke's build which makes me tilt forward, is a bad combination, particularly because when I tilt a certain amount forward, I start swinging my lower leg back to counter balance.  So she had me start with the "two plates" idea, one on the front of the pelvis, one between your shoulder blades.  It is pulling the shoulder blades down and together, but NOT arching my back, and then matching the angle with the lower pelvis, which feels kind of like tucking my tail bone up and under.  Putting my shoulder blades together is really, really hard to do, and she suggested that I focus on it at the gym.
From there, the next big jarring movement was my hands going up and down (and losing the contact, the same thing John said yesterday).  For this, she suggested pulling back a bit with my shoulders (and elbows) rather than thinking steadying my hands.  By improving the connection, I moved my hands less, which made Duke feel less like I was dropping him, which made him steadier, etc. etc. good upward cycle until I'd forget.
We started with walk, and instead of the rushed, hurried walk with a lot of swinging hips on my end, she had me think of him stepping underneath and up, and then slowing his walk to the speed I wanted by using those two plates.  This worked very, very well (again, until I forgot).  I could also slow him to a halt this way without using my hands, and it allowed him to be more balanced so he could improve his transitions up and down.
From here, we worked on transitions where he didn't jut his head out and go downhill on the forehand.  This was again, the thinking up and under with his hind legs, and not dropping the contact.  For the down transition from trot to walk, I just slowed the trot but kept posting until he was walking.  Beth says that is a really great exercise to do for him - slow trot to walk, walk a step or two, then trot again.
At the canter we did a bit of bending to the outside to balance him, and trying to keep the feeling of the connected seat bones with the tilted plate pelvis.  His canter wasn't his best today, but he stayed focused and tried to figure out what we were asking, and that made me happy with him.
Like most Beth lessons, she focuses on smaller minutiae, but it is interesting because she sees the same thing as John.  Her approach is much more focused on "tiny" core movements, but I can get the same lifted feeling in the withers and the same feeling of spring and bounce like I can after John has walked us through the steps.
I also really liked the reminder about my core and shoulder position, and the idea of keeping the connection by holding more steady with my shoulders (she called it holding hands with him - having that feeling of connection instead of loosey goosey), and she also suggested thinking my fingers were linked through the bit and I was telling him which way to go by moving my fingers directly in the bit.  Duke did a really nice job responding so I could get immediate feedback on changes in my position and aids, and she said that thoroughbreds were nice and sensitive that way.
She said that I'm riding with my leg almost too far forward, and during the trot, my leg is still curling up a bit (lifting up and behind).  My right leg needs to be a little more off of him - it is still sitting tight and tucked up, and it is a feeling of being held slightly away.

