Jump lesson with Christa

Today we shared our jump lesson with Christa and Freebie, which was awesome.
John had us work on trot and canter both directions to start, and my main instructions were to get Duke more round (and bless his little heart, as soon as I asked him to, he stepped it up), and then to work on my position - elbow in, heels down, don't lean forward.
We started over a little cross rail, with a ground pole about 6' (maybe 7') in front and on the far side, which Duke just stepped over; he didn't even pretend like he was jumping it.
John eventually raised this to what seemed like about 3'6", with us trotting in.  Katy sent me a slow mo video of us jumping it, which was interesting to watch.
Then we did the grid, which started with a ground pole, cross rail, ground pole, vertical, and then ground pole.  He ended with an oxer that was about 4' tall and wide by the end.  I couldn't look down at it, I had to look up and over the top so I wasn't staring it down.
Duke was great every time.  The only thing we really had to work on was to steer him with my legs when he started to drift a little, not to use my hands.  And a couple times, just to give him a bit of a nudge with my legs to keep him going.
I also had to sit up and help turn him balanced after we landed (same old same old, but I think it's getting better), and at the end, when it was huge, John said that I needed to sit up, but not put my hips down.  So instead of using my hips to leverage my upper body up - I need to break them apart, and keep my hips still and lift my chest.  This is apparently the next level of body parts working independently.  It was hard enough to get my hands different than each other, but to separate my shoulders from my hips - yowza.
I also had to work on keeping my heels down.  I thought we felt pretty smooth, and like I had a lot more time on the far side of the fence to get Duke balanced and round around the corners, so I think we're progressing.  And good lord, Duke jumps like a dream boat.  I love the 4' (ish) fences because we're in the air for So. Long.  It's awesome.