My dressage coach wants a neutral foot, with the heel neither deep or up. It takes conscious effort for me to do it. It sounds like the lesson you saw was an overcorrection to break a bad habit.
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She related it to something with the seat and inner thighs, canāt remember exactly. I do remember thinking I could do what she wanted if sheād just be quiet about āheels upā because that was throwing the other riderās, and then my, position all out of whack. I asked if I could just drop my stirrups instead so I could focus on what she wantedānope. She never even saw how I actually rode because she immediately went to that before my fanny had even contacted the saddle! 
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Interesting. Does sound like this:
Although sometimes a tactic to fix something can be misinterpreted.
Many years ago (probably late 70ās?) I rode OTTBs for a local trainer. She also went to a lot of clinics, and paid for me to go. Back then, clinics were just becoming popular on the west coast.
One particular clinician (Iāll call him āGeorgeā 
) introduced an exercise in his clinic where we were supposed to ride on a soft rein, with our hands unusually elevated above the withers. This was because too many were riding with their hands below the withers, so that they had a broken line from bit to elbow. They were doing that see-saw thing, making the horses drop their heads and go behind the vertical, etc. I recall āGeorgeā having us do this raised hands thing for maybe 10 minutes and that was it.
Skip forward to lessons at that trainer for at least the next several months. Iād be out in the far arena, watching the goings on and pondering what objective she had in mind. Everyone in her lessons was made to ride around like they were mocking saddleseat riders. Their hands were way up the entire time they were riding, not for just a short exercise. Thank God their reins were rather loose and the school horses patient saints. All this time later, I still think about how the point of that exercise was misinterpreted.
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That makes sense. In dressage you do tend to ride off your thigh more, and your thigh is considered part of your seat. No calf gripping!! That was a hard one for me!
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Same, girl, same.
For me to truly have my heels very down, my legs would need to be up on the dashboard or my stirrups very short. Iāve always been a bit more up on my toe rather than the balls of my feet and more of an almost even heel that super dropped heel.
It doesnāt always work out and Iām probably not as secure in the tack as some of my 5ā8-5ā10 long-legged Amazon peers, but thatās just science unfortunately.
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Yep!
