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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She was trying to get you to engage the posterior chain in your leg so your quads and psoas would relax, allowing your hip to straighten. Itās pretty simple physiology to engage the opposing muscles to relax a tight muscle and it does work although it should be more of a ādo this for a minute to get the feelā, not an all the time thing.
Sit up straight. Pull / push/ direct your armpits down towards your hips using the muscles in your torso. Feel how a few seconds later your shoulders feel like they float up and free? Same effect.
One thing I have noticed with modern saddles is that stirrups have got shorter and shorter and people have lost the long leg we rode with in the 90s. People today ride on the flat with a stirrup length Iād only use to jump 4ā or go fox hunting.
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