Independent aids

We had an amazing lesson today (on Christmas, which was nice for me because it was so quiet at Caber).  John had me start by getting Duke round in the walk, then we went up to trot, then we worked on crossing his front legs over and making the circle smaller.  This was outside leg up next to his shoulder (to push it in), inside leg a little bit back (to keep him from collapsing in), outside hand in kind of a half halt, and inside hand a bit of an open rein.  The bend was to the outside, until we got his legs consistently crossing over, then we slowly bent him back to the inside, and then did a leg yield back out to the full size circle.  This was really delicate maneuvering - I had to keep a feel for where the shoulders were in space, and then use my outside leg as soon as he tried to stop crossing over.  We did this both ways, and then we did it in the canter too, but in the canter, he needed more half halts for balance and control (he kind of wanted to zing around the circle really fast instead of bunching up), and then the feeling was of his front leg crossing under the center of himself, not over.
We had a couple of good trot to canter transitions, although not great, and moderate canter to trot transitions.  John said that we make it right to the end and then Duke pauses in the contact a bit, I let go, and he collapses.  He said it is just one more tiny aid, and then we'll have it.
For the canter, there is a lot of keeping my seat down and my hips moving.  I do ok until I am thinking about each hand and each leg, and then I forget to ride with my seat, and things kind of stall. But especially with the trot to canter transition, if I have him properly bent, round, and with enough impulsion, and I do both legs, my seat bone, and then hips hips hips, we tend to get a pretty nice transition.
After that, we worked just a bit on the stretchy trot, and here, John wanted me to stretch him off of my legs (holding my hands up and pushing him down, not pulling his head down with my hands), which I thought went really well.  For this one, John said his nose needs to tilt just a bit to the inside, but he said not to work on this one too much at home by myself because I'll get frustrated.
My theory is that John taught me the aids, but I couldn't really apply them properly until I got my hands (and legs) more independent.  They're not there yet, but they have improved this month, and I feel like that was a big hurdle in a lot of this.  When I use my left hand, my right hand mimics it (and vice versa) and a lot of these movements are so delicate that it gets lost if I am sloppy and using both hands.  He needs a half halt on the outside and a squeeze (or a give) on the inside, and that is a very different aid than both hands half halting.
I thought Duke did really well.  Although when I got home, I turned him out, and for the third time, the little shit ran away from me when it was time to come in.  Even though it was dinner time.  He didn't carry on like a maniac, but I left him out there while I fed the back horses, and then he let me catch him right away.