Dressage; working on some lengthening and geometry

Today we kept working on how to communicate with each other about basic dressage movements.  John started us with some trot, and we went from 20 meter circles to 10 meter circles, moving around the arena.  In the second half of the lesson, I missed the geometry of the circle, and when I got it back (John had to say "turn further in" - I tried like 3 times and missed each time), the circle suddenly fixed itself.  John said it as it was easier for Duke to bend around my leg if we had the shape right, but I think I would describe it more as the circle flowed better.  My first circle, John said he wasn't sure what shape I was making, and it was something like an ice cream cone - it started as a half circle, but became some weird pointy thing on the other side.
In the circles, we worked on the same instructions from a few lessons ago, where John would tell me the appropriate aids (outside leg, inside leg at girth, bend to the inside, both legs, etc.) and then after a few corrections like that, I could feel Duke shift.  John called it - I think - that he had some bounce; I felt it like his shoulders balanced and he kind of lifted up into the shoulders instead of plowing down into them.
Those are good exercises because I feel it when it is correct, and I can compare the feeling of being correct to the "normal" feeling, but the hard part of this exercise is the sequence of aids to get to that correct feeling is pretty far beyond my grasp, and I need John's help so that I can just focus on giving the aids, instead of thinking about what aids he needs, and then feel how the correctness comes.
From there we did some canter work, on 10 meter circles, 12 meter circles, and 20 meter circles.  Duke felt fast, but decently balanced.
Then we did some lengthening, at both the trot and canter.  To set these up, John would have us work haunches in, then bend to the inside, then soften and let him straighten, then use both legs to ask him to go forward.
There were a few good lessons in here.  One is that I ask him to come back with upper thigh only - John said that is a dressage thing, but not so good for jumping, so to think about using my whole leg (and whole leg first) and THEN use my half halt if he doesn't listen to the leg.  (This was a bit of a theme, also especially with the 10 meter circles which was to ride with the outside hand, not the inside hand, but even more important, off my leg, not my hand.  This is SO hard and I'm pretty sure the same thing as the right turn from the jump lesson Thursday that was so hard to do (mentally).)
Also, in this exercise, John asked me where he felt, and I said "he's riding around with his haunches pointed towards you" (on the right lead canter) so John said "point him more towards me" so I did - which felt wild and crazy, like we were half passing around John on the circle, and then John had me bend Duke to the inside then look back, and at that point, he was basically in the correct arc around the circle.  What felt like wild and crazy in the middle of the circle like a clock hand wasn't even on the correct bend yet.  So John said to test that at home - don't just ride and feel that it's right, but move him a little to the inside or a little to the outside with his haunches, and then see how that feels, so I can learn to adjust my feel for what the proper bend is.
The other really good lesson in this was the geometry of the line across the diagonal.  I asked John to show me on the ground afterwards - the corner of the arena makes a triangle - you have to cut the triangle in half, so you angle from the long edge to half way on the first short edge, bend around the corner, touch again at half way on the second short edge, then leave the triangle just before the letter so that you are moving straight by the first quarter line.  John said the movement should be at its best from quarter line to quarter line.  Then, you do the same thing in reverse when you're touching on the other side, but this way is a little easier because you leg yield just a bit to the outside (to hit the rail before the letter), bend around the inside, and use the far wall to line up the next turn.  It is a few steps that are straighter than I would have described it, both before and after the turn onto the diagonal.  This was one of those John explanations that was a bit of a eureka moment (kind of like not riding with only my thighs) which I wouldn't necessarily think to ask about, but he has such a great explanation of the why and how that I feel like I can apply it when I get home.
Our final exercise was working on the stretchy trot circle.  I was throwing away the reins, and John said instead to keep the contact.  We had to try this several times because I would revert to throwing them away as soon as Duke made any movement towards stretching his neck down.
Similarly, he said that a horse with a good topline creates less wear and tear on his own legs, and that a horse can run a few shows on adrenalin, but then he needs his own muscle to keep from breaking down.  He said that's why it's important to work them regularly - not just 2-3 days a week - and why to avoid getting in a rut and thinking things are going ok, but to keep striving to make him work better.
Duke was soft, sweet, and willing, and it was a fun lesson.  Mom was here watching.  I think it is our last day of "summer" without rain.

