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.