Jump lesson outside - with Alina and Freddy

On Friday, we had our first outside jump lesson at Caber for the year, in the gorgeous, warm sunshine. John had us ride with Alina and Freddy. We started by cantering over a cross rail, then we jumped a vertical with what would have been a difficult right turn through two fences but compared to the left turn was a cakewalk. John turned it into an oxer, then made us a few courses. Duke was NOT all grab the bit and go like he was when we first went outside last year, but we also already schooled at Tulip (*real* outside) so maybe it was just the first time out that he gets excited?
First course was uphill over an oxer, left turn to a slightly narrow vertical, left turn to the corner, right turn to angle over a vertical and squirt between it and the uphill oxer. The first time, we kind of flailed over the angled vertical, but the next time Duke cruised it. I asked John to lower the vertical the first time, but he just pretended to.
Then we did oxer, hard left turn (I'd call it a rollback) to angle over a panel, squirt through the hole in the fences to jump a vertical, right hand turn back over the oxer? Again, Duke jumped it great. John said he expected Duke to think that instead of going through the hole, he was supposed to jump the oxer at an insane angle, and so I did a good job rebalancing and focusing him in between the fences.
Last course ended with an angle angle in a two stride from the vertical to the oxer, which I thought was an insane angle and looked impossible, but Duke, again, just cruised it.
Duke was spectacular. Other than the one flail, he got to do each course just once. He's a good little jumper, loves to do it.
This week he's gotten some turn out and we're at six days of easily caught; yesterday he even waited at the fence for me to come get him, and a couple times walked up to me. Yesterday, we went on a walk around the block instead of going on a trail ride, just to get him a change of scenery. He got a little nervous and jigged a couple times, and was a little anxious about the mailboxes, but was a good boy who tried to hold his shit together.

Duke moved like John had just ridden him

Duke started out today kind of flat and sluggish.  John asked me what was wrong, and I started to list things, and he stopped me and told me to start fixing them, one at a time.  So we started with getting Duke forward.  John had me get him WAY more stepping than I would ever dream of doing by myself, and from there, we started to make him bend and then get round.  He said the same thing happens to me at shows, I get overwhelmed and I don't break it down into steps.  Just pick the first thing, work on it, and then work on the next thing.  And hot damn, it worked like a charm.  After we got forward, we worked on bend (Duke was stiff in his jaw) so I moved bent his neck to the inside, then to the outside.  If he tried to fall in, I pushed him out with my inside leg, and then when he tried to bulge out, I used my outside aids to keep him on the circle.  From there, we went to 10 meter circles and then pushing him in and pushing him out, just to get him to bend his body.  On the 10 meter circle, when I got to the "middle", if I rode it like I was going to change direction (and then didn't) it helped me use my outside aid better on the first part of the next circle.
Then the magic happened, and of course it was magic so I can't really describe it.  The end result was that we had medium trot, and I could totally feel it, and then we had real honest to god lengthening and I could totally feel it.  But how we got there?  It had something to do with Duke stepping forward, and then bending, and then going round, and then I asked him to go forward with my legs but I used my hands with the round aids and so his step got bigger and bouncier instead of faster.
We worked on the canter too, with the same feels, and then John had me work on the sitting trot which was massively unpleasant.  Even though Duke was moving big and soft, I just couldn't unlock my back and I just pounded around up there on the poor guy.  For the sitting trot and for the canter, John had to tell me to sit up and to put my butt down in the saddle, I just kept tilting more and more forward.
At the end, he told me to halt and we halted - boom - perfectly square.
It was pretty amazing because I've never gotten Duke to move that well for that long by myself before, especially starting so dull (but John said with attentive ears) and so it was cool that I could do it, even if I needed John talking me through every step.  And I could totally feel the difference in the movement, and I could answer a bunch of John's questions about what was wrong and what the aid was to fix it; I just wasn't applying them but passively waiting for him to say it (I'm afraid I'm wrong).  It felt amazing, and I wish I could ride like that every day, although it was also kind of exhausting.

Jump with Christa

We had a lesson with Christa tonight, which I was late for because I-5 was closed and it took 40 minutes to go the six miles on the arterial roads down to the next exit.
THEN I needed John to help me put on Duke's new breastplate, which wasn't quite set up right, so thank god for John to help me put it together and adjust it on Duke to make sure it fit.
THEN we got to ride.  He started us on trot and canter circles, then we jumped a cross rail (right lead), switched to left over it, jumped a vertical, switched to right, etc.  John gradually raised these, and we actually did really well spacing ourselves it, which was the most amazing part to me.  As John started to raise them, Duke started to drift left, until eventually we knocked one down and messed up the flow.  We had a few where we came in on just exactly the right spacing, and those felt great, but I had a hard time when it was off, to get him back to the right place with a half halt.  Instead, we'd leap long over it, or he'd drift left (to give himself more space?).
From there, John had us take turns.  I started, and he yelled the fences as I got close, instead of telling them all ahead of time.  We did the same two verticals, added an oxer, and then added a narrow oxer to narrow vertical 3-stride (but long three) line.  We took turns on these a few times, and our third round, Duke got what I thought was a little grabby and downhill, but John thought was just him taking hold of the bit, not necessarily going downhill.  Duke did a really nice job trying to keep his feet clear, and John pointed out to Christa that they didn't get a single rail, so he thinks at the shows, she's holding her hands (and body) tense and it's transmitting to Freebie.
Duke was really glad to jump, and then really sweet afterwards, so I think John is right, he got sour from all that dressage when he kept pulling his shoes and I was messing around with the arena footing.
This weekend is Tulip, so we'll see how excited he is - hopefully not too excited - being out in the cross country course.