Some more nuanced feel in a jump lesson with some "big" jumps

On an absolutely perfect fall day.  (Incidentally, the first night I thought I should probably start putting Duke's sheet on at night.)
We started with a little cross rail, and despite Duke's exuberance yesterday after his hack and day off, he was sweet and steady.  John gradually raised it, and had us change direction a couple of times (multiple fences each way before changing direction).  After the fence, his instructions were to make sure we went straight for a few strides, and then the approach to the next fence was either to half halt, bend a little to the outside, or a little of both, depending on how Duke was moving.  Which is what makes the lessons so hard to summarize, and I guess makes me so slow to learn.  It is a particular feel - which sometimes I don't even have right - and then John tells me the correction - and then, if I do it right, and if Duke responds (he is better at responding than I am at giving a correct aid) - THEN, sometimes, maybe, on a good day, I can feel the correction.  Given that sequence of miraculous steps, it is amazing that John can teach me at all.
From the cross rail which was now a towering vertical (probably in reality like 2'9" - har har), John switched us to the white oxer.  He told me to ride it downhill and turn right, and I said "right?" like I couldn't possibly have heard him correctly (the fence was to the right) and he said yes, and so I dutifully went to ride it, we landed on the right lead, and then I just kept riding Duke straight while John yelled "right! right!" and then I turned left.  The fence was just - right there - like 20 feet away from me on the right, and I just couldn't make us turn to the right.  The first time.
So then, after risking John's wrath, I tried again, and we turned right, but it felt like I was wheeling Duke around like - I don't know what - flinging him off one of those little kid merry go rounds?  That time John pointed out I probably should have changed leads before I started the hard right turn instead of kind of half ass doing it in the middle of the turn, when I already had plenty on my plate.
We tried it a third time, and it was still a wild turn (and then each time we'd turn right again, just as hard, and go back to it, but it felt better turning into the open arena than turning with the fence right there), and then John let us turn left.
From there we did the one stride black and white vertical to oxer without the four stride away oxer, then the gate with a right hand turn to the oxer with a left hand turn.  Then we did the full four stride, one stride combination, with a right turn at the end to the gate back to the oxer.
We had one very bad black and white oxer (the first time), where I misjudged the turn, and then Duke went to add a stride and at that moment, I threw my hands forward and so he hit the fence and knocked down the standard.  But bless his little heart, he was a little upset but instead of charging at it or refusing the next time, he just backed off a bit and gave it some respect the next time through.
We did much better with this four stride - 1 stride than last week, it wasn't that barreling down the line towards them, but a much more controlled and rhythmic approach, although I had a hell of a time making that turn so we'd end up in the middle of the fence.  So that's an easy exercise to work on at home, is set poles on the ground and cones and then practice turning from different places to make the line correct.
Our final line, from the gate to the oxer, we hit the oxer with a rail down, but John said he liked it because Duke was finally soft and listening to me in between the two, and all I had to do was keep my leg on - NOT ride him with my hands, but just close my legs just a little at the end, to basically say yes, just keep this soft ride going, you don't need to do anything more than that.
I noticed riding last night that it has been probably at least a couple weeks (or 1/6 of my ownership of Duke) since I have noticed him very stiff either direction, and while we were a bit zippy in our lesson last week, he's been quite good in our jump lessons and at the shows for maybe a month now?  John said that I was getting to know him, but I also think that Duke is just a pretty sweet horse who has tried very hard to understand me too, and has calmed down now that he has me figured out a little and knows I'm not going to ask him to do anything too crazy.
During the combinations, we also had to do a bit of half halting, a little bending to the outside, but it seemed to set Duke back pretty easily to make him uphill.  I think that maybe because he is so short, if I get out of balance or if I jump ahead, it affects him a lot more than it did Charlie, which will hopefully have the result of training me to be a quieter, more balanced rider who stays out of his way.
Some of the fences looked really big (the black and white oxer did the first time we came to it, which I think is part of why we clobbered it - I was thinking "omg" and looking down at it, instead of down the line).  Oh yeah, and we jumped the center white oxer at a left to right angle.  Duke really likes jumping fences at angles; I swear he has hit every angled fence perfectly.
Anyway, the nuance is the feel of getting him uphill and soft, but riding that off my leg, not my hand. It is almost there, and I can fix it pretty well when John is telling me what to do, but he is still having to tell me most of the time.  I haven't jumped alone in a long time (a month?) - only during lessons or at shows - so it will be interesting to see how much of this I can do on my own too.
The other thing I noticed this week - well really at Aspen - was how much I've learned with John over the last few years.  I don't think I could have gotten this comfortable on Duke this quickly if he hadn't taught me so much with Charlie.  Duke is sweet and all, but he's a really different feel than Charlie.

