well you sit DEEP in the saddle, sit up straight, tuck those elbows in and yell out Jawohl.
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Keep taking dressage lessons and working on your core. There is not shortcut- it’s very simple but not easy to ride a horse back to front.
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I tend to disagree with totally dropping the rein contact on a horse with this age and background unless you are a good young horse trainer and can do a total restart basically. He will get confused.
It’s not about putting him together with the hand. If he’s yanking, he is objecting to your hand, and he isn’t using his hind end. Your response to any yanking should be more leg. While the German style is to sometimes ride the horse more deep and round, the number one thing they do is send the horse forward from the hind legs. That is not necessarily fast. Don’t confuse it with fast. A baby might be sent on the faster side as they learn to build the strength for impulsion, but probably not your slightly farther along horse. They do this with more seat and leg contact than you are probably used to.
You will need core strength to do this in order for your aids to be independent and effective. You can teach the horse to get more sensitive to the seat and leg aids, but he must go forward. The feeling is of holding the hind legs in your reins. That means you have him over the back. Ideally, he can maintain this even with light rein contact, but he might not understand that because he was probably used to more support (stronger aids all around) and hand holding as the norm. The art of “Americanizing” these horses is teaching them to still carry themselves and have impulsion with the more forward seat style of riding.
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How to ride more German?
Date more Germans.
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Maybe consider trying an Equicube (https://equicube.net)? I’m over 50 and found it really helped me figure out how to better engage my core, fix my hunter lean, and improve my contact - all of which strike me as riding more German. 
Here’s an older COTH thread with reviews that might help you decide if it could be helpful: Equicube.
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Wow, as usual, great insights out of COTH land…
Thanks for the replies!
No getting around core - I guess I keep hoping there is a way out, since body-memory is a real deal. I’m super busy in work/travel so fitting in another horizon like pilates or rowing machine or re-starting as rider on the longe (which would probably be best!) is daunting.
My trainers ARE German, lol, which sometimes makes it harder, because they cannot fathom how a person can ride without that feeling.
In canter the horse carries himself well and is pretty easy to motivate, it is mostly trot work where we get into trouble - if I try a huntery long-rein we both sort of exhale in relief, but then he does go on his forehand.
Very nice visual, thanks!
Fair question… he would definitely come more into his potential with a better rider. But he is actually a great Amateur horse, because he is not strong to jumps, is a dream trail riding, and can carry me around 90cm without batting an eye. I definitely don’t want to ruin him with confused flatwork but with training and pro rides I try to keep a handle on it. I also try to ride out at least twice a week for both of us, just to work straight and energetic.
Lol, I am going to give it a try, fake it til you make it!
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Does it seem daunting because you feel the work will require an hour a day? 20 minutes a day, 4-5 days a week, is plenty to start out 
IME, if a horse isn’t “right” at the trot, he’s not “right” at the canter, OR, you’re riding differently at the 2 gaits. If you’re “holding” him at the canter, his comfort zone, but not doing that the trot, he doesn’t know what to do.
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Find a good pilates studio and do 45-60 mins on the reformer twice a week-- great for core strength and stability.
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that can do a lot of good for sure, but committing to 45-60 minutes at a stretch is daunting, or impossible, for a lot of people. 20 minutes 4 times a week would be more beneficial than 60 minutes twice a week
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Exactly. Do this a few times a week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWjRCMB_mzY
It’s not even 20 minutes bc there’s a bunch of mumbo jumbo woo woo talking in the beginning, but if you can do this regularly throughout the week, you will be well on your way to being much stronger in the saddle. There is a lot of lower abs in particular.
Another thing to try would be driving rein, to see if you can get your elbow a little softer and also to gauge if you’re using your hands for balance.
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I … wouldn’t want to jump a horse around .90cm course with the flatwork being as you described… jumping is flatwork with 10% of the canter strides having a fence under them - even if you’re a purely showjumping rider - hell even MORE so as a pure jumper.
