Another tough dressage lesson

We worked 40 minutes straight yesterday - hard work, and almost all of it at the sitting trot.
The "progress" news is that I can sit the trot through most of the movements for almost 40 minutes. Not elegantly, but a couple years ago, I wouldn't have believed it was possible.
We worked on 10 meter circles, changing direction, shoulder in, and a lot of leg yield. The leg yield was bend him OPPOSITE the direction we're going, and use outside rein to make sure he steps over enough with his hind legs.
The other tip John had was rather than pull my leg back for a stronger aid, turn my toe out and use the spur instead.
For trot, he said even though it feels like I'm sitting on a jackhammer, at sitting try to think left right left right so my hips swing, and at canter think sit glide sit glide. Thinking those helped a lot.
In other questions, John said a supplement should include glucosamine, but that I can try quitting smartpak for a month and see if it makes a difference.
He said that he does a "hack" day after a condition day, which is 20-30 minutes of walk and then a little bit of trot work.
He says sometimes he conditions in draw reins, and that I should be working Duke round, not letting him go all flat.
And for schooling at Spokane, he says ok to drive over and school xc same day, so long as Duke has several hours rest in between. He says if he goes lame from the drive/xc/xc/drive in two days, he was going to go lame in competition season.
I'd say it took until about minute 25 or 30 in the lesson before Duke started carrying himself and quit hanging so heavy on my arms with his head. John even tightened both his nose band and flash because he was gnawing on the bit so much.
John says none of us are working hard enough without the early shows, and that Rebecca is going to come up on his fast, so we need to start working much harder.

Hard (difficult) dressage lesson

John started by making me put my hands behind my back, lean back, and then roll my neck. He said that I'm coming in so tense, I'm curled up and balled up, and that means that when Duke pulls on me, my whole body tilts forward and back, because I'm not loose in my elbows and they can't move independently from my body.
It felt horribly awkward to roll my neck around and relax. It was awkward how awkward it was.

Then John made me a square and we started the lesson by walking shoulder in along the side, then doing a walking turn on the forehand at each turner, into another shoulder in. It probably took me three trips to figure out the feel, and then - only once - Duke got stuck, froze, I used outside leg, and we moved on. The hard part was - going right - doing shoulder in but also keeping him bent to the right and then turning in time to make the next corner of the square.
Then we turned it into a 15 meter circle - sort of but using the four center points of the square as the circle points, and keeping that same feel. Then a circle, then back to the four corners.
Then we did it at the trot. Yikes. It was so much faster and harder. Then we changed direction, and we didn't need to work as hard going to the left as we had to the right.

Then we switched to 20 meter circles and did our canter work, which for some reason just felt brutal today. Even though Duke was round and stepping decently under himself, at the canter, he was just HANGING on my hands, and my choices were either to slip the reins or let him pull my ass out of the saddle and thump around.
I had to hold his head with my hands, grip the reins like I was riding a rocket into space, and then tuck my pelvis and push my butt into the saddle.
John said Duke needs to understand that he can't keep taking-taking-taking the reins and then look round, but I don't actually have enough grip to make a turn or do anything with him.

It was a great lesson. Also, we established that John can't talk fast enough to tell me every aid. When he tells me to do something with my right leg, for example, my left leg just quits doing anything.

Dressage on Black Thursday for birds

We had a great dressage lesson today. Duke was a little stiff a couple rides ago, and pretty ok yesterday, but he got too sweaty for the level we worked. John started by holding the reins while I asked Duke to walk, and then he got Duke to go round just with his hands. I tried to watch what he was doing but it was hard to tell; I think outside hand stayed steady while inside hand used fingers only to squeeze and release. John had a couple other boarders riding, and for a while, we worked in two different 20 meter circles. He had me feel Duke bent in his body, but not in his neck, and then "plant" my outside hand so it didn't move, and use only my inside hand. If Duke tries to rise above the bit, I add more leg to push him into the contact, and then after a while, Duke was actually using his hind legs to push (and getting springy).
In the canter, John had me ride with my inside seat bone diagonal across the saddle towards his other shoulder, i.e. on the left lead, I'd slide my left seat bone towards Duke's right shoulder. This helped Duke balance or lift his shoulder or not drift out through his outside shoulder? I don't know, but it made him feel like he was a better arc around the turn.
We worked more on the 10 meter circles, and keeping him from drifting out or in, and something critical happened here - where John said when I feel "x" happening, do "y". Damn it.
When we changed directions on the 10 meter circles, John told me not to give away what has been the outside rein. So if we're going left, and we're about to turn right, don't throw away my right rein as we change directions. He says he thinks this is part of what I'm doing in the tests; that I get it almost all the way there, and then throw the reins away a little.
I was talking, and John told me to keep Duke round while he asked me questions; then he told me to keep talking while I was riding, which was impossible to do (pat head, rub belly), but it obviously did something John could see to the way Duke was moving.
John says he thinks I know the aids, I just hesitate to use them. Like I know "when this is happening, this is the correction" but then I don't trust myself to do it. He's right about that. I feel like if it isn't a disaster, it's a success, instead of asking Duke to try to be just a little rounder, just a little more forward.