If the issues is herd bound, then the flag training may be helpful. Truly herd bound horses can become very stuck in place, and or refusing to go where asked. Used correctly, the flag can help loosen up the behavior, with gradual improvements.
Be careful about a herd bound horse suddenly erupting in bucking and other dangerous behavior if pushed beyond where they are ready to go.
I had one do this. Tested for EPM and the titers were a little high. Treated for 28 days and the horse was a lot better. We also supplement them with Vitamin E and they are doing a ton better.
There are plenty of medical issues that can manifest in a refusal to move forward. I’ve known a few horses who started planting their feet and more who just became reluctant to move forward out of nowhere, and most went back to normal when the medical reason was found and addressed. What OP is describing is a big change from the horse’s normal behavior which should always be treated as pain first. If he were just lazy off the leg but moved when asked then I don’t disagree with what you’re suggesting, but I think it’s dangerous to try this on a horse that’s refusing to move at all. There’s a very good chance they escalate by going up, and if it is pain then it’s really unfair to the horse. There are certain behaviors that I don’t tolerate even if I suspect pain (biting, kicking, running me over, etc) but simply refusing to move under saddle is a pretty civilized way of expressing unhappiness.
One story of a barn sour horse.
This feedlot cowboy went to jail and his two horses, one a mare, were for sale.
A local fireman that used to be a rodeo bronc rider bought her, as the mare was known to buck at times hard enough to dump riders.
He lived in town and kept her alone in a pen behind his house, other neighbor’s horses around.
He called me telling me she would not go past the end of his driveway and threatened to buck no matter what he did and if he pushed her, she really bucked, hard, so he could not use her.
He was selling her cheap as he bought her cheap.
The little sorrel mare was very pretty and well bred for cutting and I told him I try her.
First ride out of the barn, as I felt her hesitating, before she stopped,I turned around and rode right back in the barn and rode a few quiet slow times around and started back out and on the road.
She did that one more time, I repeated, next time out she went a bit further and after about 8 times out and back, she made her mind she was going out this time and we went to check water and fences without any more trouble.
I used her for a couple months, she was sure nice and worked cattle as well as her breeding predicted and was generally very quiet and pleasant to have around.
Sold her to a NM trainer that had a customer looking for one like her and she made a great family horse, raised several kids for them and never gave anyone any trouble, as per the stories for many years that came back to me.
If this horse doesn’t has something wrong physically and is barn/buddy sour, maybe OP can try to catch before horse plants feet and go back and forth until horse gives up and keeps on going, as this mare and others that were not quite that bad did?
Tbs tend to have a good work ethic, but sometimes get opinionated if they decide you are interfering with their ability to the work as they understand it. This is no comment on your skill - more a comment on how “opinionated” can manifest in surprising ways. And this may not be the case for your horse, but the older I get, the more sensitive I feel towards taking the horse’s mental state into account.
Anyway, in these cases, resetting the working relationship through basic groundwork that incorporates a lot of invitations to mentally engage with YOU vs. the work can do wonders. This can include positive reinforcement basic “trick training” like target touches, but I am thinking of things more like showmanship style leading and turn on forehand/haunches in hand from very light signals, maybe desensitization exercises.
Absolutely classic. A herd-bound, barn-bound horse tends to have a point beyond which there is no progressing. Attempting to pressure them can lead to an explosion. It’s as if their instinct is that their life is on the line, they will never see home again, if they set an edge of a hoof over that line.
I have no idea how horses know where the property’s legal boundary is, but it is often at that point that they drop anchor. 
The open gate to the road. The end of the driveway. It could also be that this is the point where the smells change.
I was simply, and very specifically stating that I myself (with my horses) have never had a horse not want to move forward due to a medical issue.
The sentence before what you quoted I also agreed with the OP for going to the vet first to rule out issues as a good starting point… so I am not sure what you are getting at.
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