Jumping with Parker

Today we worked on similar exercises to the jump lesson we had last week with Christa.  John was working with Parker when we arrived, and so we did some warm up and then John had Parker take a break while we warmed up over fences.  Mostly he had me work on getting Duke round, like he was yesterday, which was pretty easy, but I had a eureka moment.  For the down transitions, Duke likes a steady calf pressure, not a squeeze, not on and off, on and off, but solid pressure.  This worked really well, if I could use my calves properly.
We started over a green vertical, then added the yellow oxer, then went over the two stride, and then down the angle/angle/angle with two strides in between.
Duke was getting a little feisty like last week, so John had me either use the outside rein, or halt.  We had a hard time with the five stride bending line, so John had us ride it towards the E, and then halt instead of jumping the fence.  Then he told me to ride it and halt again, but two strides in, told me to jump, and finally we jumped it perfectly.  We ended on that, and then walked down the road and back in the gorgeous weather.
Duke was a bit sleepy on the ground (I assume tired from his hard work with John yesterday), but he pepped right up.  John said he didn't want him to get any bad habits, so to make sure that he halted.
John said it was good he rode Duke yesterday (and I agree), and this was a better lesson than last week, but I suspect we're going to have a hard time with stadium in prelim this year, especially the day after cross country.
John said that what makes Duke a good cross country horse (he jumps anything I point him at from wherever I point him) is going to create some challenges in stadium.
(On the other hand, his lengthening today was world's better than yesterday, after one ride from John.)
He said when I'm riding the course, I want to know where I want to go, but I don't want to look ahead of time, so that Duke doesn't get latched onto what happens next, especially since he can make the turns so sharp.