Jump lesson with Christa and Anna

Duke and I got to share a lesson with both Christa and Anna tonight, which was pretty cool.  John talked about some of the SSHF show issues, and then we started with a cross rail, which became a vertical, and then we changed direction and went over a little oxer.  We each got rails on the oxer, but when John asked Anna why, she told him exactly; Christa and I both said "dunno" although the answer was the same for both - the difference was between being on the forehand and being engaged behind (uphill).  The distance rode exactly the same, but we got a rail for a forehand jump and no rail for an engaged jump.
Then John had us jump a bigger oxer, then the gate - 5 strides - bigger oxer.  This went ok, which was frustrating because it was basically the same line as from the show, and at the show, we got a rail on the oxer.
Then he made it hard.  It was gate to big oxer, right hand turn, vertical, hard left hand turn in three strides to oxer, right hand 90 degree turn to vertical two stride oxer (and then, finally, right hand turn around to biggest oxer).
The right hand turns slay me.  It doesn't matter how many times we do them, the second I stop riding one, I forget everything and fuck it up the very next time.  To ride a right hand turn on Duke I have to keep my left leg on his left shoulder and Not. Let. Him. Drift.  It's that fucking simple, and yet every single god damned right hand turn I'd forget again.
It was a very educational lesson though, because John pointed out that we'd be tootling along, happy as could be, and in one stride, Duke would go from completely balanced and exactly what I wanted, to bulging out through the left shoulder and drifting.  (he showed me where on the ground that it happens, and it is like the stride before we start making the turn.). So if I have a long approach, I can fix it, because it happens, I feel it, I have a few strides to push him back into place.  But if I am doing a very tight turn, I don't feel it in time to fix it.  So he said anticipate it.
The other big takeaway from this lesson was that Duke has to listen to me.  So two of the jumps were awkward because everything was going ok and then Duke was like "hold on" and accelerated long and flat (his preferred style of jumping) (and actually, mine too).  One of the times he tried this, I told him "no, I've got this" and then we held the speed and balance and it went fine.  So John said at the show, I've got to tell him "no, listen to me about this" and Duke has to respond.
As mad as I am about the two rails, what I really want is to understand why, and John said part of it is that Duke is good at cross country, but that means he's not as good at show jumping, and there might not be much we can do about it.  We can try to show jump the last few fences on xc, and then warm him up loose for show jumping, so he respects the rails, but he is good at cross country because he thinks for himself and goes long and fast, and if he does the same thing in show jumping, we'll get rails.  John said that Anna had horses that no matter what you did in show jump warm up, they just used it to get themselves loose and relaxed before they went into show jumping and clobbered the fences.  So that made me feel a little better.
He said you can jump from a tight turn, or a loose rein, or close up, but some horses will just take care of it in warm up, and then switch the second they get in the ring.
I guess it's worth it, for the confidence and fun on cross country.  He said sometimes they grow out of it and figure it out, but sometimes they figure it out the wrong way.
He said a horse like Duke comes off of cross country super proud of himself - chest puffed out - showing off to the wimpy novice horses, and that when he's a beast on xc, it's harder to get him the very next day to be respectful of the fences.  I think that's maybe why we didn't have problems last year or the beginning of this year - I was going slow and careful on cross country.  But after steeplechase at Rebecca, when I really felt him go fast, I've been letting him go faster and faster to get ready for the feel of prelim speed.
So the silver lining is I figured it out a little bit on my own.  The other thing I figured out - although too late, which is the frustrating part - is that when he grabbed the bit and tried to take charge, I shouldn't have pulled back and wrestled with him, but should have relaxed my hand.  It makes me mad, that John has told me that (over and over), and yet in the moment when I needed it (and knew it), I didn't think to do it.