Clinic and JumperDaze (#2)

Yesterday, Duke and I rode with Allison and Sara, which was intimidating and kind of cool.  Duke was much better than last time, but it was still a pretty rough ride.  Afterwards, we walked around the track with Allison and Mojo, and she said that he might not be more difficult in show jumping after cross country this year because the height of the fences might back him off a little bit.
John said that I have to balance him in the corners, but then keep my leg on to the fence.  I'm also having trouble with the tighter turns - it is kind of going "too far" and then lining back up with where I want to go; otherwise, I cut in and miss the striding.  Since these turns have to be ridden just right, I really need to figure this out.
Duke did much better with me telling him "whoa" in between fences, and also a little more nuanced half halt, with lower leg squeezing.
He had a few times he got strong, and John doesn't want him to get bad habits, so he had to halt afterwards (or halt on the way to the fence), and then we had to re-ride some when he leaped in long and flat and fast, to get the 5 strides (instead of doing it in 4).
Watching the other riders made me feel a little better because they seemed to have some of the same issues as me, although I bet we looked a little rough too.
Both Allison and Andrea said that Duke is looking really good, and he definitely loves jumping and tries hard.  I'm still pretty anxious though about whether we're really going to be ready to ride prelim this year.
The good news is I had the height wrong.  It's not 3'11", but 3'7".
It was good to ride in the nice weather, and an improvement, but I'd like to have an honest conversation with John about expectations.