Chicken and egg

Two out of the last three days Willig threw temper tantrums. The first was Friday, when I asked him to do the same thing we did during our lesson Thursday (picking up the canter from the walk on a small circle). Instead, he feigned confusion and reared. When I'd whip him, he'd buck. When I'd kick him to stop him from bucking, he'd dart forward or sideways. When I'd jerk on his face to stop him from darting, he'd rear. Etc.
Saturday, he was an angel and was doing what felt like canter pirouettes.
Today, I tried to jump him outside in the good weather. He did fine when we trotted the course, but when I tried to canter it, we got into another huge fight (rearing, bucking, darting). This one made my left rotator cuff start hurting again, so I had to half-concede, after battling him into going over a few fences at least half-ass correctly.
Mike suggested during our lesson Thursday that we might have a couple of big disagreements coming up, and today two people were talking about Mike's "discussions" with their respective horses and how the horses respected him from that point forward.
Which brings me to the subject - is the problem me or Willig or both (a baby chicken in an egg?). In support of the problem being Willig, Exhibit A is the fact that I can ride all of Mike's horses (well, all that I've gotten on), no problemo. In support of the problem being me, Exhibit B is that well, those are Mike's horses. If Mike quit riding them and only I rode them, maybe eventually they'd degrade and act like Willig. In support of the problem being mutual, Exhibit C is the most likely - probably if Mike rode Willig all the time, he'd be as good as Mike's horses, and therefore the more I can ride with/for Mike, the more I'll learn and the more I'll increase the chances that one day, I'll be able to teach Willig (or future horse) the things that Mike "naturally" does.
A couple follow ups on my lesson:
- Supple and stretch over topline; compress underneath the neck. This should be my goal for all neck frames.
- As much as I might grumble, I'm glad when Willig's bad in a lesson because I don't have enough knowledge or innate talent to figure it out on my own in between lessons. So while I hate naughty Willig over fences, or bucking/rearing Willig - I'd WAY rather have Shannon or Mike be there that hour, yelling what to do next, so that when I'm alone, I can at least try their tips.
- I think that the lack of "feeling" (I prefer riding by formula) is really a fear of failure. I've noticed that I'm not taking as much advantage as I can of Mike's horses. Pablo in particular on Saturday I realized that I don't have to steer with my hands AT ALL. I can just use my hips. While I'm riding very well trained horses (but with different personalities and confirmations) I should be trying everything and soaking up what works and what doesn't work like a sponge. But I'm afraid to try things (and in fact, will do the same thing, not working, until someone tells me not to) because I'm afraid of looking like a doofus.