I might be biased as a dressage rider turned H/J, but if your flatwork isn’t relatively consistent in all gaits - no sense doing more than cavaletti / super small stuff until you get it right. Likely with good instruction and gaining strength - 4-5x a week of 30 min rides both schooling flat, poles, cavaletti and hacking out - walking hills & 1 jump school by trainer … by March at the latest you’ll be in the right spot.
let your trainers jump school him bigger until then & ride a school master to keep your eye for things above .80cm
Also rider fitness is a huge thing. I’m 34 and gained some covid cheese weight (size 0/2 to a size 6) and I like had MONTHS of riding and working out (pilates, kettlebell, yoga, running) to regain core strength, My slightly elder peers at the barn says it only gets worse post 40 and 50… gotta make it a consistent habit. I hear you I traveled 42 flights a year before I changed industries pre pandemic.
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I’d really emphasize trying to make room in your schedule for Pilates. You just can’t get away from developing your own core strength as a fundamental for riding well. Plus you’ll feel better generally!
Try it twice a week for four weeks and you can then reassess (if necessary).
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A steeplechase trainer who would get us riders to steady slow trot and pop logs -solid jumps - to get us to get the horses using their hind ends better–of course we definitely were not working out of a dressage seat–and might have to breeze up a hill next . I always thought it was interesting how he turned it on its head-and used jumps to get the horse off to lift their forehand. I believe he learned it from Kathy Kusner. Sometimes there is a varied number of tools in the tool box.
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Leg, leg, leg and more leg. Anytime he yanks the reins, add LEG.
Also, you want to feel like you’re leaning back. Basically, very upright, elastic elbow, LEG. This is how I ride my mare and she goes beautifully. If I deviate, she lets me know. This isn’t to say I can’t get out of the tack and let her go, but when we really get down to work, I tell myself to “get German”.
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A friend with no shortage of experience once tried a young sale horse that had been in training with Ingrid Klimke. She commented that Ingrid obviously had legs “like iron” because the horse sort of ignored my friend’s leg. The trainer at the sales barn kept yelling stuff like “Mehr Bein!” and friend finally figured out she had to use a TON more leg for the horse to understand what she wanted. She said Ingrid had put a “super” foundation on the horse for someone used to riding with a lot of leg. My friend passed on it because her client was not capable of riding with that much leg and didn’t want to spend a ton of time re-tuning the horse. Friend referred a male rider to the horse and they were a perfect match - he had the leg strength the horse wanted.
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COTH published an article not too long ago about young horses that come from Europe and the time it takes to “Americanize” them. I’ll probably do a terrible job summarizing it, but it basically captured the exact situation you are describing. Our basis in the American Forward Seat, based on the past French and Italian calvary seat, is what you are used to. And the horse is used to the more European classical seat, which is more dressage based.
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Canter improves trot. So canter, then take his hind legs into a good working trot with a light hand. Don’t dump him after canter. He probably finds that strange.
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Agreed- this sounds more like a “needs more leg than exists” issue and maybe it’s a hot take but I think OP may be better served with more American trainers who are working to get the horse maintaining its own motor more rather than having all the pro rides be with more input than OP is likely to have physical capacity for. I don’t think I’ve ever seen hours in the gym create the “more leg” that gets them forward, just hours in the saddle. If you have a German horse and German trainers and are an American amateur who came up under the American system, I don’t think suddenly learning to ride like Hans the 6’2 German man with mile long legs of steel from doing 12 horses a day for the past decade is realistic if that’s what it takes for a horse to go well. Core strength won’t hurt but at some point Dobbin needs to learn to speak English as much as OP needs to speak German.
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Right, OP, @Railbird’s points are REALLY important if you ever need to sell or lease this horse down the road. I’m an amateur that dabbles in importing/selling this type as a side hustle and they simply HAVE to get Americanized.
It doesn’t mean that he’ll ever be a two-point, float-the-rein type horse, but you are an American amateur living and riding in the U.S. It’s quite reasonable to want and need a horse to adapt to how you ride. I don’t know that working with German trainers who are capable of cantering the horse around perfectly and going, “Look, it’s so easy!” are doing him or you a service.
Depending on the horse, this can take a month or a year. I have a 9-year-old Dutch mare who’s been over here about a year now, jumped to 1.30m in Europe, and JUST this fall has all the American hunter/equitation flatwork clicked — let me tell you how much more enjoyable she is to ride now. Stop trying to ride in a style that you never have and never will be capable of and train your horse is my take. 
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