Gymnastic

John started with some work on helping Duke to soften instead of jutting his head out (or up in the transitions) all stiff.  This is that same tricky - too many things happen at once - riding that I can't really describe, but I can feel when we get it right.
My best effort:
 - Reins should be short enough that when I ask for bend to the inside, I don't touch my own leg with my hand.  I did a lot of squeezing with the inside hand to try to get him to bend to the inside.
 - When he flat out refused, we'd bend him to the outside and then back to the inside.
 - Half halt still needed to happen on the outside, but I need to do a better job keeping my elbow connected to my hip.  I tend to push forward with the outside hand, I think especially when I am trying to use my inside leg.
 - I'd use outside leg pushed back to get him to put his haunches in, and then use it at the girth to keep him from drifting outside the circle.
 - I'd use inside leg to bend him.
 - I'd use both legs to push him forward, once he got soft and round.
 - For the canter, on the left lead, I was also putting more weight on my left seat bone and pushing down.
 - For transitions, I'd try to keep that inside bend going through the transition, so he didn't stiffen and toss his head up.
Duke got soaking wet just doing this part of the lesson, and I had to ride around most of the time with my tongue stuck out.  In fact, I have it stuck out typing trying to remember the feel of the movements and how to describe them.  Duke was moving great, and he felt fabulous, but my reaction time is still a little too slow for me to put all this together on my own.  What I think the take away was, though, was that I need to expect more from him and ask more from him, and not just be happy with what he offers.
Then we jumped.
We started with a little itty bitty vertical with a ground line in front of it, and one of the floppy jumps, John said that's the issue with show jumping at the shows.  I ask for the half halt, he blows it off, so I don't commit, and we come in at the wrong angle/speed.  John said to look through the turn, decide what I want, and ride it.  And so I did.  And it worked.
So then we did a cross rail, vertical, then an over that grew, and changed directions on the far side.  We haven't done this particular exercise since last winter, so it was interesting to see how we've changed over the summer.  I had to think heels down, back flat, and BOTH legs on, and I cut the right hand turn too short a couple times, but I think it was better than last winter.  One time Duke was a little slow, but other than that, he pretty much went through like a champ.  He likes to jump.  For this, it was me half halting before the turn to the fence, looking to the fence before we started to turn, and then closing my leg to ride through, and then over the oxer, looking the direction I wanted to go.
It's kind of frustrating that I still need to be told the basics (heels down, back flat) but if anyone can ever get it through my thick head, it'll be John.
It wasn't raining, so we got to do a quick walk around the back to cool off; Duke even had sweat under his chin.