Richard Boatwright You do have some experience with shoulders! I've had surgeries to repair an elbow, an achilles, and replace a hip. Man you'd think I'd learn 🙄🙄.  I'll get through this one...although the doc and PT people say complete rotator cuff tear is very common but the most involved.  Appreciate your good thoughts and support. Glad to share more on the experience if you're ever interested. In the meantime I'll have ES20, roping, and calf working videos to keep me occupied until I get out of the sling. Thanks for all your hard work...the videos are gold...

Richard Boatwright Well...in addition to horses another passion is mountain biking. Got a little too aggressive, went over the bars and crashed into some rocks. Probably had some long time wear and tear already..and that impact was enough to tear it all the way through. 

Would be interested in your first hand experience...especially regarding recovery timeframes and getting back to working with horses again.

Going in for rotator cuff repair surgery so will have a several month recovery. Resolution #1  Make better decisions in the back country!

Resolution #2  Get back to riding as soon as possible but don't do anything stupid.

Wish me luck!

Richard Boatwright Thanks very much for the reply. I tried the stick approach the other day and it worked ok. But, after the session I discovered he had a sore back up around the withers. Eddie is another client's horse, and a check of the saddle fit showed pretty clearly there's a pressure point that could be causing significant soreness. It could explain some recent behavior...hesitancy while leading, pawing at the cross ties, and the mounting block shyness. He's been trying to tell me something...I just need to learn to be a better listener. We're going to stay off him for a bit, then try different saddles and pads to see if that makes a change for the better. 

Richard Boatwright - Hello! Wonder if you could help resolve some feedback I'm getting from my trainer/coach when I try this approach with a horse that won't stand still at a mounting block. This horse, Eddie, moves his rear away whenever you take a step onto the block. I got him to yield his hindquarters like you show...but my trainer thought this approach would only reinforce Eddie's behavior to move the away direction.

Have any thoughts on that concern...or an explanation of why it wouldn't effectively be teaching the horse to move away? 

Note: I'm an intermiedate-ish rider and definitely a novice trainer...trying to soak up as much information and experience from others that I can.  Appreciate all your videos. Thanks very much!

Richard - Thanks very much...exactly what I was looking for. 

Excellent. Thanks for the explanations...very helpful...

Thanks Lucas...definitely helps.