Yup, consistency is key. You let her get away with being lazy ONCE and she’ll keep on trying it. Lazy = less work for her.
And I didn’t really say in my other post, so I’ll say it now, but I hope it’s common sense to only “go for the whip” when the horse is trained well enough to know what you want but they are just being lazy about it. Never go for the whip if the horse does not understand what you are asking.
I have a lovely horse who was like this at first (when green). An unraced TB, super talented, but dead to the leg, and doing the minimum. He was exhausting to ride for me. He woke up, eventually, and is no longer like this. So it’s possible! LOL.
He was also stiff to ride, bending and softening was an issue, and much stiffer in one direction, no unsoundness issues. It all came better in time. Suppling exercises, grids, and carry a stick to back up your leg cues. Don’t accept a response that is not sufficient. Get the response you want in your ground work, on the lunge or in a big round pen. It’s a respect issue. If he respects you, he will pay attention to you. If he doesn’t respect you, he won’t move for you or pay enough attention to you. If he does not respect you, he will ignore you though he allows you to sit on his back. This is not riding, it is sitting on his back. Big difference.
When riding, go for a gallop somewhere where you have room to get his engine running. You are lacking the first step of the training pyramid, “free FORWARD relaxed motion”. Tense horses are missing the “relaxed” part of this step, you are missing the “forward” part. Look for “cue”, and the response you want, “forward”. And indicate to him when his response is satisfactory, a word, a pat on the neck.
When “the penny drops”, you are sitting on a different horse.
Has anyone suggested a change in feed? While I agree with everyone else that proper training is key and making sure a horse doesn’t get dead to your leg, etc., but not every horse is going to be able to maintain an appropriate level of energy on the same feeding program. We had a pony hunter a few years ago that just would not go forward. Didn’t matter what we did…and he was properly trained. 
We finally changed his feed, added concentrates for extra energy as well as doing a round of Gastroguard for ulcers and that pony did a complete 180, as far as energy level goes. No more forcing him to move forward, he was happy enough to do it all on his own.
Sometimes, lack of energy problems under saddle have nothing to do with training.
On another note, one thing that I find can happen to a naturally laid back or non-spooky horse is they can get bored if the training becomes dull. We remedy this by making sure we change things up - trail riding, schooling outdoors, changing the scenery in the arena, adding more fillers to jumps, etc.
We had one like that at the barn where I rode. I would sometimes hack him for the owner when she was unable to get out. I wasn’t training him, just giving him a hack–I called him “my yoga class”!
I’m in the same boat as my current gelding cares about nothing! I was genuinely concerned I wouldn’t be able to get him to canter after I first got him. I’ve always used the… ask nicely, no response, get whacked. I looked up numerous exercises to get him off my leg (and still do) and honestly the best thing that worked for me was two dressage whips. Instead of going away from the one whip sideways the second whip really helped shoot him forward. I can now ride him with nothing. Nagging is a big deal and I also realized he was starting to train me to do that. I can notice a huge difference when I let someone else ride him. He will wear them out if they fall into that trap. Best of luck!
@Daventry - I completely agree with this! I posted earlier on the ulcer case with my young horse as well. I have spent so much money on different vets opinions (4 to be exact) just for a clean bill of health and the last one to be like “ulcers maybe?” PALM TO FOREHEAD Why didn’t I do this earlier? I will never know! This is my first young horse that I’ve done myself and I have learned so much. He is not your typical ulcer case by any means, but it doesn’t mean just because they don’t look like it, they don’t have them. Lesson learned. Waiting for my products to come in to start the healing journey for my guy, but there is so much to be said about how performance issues sometimes can actually becoming from more than just riding/training issues. We assume that because they get turnout, and good hay in their stalls, good grain, etc. that he is feeling good internally. I have learned to never assume!
Having just scoped mine and found all kinds of ulcers despite two months of gastroguard treatment, I would definitely be sure this isn’t a problem. And remember that just putting them on gastroguard doesn’t ensure you’ve fixed the problem. I assumed after two months that it couldn’t be ulcers. Turns out he has the harder to treat pyloric ulcers. So now add me to the list of folks on here who will always suspect ulcers and recommends scoping not just treating without checking. If your horse is insured, insurance will pay for treatment if your horse has them (ymmv).
@greysfordays - this is actually really good to know! I assume since mine is covered with diagnostics that the scoping would be covered too? I never heard of pyloric ulcers before… heads to google
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