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.