Aspen wrap up; career vs. riding

Duke continued to improve for our third (recognized) show.  He got a 31 in dressage, with some very nice scores.  There were a couple movements that the judge didn't like (I probably wouldn't have considered them that different from the others), but Duke was calm, quiet, and obedient.  The night before he was full of spitfire and vinegar, and I had to ride him 40 minutes without a break before he softened at all, so I was glad he was just obedient.  I walked him probably 20 minutes, then did 20 minutes of warm up.  The test two before mine I let Duke take a walk break while I watched the test, then I put him back to work for the test before and worked him all the way into the ring.
For show jumping, they had it set up differently, with only 8 riders in at a time with the warm up fences.  Duke was a little jumpy, so we did a lot of walking, then some trot and canter in the "outer" arena.  When we got to the inner arena, we walked again so he could look around and see the show fences.  John helped us warm up, and he was great over the cross rail, vertical, and oxer.  We took a break because we still had several riders to go, but then a young (?) horse started acting up which got other horses wound up, which got Duke wound up.  And that was right around when we needed to jump again, so we did the oxer once badly, then once terribly (knocking it down) and then it was time to go in.  John said that when I changed the direction I was looking, I also dropped my hip, and that was what caused Duke to hit the fence.
I rode him around the fences so he could see as many of them as possible, and we got lucky that the judge was looking into something with the prior rider, so he got to see a bunch.  He jumped really well, once we got going, he focused on the fences instead of looking around.  We got a rail down, and it was great that John was watching because he said I just got a bit tense in between and if I had stayed relaxed and trusted the ride, it would have worked out ok.  We got the hard line (a vertical that was a half stride to an oxer, two stride, vertical), by riding the line that I thought (and confirmed with John) and it was relatively smooth, especially compared to his first month.
Cross country was a piece of cake.  He wanted to be a bit strong, and we were a little faster than I wanted to, and he conked a couple fences.  The first water he was surprised by the dye (I think) and hesitated, trotted in, trotted through, and then we went on our merry way.  He was great on the roller coaster, and once again, great at the trailer and with his ice boots.
He ended up in 8th out of 25, which is good, but I'm kind of annoyed about the rail because it would have been 2nd!

Duke doing well, F's situation with her horse, and the clusterfuck that has been my job has me thinking a lot about the next few years.  I think that Duke has preliminary potential, especially if I can keep regular lessons with John, but starting to get ready last year with Charlie really was an eye opener for how much time it would take for us both to be in shape.  I feel like I have to factor that in for any job change decisions.  I'm going to have to give up some career opportunities, and I don't want to bite off more than I can chew, so I think I probably want to stay in a division and with cases that are relatively easy compared to the meaty stuff I used to do.
To get ready for Prelim, I think I'd need two lessons a week (12 hours), a conditioning ride (4 hours?), plus three rides (6 hours).  So that's 22 hours.  Then I need to work out at least 6 (if I can run) or 9 (if biking) plus the weights and stretching (4 hours).  That's 42 hours.
With a 45 hour work week, that leaves me 3 hours a week, not counting show weeks, after sleeping and eating.
So yes, I can't be in a position where I have a lot of litigation, at least for the next 10-15 years, and that probably knocks out going back to private.

Duke says, "hold my beer" during our jump lesson

It is really smoky from all the fires, and yesterday Duke was a little bit of a spitfire when I rode him - he was rideable - and like Charlie in some ways easier to ride - but he was looking for something to be upset about, like a car door shutting or motion somewhere that my mere human eyes couldn't see.  He did his job, but he did it with essentially a clenched jaw.
So I wondered how he would do today jumping, and it was sort of a couple steps back - he took the bit and charged at the fences and I meekly went along for the ride, but also kind of a step forward - because I knew he would do ok if I screwed up and meekly went along for the ride.
Meekly isn't quite the right word, timid maybe is?  I didn't want to overdo it on the half halts, especially in the combinations, so I did them half-hearted.  And Duke was like "look, if you're not going to be the boss, then I am" and did it his way which is flashy but not elegant, I think.
This is not the most flattering description of my riding (nor should it be), but the eureka was that I was ok with it.  Duke's been with me three months now, and I feel like I'm starting to speak the same language as him most of the time.  He's listening to me, he's just a six year old frat boy who sometimes wants to show off a bit.  And he's athletic enough he can do that.  Now, I wouldn't want him to get it in his head he should do this all the time, but every once in a while, it's ok.  I think that's part of what I liked so much about today, he was saucy, but sweet and manageable, and I always did have a soft spot for hot horses.
We shared our lesson with a very polite teenager - I am always surprised when I meet a polite young teenager - whose horse reminded me of Charlie in his approach to fences, so of course I spent part of the drive home bawling.
John started us over a cross rail, and then he turned it into a vertical and then raised it.  We started going right, and then changed directions and rode it "downhill" and to the left.  Starting, I had to work pretty hard on keeping my left leg on, but as the lesson went on, I didn't feel like I needed to use it quite so dramatically.
From there, John gave us a course.  We rode a yellow vertical with a right hand turn (360 degrees) to the red oxer from last week, with the "hard" (17 meter) left turn to the three black and white fences - an oxer, 4 strides, a vertical, 1 stride, an oxer - then a right turn to a gate and then a "hard" right (not really, so long as you looked at it in the air over the gate) to the final oxer.
Duke was not quite as calm as last week, but it was more fences, and it was a good lesson for me to get that I need to really sit up and give him half halts to rebalance him uphill, not just wish he would do them on his own.  He listens, it sometimes takes me a few strides, but that means I need to feel it coming and hop on them right after the fence.
Also, he had to take over when I overshot the line to the fence - he didn't just do it willy nilly.
I was very happy with the lesson because I felt like it kind of gelled the last few lessons and I just felt like I clicked with Duke and got him and he got me.  We weren't doing our prettiest riding, but I felt like I understood him, and that mattered more than riding perfectly.
John said for show prep, ride him dressage the day before (not a day off) and then reiterated it is a hack the day after (Monday) and his day off is the next day (Tuesday).
We walked around the cross country field (to the water and back) to cool off, and then it was (sigh) dark driving home.  At only 8:30.

