Ears back

Gally is going well, but when I ask for trot, his ears go back. In the trot, as I ask for more effort, his ears also go back. He even puts in a tiny little pig root. It's easy to sit to.

I keep working him, wondering what to do. Everything I have ever been taught tells me to just crack the whip and push the horse through this. But intuition tells me that this is a nice horse who is just trying to tell me something.

I spend the rest of the day in internal turmoil, wandering how to deal with this, who to ask for help, and how to ask them.

Ideally, I should just put him on the float and go to Anna's. But due to family commitments I cannot go to her for another two weeks. It's just me and the problem.