Dressage in draw reins

John thought Duke might need to be worked in draw reins, so I brought them with me so that he would be there for the first use and remind me how to ride properly in them.  Duke didn't make a big deal out of it, and John suggested I ride him twice a week in them, but start with them a little loose and only tighter up if he ignores them.
We got some really nice effort out of Duke with them on.  I would describe it as him lifting his back up and balancing, but it made him really tired - he was clearly working much harder, and he could only sustain it for a few steps at a time.
We started with just some 20 meter trot circles, and John had me tighten the draw reins until we got a bit of bend in Duke.  From there, we went to 10 meter trot circles, and John made things a bit more nuanced, with a bit of inside bend, some loosening of my arms, leg on to keep him moving forward, inside leg to encourage him to bend around his ribs, and some inside leg on the "inside" of the circle (without the arena wall) to encourage him to use his inside hind leg to step under himself.  I had a hard time keeping the circle 10 meters, but John said it was ok because it was more important that Duke was bending and pushing himself off the inside, and the circles were still round.
Then we worked on canter, going straight to it on the 10 meter circle.  In the draw reins, it was harder for Duke to pick it up - he wanted to kind of shuffle into it - but man, when he stepped under and balanced, I could feel the difference in his back immediately.  He did decide, once, for no apparent reason, to spook at the same things that had been in the corner the whole ride, so it will be interesting to see if that is something he does once he's working hard to try to get out of work.
When he hesitated in the canter, John said I can either use more seat or more leg, and he, fortunately, makes the feel really obvious so I have plenty of advance warning and can ask him to keep going.
Here, especially to the right, we did a bit of inside hand to the inside, and John said especially if he was stiff all week (which he was, consistently to the right).
Then we did a bit of shoulder in.  John had us start on the circle, and, for shoulder in to the right, my left hand came over to but stopped at his neck.  We did it on the circle, and then down the long side, and Duke did that pretty well too.  It seemed a lot easier to do in the draw reins than without them, but maybe that was also partially because he was moving well by that point.
John suggested when he's having a stiff day, it's ok to work a little more on the stiff side, but do it about 60/40, not like all on the stiff side and ignore the soft side.

First jump lesson inside

Today was our first indoor jump lesson.  John doesn't have grids set up yet, and said that it will be interesting to see how Duke reacts to them - whether Jane worked with him on grids (and he still drifts left), so he'll have to come up with something different - or whether this will be his first grid work, and it will hopefully help with the drift.
I told John that Duke has been anxious most of the week, riding indoors.  He suggested using an ear net to muffle the noise a bit, and said that seeing what makes the noise can be a stress reducer.  So I'll try that (the ear net, and then I'll see if I can roll the doors back open).  He also said we'll probably need to ride him once a week in draw reins, so I'll make sure to bring those to my next lesson and make sure that I've got it right and John is there for the first try.
John had us do a bit of warm up, and Duke was reluctant to bend right and was kind of blowing me off when I asked him to, so John had us make a 10 meter circle instead.  After a few laps, Duke decided he'd rather do a bit of bend than keep going around on the 10 meter circle.
John said, especially with the anxiety in the indoor at home, to stay calm.  If I whip him (or kick him, or get stiff), he uses that as an excuse to stiffen up even more.  Instead, I have to just keep going on and ask him in a different way, like with haunches in.
We started with a little half jump, and I couldn't quite get it right.  Then John had me use my outside leg to make the turn to the fence (instead of my inside rein) and it was one of those eureka moments.  A eureka moment where I caught on to the concept, but then pretty much failed to get it right every other fence, but at least I could feel the difference.  That was a little bit of the theme of the night, trying to get the turn and angle correct on the way to the fence; when I did, the fence generally rode pretty well.
From there, we rode the vertical on the far end, then the vertical-vertical line which was either a 5 or 6 stride.  Most of the time we rode it on 5, but a couple times on 6.  That wasn't my doing.  I was focused on trying to get that first turn in the correct location.  If I got that right, then most of what I did was try to keep him from wiggling too much off of the straight line in between the two fences.
Then John had us switch directions, and it was very, very interesting how much easier it was to ride.  This was from the far side of the arena back towards the entrance, and even though the area between the wall and fence was smaller on the far side of the arena, it was an easier turn to make (and maybe it helped that it was left lead instead of right lead).  It also felt like it was easier to ride straight.  John noted that on the right lead, although I was mad that we were drifting left, it wasn't anywhere near as much as when Duke arrived here.
Finally, we made a figure 8 between two verticals (right turn, left lead over vertical; left turn, right lead over vertical).  It was easier to land on the right lead than the left lead, but this was also partially getting the correct line to the fence from the turn, but looking up and through the out - which was a challenge to keep my eye from looking at the next fence, and instead looking at the hole we were going to go through.
Duke did a great job.  He isn't as nervous at John's, and I really needed the lesson after the shit week at work last week.  I (almost) always feel like a weight is lifted off of my shoulders and I relax and breathe better after I ride with John.
John said he likes riding Duke more than Charlie.  Duke is a lot more reactive.  I agree, but I don't have all the tools in the tool belt to ride Duke yet, and I'm terrified I'm going to ruin him - get in a battle when he's being a nit wit and set us both back a couple years, or - the other way - be afraid of getting in a battle and let him get away with too much and spoil him.  Thank goodness I will have John working with us to nip anything going too far in the bud.  I think once John teaches me how to ride him, he's going to be a great partner.

