2nd level canter transition work

Willig was having a high-spirited start, and I told Mike he might finally get the chance to really see Willig act up, since we spent 30 minutes warming up going past the "scary" blocks that have been out for over a week. No - Willig just made me show that what I'm doing (actually riding him) has been right, with just a little fine tuning to improve it.
Mike also pointed out that it's easier with another person on the ground, the other set of eyes who can see things differently than being the rider, and that even his younger horse will go past the blocks 20 times and then spook at them the 21st. All of which made me feel better - it's not just tiny brained Willig.
The high-spirited start came from a really soggy day of rain; it really makes a difference when he doesn't move around in his turn-out, because for once in the past two months, he'd actually been ridden for a couple days leading up to the lesson.
Anyway, so we worked on those "control" rides - which are the leg yield, circles, sitting plugged in, distracting him, asking him to bend his neck and give (he started out like riding a plank with a 100 pound weight on the end - even my wrist muscles were getting sore), and shoulder-in past the scary places. Mike suggested it as he can look with one eye, but not with both, which helped me know how much looking was ok.
For warm up, Mike suggested thinking overbent and overflexed, and then praising and releasing when he gave to me.
Then we worked on the one loop serpentine, and the responsiveness to the aids - when I ask for canter, he needs to be ready to leap into canter. And then from there, we ended with working on the 2nd level movement for simple change. A simple change is NOT from canter to trot back to canter on the other lead, but canter to walk to canter.
So we did a few walk-trot-walk transitions to get him responsive. Then I'd ask for the canter with a bit of a pop up. Like popping a wheelie. And a few times, albeit a bit ugly and ungainly, he'd "pop" and he'd kind of jump his shoulders up into the canter. We'd go just a few strides (like starting to do pull-ups Mike said - you don't do 30 the first time) and then think "halt" back down. I thought Willig did great, and Mike said to add this in to our work, just making sure to do a few strides only as he builds up to it.
It was a really satisfying lesson when I look back at a year ago, when I couldn't even ride him at the far end because he'd act up, and now I get irritated when he doesn't warm up perfectly at the far end when it's been raining and there's scary blocks.
And Mike pointed out that really, ideally if you were competing to win, you'd school 3rd level and show training level, and then you'd get 70s in training level.
I'm just happy that I'm able to ride Willig now, even with a bit of a hot start, and not need to lunge and I just kind of clench my jaw a bit and focus, and then he's just grateful I'm telling him what's what.