Third jump lesson; Duke getting back into it

For today's jump lesson, John gave us a little height and a little challenge.
We started with ground poles and a vertical; then a second vertical.
Rather than add the third oxer, John had us ride through, halt, do a turn on the forehand (which was absolutely pitiful), then ride back through the other direction.
Then we went back through and did it just one direction, with flow, until Duke did one absolutely perfectly.
As always, he gradually made the fences higher (ending at 3'11" -ish).
The biggest instruction to me was not to let him rush, and to slow him by using my upper body to sit back (and to open my chest), and to remember to use my damn voice.  After a couple times through where I thought slow and said 'whoa-whoa', Duke got the hang of it and rounded himself up and over instead of plowing through.
John had us work a bit to start on the flat, as well, trying to get Mr Strung Out round and do some half decent transitions.  We did some haunches in, outside bend, and - I think - inside leg to outside hand.
I thought the halt, turn around, and ride back through was terrifying, because it didn't look like we had enough "runway" to get through the fences, but Duke had no problem with it.
He was also much better about not rushing on the far side; I could easily halt him, or trot, or do a nice canter around the corner, unlike the first couple lessons where we were basically ramming the wall.
One time I let him drift left and John told me if I did it again, I had to ride without stirrups - I had to look up (it's easy to look down the line at the letter) and keep him in the center.
We talked about Duke's attitude, possible causes, possible solutions, and his diet.  John said he's put on enough weight now, it was just how much he was losing each trailer ride last summer, and he was too skinny by the end, so it is better to start him a little fat this year.  He said if he starts losing weight, we'll increase grain again (I replaced half a scoop of senior with half a scoop of rolled oats and cut out his evening beet pulp).
It was a really satisfying lesson, although the flat was not beautiful, the jumping felt a lot better than the last couple.  It was definitely too much time off.

Jump lesson with Christa

John started our jump lesson by making me ride without stirrups at the posting trot because I hadn't told him Christa was coming too.  When it got too pitiful, he had me switch to standing up in the stirrups; he wanted my ankles to drop, but my damn ankles weren't interested.  I had to hang on to Duke's breastplate to even stay up.
We did some trot and canter work, then worked our way through the grid - cross rail with ground poles, then to vertical, then to oxer.  Like last week, my job was to not let Duke put his head down and run on the far side.  We did better than last week, but I still had to ram him into the wall a couple times.
One time it worked great, and it was partly how I lined him up coming in, partly that I stayed balanced all the way through, and partly magic.  The rest of the times, I fucked something up.
Near the end, John suggested that I say "whoa" over the last fence (and also had me look the direction I wanted to go).  Like every other time John has reminded me of this, "whoa" out loud works amazing with Duke, yet it never occurs to me to do.
I have a trailer tire going flat, and like last year with my car tire, couldn't find an easy place to fill it on the way home.  So that's the next irritant to deal with.

Dressage

Duke and I had a great dressage lesson today.  John worked us pretty hard on getting the correct bend, and asking Duke to put his weight on his hind end ("sitting back") while still going forward.  We had a few good moments, but good god - my fucking hands were like somebody with Parkinson's.  It was agonizing.  I could not get them to be still.
Duke was good about stepping forward and under, bending to the outside and inside, leg yielding in and out, and his transitions.  He was just jerky with his head (making the reins bounce).
We talked a bit about how I don't have enough imagination to ride the flat by myself without lessons; I need what we worked on in the last couple lessons to work into my routine.  John suggested trying music that gets me motivated.
I also asked for help with the training schedule for this year (which technically hasn't started yet).  John said he was working on it tonight, and would think about it, but let me know he was disappointed in me last year, for being a sore loser.  I asked him if I showed the signs of being about to quit, and he said he hoped not, but that if I kept up like last year, yes.
He said he can still see progress, but he thinks I can't see it, and he thinks that is what will make me quit, feeling like I'm no longer making progress.
Lesson was trying to re-ingrain what we were doing a couple months ago, getting him round, bent properly, moving off of my legs, but stepping forward and under.
I told him when I sit up, Duke does a down transition; he told me to make sure my hips keep moving, so then we did really big hips at the canter, got him moving really forward, and then used outside rein to rock him back onto his haunches.  Duke was pretty good about this, but I had to really concentrate.

Back-to-back dressage and jump (!!!!)

After an incredible drought in the lesson world, I finally had lessons a few days ago, dressage on Friday and jumping (yay!) on Saturday.  We haven't jumped since EI, although John has jumped Duke since then, so I was a little nervous.
Duke was pretty good for both.  For dressage, we went back to working on the same issues as a couple months ago (so we haven't regressed too badly), on a circle, working on outside bend, inside bend, and shifting legs to keep him forward and "straight".
For jumping, we started with some flat work, and then jumped a cross rail (with a bunch of ground poles) to a vertical, to a closer vertical, to an oxer.  The big goal here was not to let him drop his head and root on the far side so if I couldn't make him soft before the turn, I had to stop him before the wall.  The wall acted like a natural barrier.  He dove down a couple of times, but was actually really great for how long it's been since we've jumped.
And John played the Queen song that is the theme of my life:  "Under Pressure."  Thank god it wasn't "Fat Bottomed Girls."