Grand Canyon & jump lesson

John worked with Duke while I was in the Grand Canyon while Judith did Rim2Rim.  After John was on him a few days, Duke was much softer in my hands, had a ton more forward push from behind, and was more fine tuned to the aids.  I expect it made it a bit of a challenge for him to be ridden by me, with my crude aids, sometimes in the wrong places and wrong times.  I could feel the difference immediately, but it was most notable at the canter, where he had a big push up into his back and was more forward.  I will try to remember this feel, to remember the range of flexibility that Duke has in how he moves, and how I don't need to accept just a little bit of push.
John says we'll take that movement and then start to put him on the bit, and that will make a big difference for his movement next year.  John's style is to get the big movement, then put him on the bit, and my style is to put him on the bit, then add the movement.  He also said that we need to work on the right hind - that his right canter needs far more work than his left canter (and I agree, it feels so different, although both ways feel so much better than a few months ago when he arrived), but that right now, it takes lots and lots and lots of delicate aids, and then Duke gets tired after just a few steps.  So John said we'll work on this over the winter, and as he gets stronger, it won't require quite so many aids at once and he'll be able to hold it longer.
We jumped outside after warming up inside.  For the inside warm up, I bent Duke to the inside, using a big wide inside hand, but then moved his ribs with my inside leg.  I needed to push the left hand forward, to give him enough space to bend to the inside, and then we moved him in and out, between 10 meter and 20 meter circles, but asking him to lead with his rib cage.  John says to work on this at home, overbending until he gives, then softening, then having him keep moving.  He said that he looks stiffer from the ground than he is in your hand, so we'll also work on that.
Outside, we started over a cross rail, first to the left (at a trot, then canter), then to the right, then a vertical.  Duke was more forward, it felt like, but I think it was just that he had more canter from being ridden by John.
From there, we went to a long 4, which was a gate to gate, which was a bit of a challenge.  Duke wanted to "weave" - which isn't quite the right description - and if I used too much left leg, he used it as an excuse to charge off on the far end.  I had a hard time getting the long four, but John said that was because we would come in - for example - on the left side, then weave around in the middle and then launch.  He had a pole on the left on the second fence.  After a few tries, I got him lined up more in the middle for the first fence, and kept him on that line to the second fence, and then it went better.  John was happier because he squared up his shoulders to the fence, like I asked him to, instead of focusing quite so much on not touching a rail.  He said he'll be easy to tune up on being careful of the rails, but it's harder to get him to be square to the fence.  We turned around and did it the other direction, which was a lot easier since that was on his left lead.
From there, we turned and did an oxer which was just to the left of the first gate - to see how he'd do thinking he was going to do the gate and then realize it was the oxer.  He jumped it gorgeously.  Then we turned right and did an oxer to vertical two stride, which was ever so slightly downhill and was 4 1/2' short.  For both the first oxer and that vertical, Duke lifted himself up and over with his back, which felt great.
John said that we did a few things well as it went along - instead of launching him, I let him figure it out, and those last few fences were ridden very well.  I felt that they went well, but I think it was more luck and Duke; I just tried to wait for him regardless of the distance, instead of worrying about trying to get each one perfect.
However, I have finally - after five long years - mastered petting the neck after a good fence, and I do it with my left hand, which is holding a whip, which is a racehorse's signal to take off.  So in addition to being proud of himself, I'm basically telling Duke to bolt on the far side.  John said he doesn't want to discourage praising the horse, but to either put the reins in my left hand and stroke with my right, or scratch his neck with my fingers.
John wanted to do the long line since the footing is probably going to be too wet by next weekend, and to help gauge which gymnastics we'll need to work on this winter.
Although Duke has gained a lot of weight and some muscle, John said not to cut back on his food yet, that he'll start losing weight and we want him to go into the beginning of winter just a little fat.

