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.