Willig was finally naughty in front of Mike

He was lame for J on Monday (his left front frog was hot, but it was an intermittent lameness that was not really obvious, according to her). So Tuesday I had a lesson and got there early so that I could make sure the lameness popped up before my lesson started. We were very, very slowly warming up (I misjudged my timing and had half an hour of riding time before the lesson started) and we were walking back and forth and back and forth and back and forth ad nauseum past the scary door when Willig saw something and bolted. Now, I knew he was looking, but there wasn't long enough of a moment between when he saw the monster and when he started moving for me to feel it and do anything about it.
So we went shooting from one end of the arena towards Mike and his student in the middle of her lesson, I lost my stirrup, was trying to turn him in a circle to stop the bolting, and then he put his head down to start bucking and I was thinking "god dman it - I am NOT going off in front of Mike!" and yanked his head up and it surprised him enough that he kind of sputtered out.
So we finally got a lesson with Mike where we worked on Willig's tiny brain issues. Incredibly, he decided to spend the entire rest of the lesson (and yesterday and today) continuing to be very wary of the monsters that live down there. Towards the end of the lesson - like 2 minutes before we finished - this time with J on her horse and the owner's adorable daughter on her adorable pony - he tried to run again, and Mike agreed that he didn't see it coming at all either.
So we:
Worked on his head to the inside. By putting my inside hand (the direction I want him bent) on my thigh.
Then added using a bit of leg yield to make the turns on the corners (which means beginning to ask a few steps before we get there).
Then inched our way down towards the scary end, moving a bit closer each lap, using the head to the inside and the leg yield to make it past the short scary end.
Then we did a bit of the leg yielding along the walls and a bit of counter canter to show Mike what we worked on since the last lesson (he said much better, but still needs some polishing).
Then he did his second bolty spook (much smaller), and Mike reminded me (for the third time, I think, during the lesson) to:
The second he starts - yank him to the inside, thinking a 5 meter circle before we get going and a 15 meter circle for canter.
Don't yank and clamp, but yank and release. Jerk up and down. Don't let him pull against me, balance on his forehand, and just start barreling.
And try to relax. Talk to him, yell at him, whatever is appropriate, but break his focus on fleeing.
So it was a "good" lesson in the sense that I got more tools for my toolbox on naughty Willig days, and a frustrating lesson in the sense that I like working on the new, fancy, fun stuff with Mike, and riding a bolting horse is not new, fancy, or fun.