Dressage lesson; Duke "encourages" me to lean forward

Today was pretty warm, and we had a dressage lesson indoors, followed by a nice walk up the low trail and then back on the high trail.  I had a bit of a mental fit about F's news about her horse and his multiple injuries, which was interesting because it's really none of my business, but I got quite worked up about it.
John had us start with 20 meter circles at the trot, with a bit of inside bend, and - throughout the lesson - he had to tell me to shorten my reins several times.  He'd have us go down the long side and then come up the quarter line to leg yield over, then go back on the circle to try to get the feel of the leg yield as the bend around my leg on the circle.  The feeling was, more specifically, the feeling of Duke stepping underneath himself by crossing his hind leg under.
Duke was working quite nicely at the trot, and it felt like fine tuning the bend and making those micro movements that we did the last dressage lesson, where Duke is a speed boat who needs lots of small corrections to stay on the line I want.
We did a couple of the moves from Novice Test B, turning at B and then turning the opposite way at E.  It was helpful to practice it in John's arena, because getting the turn timed properly and at the right angle took me a few tries.
Then we cantered, and it was nowhere near as nice as the trot.  Duke was heavy on my hands, and wanted to see saw his jaw back and forth.  John had to remind me to sit tall, and when I did, I could "push" Duke's butt underneath him, but then I'd start to tilt forward again.  This canter, and the transitions, felt a lot more like when Duke first arrived compared to his canter for the last few weeks. It took me about half of the lesson to realize that's because I had the leftover effect of Duke being at John for the last few weeks, and I've probably finally squashed it all out of him.
John had him moving much better by the end of our work, but it took a lot of effort - doing transitions, going down the long side, and one right lead with a massive counterbend to the left all the way around the 20 meter circle.  We also did haunches in, then bend his neck in, and let his haunches go slightly back out, which resulted in a nice bend around me in three steps.
His instructions were similar to the last few lessons, having me bend Duke to the inside, then half halt on the outside, then sit up, then push him forward.
At the end, I asked about the feeling of tilting forward, and he said that it's the shape of Duke's croup; it's just not the easiest canter to sit down and deep, but I shouldn't be thinking I'm sitting down and pushing him forward, more that I'm sitting upright and tall instead of leaning forward.
It was a good lesson; I was most impressed by how soft and fluid Duke was moving, especially at the trot, and how much the transitions improved from the beginning to the end of the lesson, but I'm not quite at the place where I can totally get that feeling on my own at home.
I said that Duke had been kind of stiff to ride all week and John said that it's part of the show schedule, you spend the week after the show getting them quiet and soft (because he wants to go race around cross country) and then the week before the show getting him ready again.  That's why we work on so many diverse things in the winter; in the summer we're just tapering down, tapering up every other week.