Dressage with a scalpel rather than an axe

John is still trying to get some of Duke's nuances through to me, and I can ride it while he says it, but I am still struggling to put it into words and repeat it on my own.
The two "easy" takeaways from today's lesson are that my right leg is sitting too far behind the girth (giving Duke an excuse to use it as a haunches aid, and evade the extra work that goes along with putting that right hind leg up and underneath himself) and my left hand has a death grip on the reins when I am giving aids with my right hand, which kind of defeats what the right hand is doing.  So I have to consciously think about pushing my right leg a little more forward and giving, just a bit, with the left rein.  Duke responded very quickly and easily to the left hand, which helped a lot in rewarding my behavior and seeing how he CAN bend to the right when I'm not holding him locked in place so that he can't.
John added a new exercise today, a 3 loop serpentine but from quarter line to quarter line, and sometimes with 10 meter circles thrown in.  He said at home to do it left/right/left loops first, and once Duke starts to bend and give, then add right/left/right.
We worked on Duke's bend, mostly, with the same need to "break up" his reluctance to bend by putting his haunches in, then bending his neck in, then asking him to go forward once he accomplished both.  Sometimes, this also needed just a bit of leg yield out on the circle.
We also worked a little bit on leg yields down the long side, and making sure to use the outside rein.  Duke is easy to feel when he crosses underneath, vs just bending his neck and moving sideways (not that I can always get him to cross, just that I can feel the difference between the two). We also worked on rhythm, and using the half halt to steady him a bit, at both the trot and canter.
At the canter, I need to sit down more, I am letting myself tip forward, and when I use my core to stay planted in the saddle, Duke responds by kind of lifting up into his back.  But it takes a lot of core to stay there, instead of going into a half seat.
This doesn't do the lesson justice describing it, but it was like we'd be riding around, and then I'd feel Duke balance or step under himself, and then there was that "lift", that makes him smoother and easier to ride.  We'd usually only keep it for a few steps, but it was definitely there, and we can definitely do it, but I still need John helping me with the different steps.
We also worked on crossing the diagonal, and keeping Duke steady.  All of this work, was, by the way, far better than anything we did at shows, so that's good too, because after I work with John all winter, I'll hopefully be at this level at a show by next year, which will be a big improvement.
After the lesson, there were some geese walking in the show jumping arena.  Duke's eyes got huge and I could feel his little heart beating under my leg.  They were just walking around and quacking, but Duke was blown away.  I guess they do sound a little like dinosaurs.
John said that whether he gives a horse a vacation depends on the horse, and so far, Duke seems like the type who probably doesn't need or want one.  I don't want to wear out his legs, but he seems to get crabby when he's not ridden.  He's been a little crabbier in the stall too - I'm guessing all the switching of staff at the barn might be affecting him.  Although of course, it's probably me, oblivious to something I'm doing.