Little indoor jump course

Tonight we jumped a little five fence course forwards then backwards (mostly).  Duke was great - he's like a completely different horse than when he arrived eight months ago - he was just as steady and confident as he could be.
We started with some warm up on the flat, where John had us work back through getting him round.  Duke was a bit resistant (he was most of the week at home too), so we had to do some counter flex before we had success bending to the inside.  John had me make him forward first, then try to make him round, and I had to use the outside rein on the bit of a diagonal aid, as well as inside leg at the same rhythm as his trot.  We would get really close, but really struggled with getting the final little push to complete it.
John had us go from the canter on the 20 meter circle straight over this tiny vertical with a ground pole, and then he raised it up.  What was interesting was Duke jumped the little tiny vertical just as nice as he jumps a big 3'8" fence - and by nice, I mean he keeps his form.  He doesn't just canter over it.
John raised it, then added a vertical on the opposite wall.  It had standards for an oxer, but no oxer pole, and it didn't have the ground pole in the front, so the first time through I was helpless, but after that, it becomes a regular jump again.
So we went from vertical to vertical a couple times, then John had us jump the narrow.  Duke thought no problem.  From there, John added a one stride combination - again, Duke thought no problem.  Then John changed direction, so it was a hard left turn into the combination, and he said that I didn't fall for the bait, which was to stare down the first fence because the turn was tight, but kept my eye up on the exit.  This was only because I had stared down the fence without the ground pole at the start of the lesson, so he had reminded me not to.
He said to keep that in mind at a show, don't stare down the first fence, especially when you can't see the second one, because then you'll get a puke over the first fence and a struggle to get out over the second one.
Duke got pretty sweaty, but we didn't jump big fences.  He was nice and steady, he had, of course, a few that were long and few that were short, but it wasn't the mad scramble and me reefing on his face to make it around the corners like we were doing after he arrived.
I also asked John about his odd canter last week (?); he picked up the right lead three times in a row before remembering how to pick up the left lead.  John said that next time if he picks it up incorrectly walk him, tap him a few times with the inside leg, trot, and then canter.  He's probably just confused about the aid (are we about to do a leg yield? trot?  what?) and that reminds him.
It was a good lesson.  Mom took pictures but there was only one that had us in it going over the fence.  I'm really proud of how well Duke is coming along.  He's a good boy.