I can’t whistle either and wanted to whistle to my horses so I got a (cheap) sheep whistle! It was tricky to learn to use it but worth it because I really CANNOT whistle.
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Using a dressage whip as a “wand” doesn’t work as well as you’d think because it’s not very stiff. I did have very good results with an old lunge whip with the lash cut off, however.
Congrats on the Centered Riding book score. I find CR to be virtually magical.
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Can you elaborate?
Where I work the horses get called to the gate via whistle, but sometimes I can, and other times… Nope.
I assume a dog whistle would work?
I need to get something. 
Horses have excellent hearing.
Whistling isn’t necessary.
I can use my Inside Voice & all 3 will hear me approaching them form probably 300’ away.
Of course, their sight is very acute too, so they see me as well.
Maybe try a visual cue? Wave?
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My first horse was an angel from heaven. I could catch him in a 30+ acre pasture, in his herd, without a halter, lead rope or anything. All I had to do was come up to him, say hi, touch him, turn around, say walk and we would walk to the barn through 2 gates, nothing to control him.
But come to me at the gate when I called? “Lady, please, you want me to work you can darn well put in the effort to come and catch me.”
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At the time my horses lived in a pretty big herd in a very big pasture. I wanted something that wasn’t what anyone else was doing to call their horses so that only mine would come, so couldn’t be just calling them because that was asking to get mobbed by a big group. I bought a sheep whistle (there are cheap plastic ones and very nice metal ones out there) and practiced all the time until i could use it, then kept it with my halters so always took it to catch them. I don’t usually use treats for any training purposes, but for this I paired the sheep whistle with a handful of grain or a carrot for a little while until they would come to it.
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Reading this is really driving in how lucky I am! Ms. Ginger comes up to the fence when she sees my car coming down the driveway. She’s the easiest horse I’ve ever had to catch.
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Mine did too.
But now I’m the help and none are mine, and I could be coming for any of the herd, and for any reason (like the vet).
update 8
Currently sitting in my car after the vet appointment just processing. She is very foot sore in her fronts and xrays of her back showed “mild” kissing spine with sclerosis and structural changes to the vertebrae where the edges contact each other. Presumably that is how she ended up at auction. My PPE didn’t show any back pain.
Vet is sending images to surgeon who will have more info on prognosis. As long as insurance doesn’t pull a fast one I have $15000 of major medical to cover surgical treatment.
I’m devastated. I tried so so hard to avoid this and it feels so unfair that after a lifetime of wanting a horse more than anything at all I finally got said horse who was then diagnosed with ulcers and KS in the first 3 months of ownership. To be blunt I feel like God is laughing at me for having the audacity to think the other shoe wouldn’t drop the moment I got something I wanted that badly.
I’ve cried about it already and I’m probably not done crying about it. It’s so much to process. The vet said she was lucky to end up with me as her owner because I pursued it and wanted to know what was wrong. She said Ginger seems happier and more present despite the pain.
Maybe she is lucky in that she finally came into the possession of someone who can theoretically afford to have it fixed surgically instead of dumping her at an auction where she could end up being sold for slaughter. I don’t know.
I’m glad I stopped riding her when I did.
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I’m very sorry you had bad news from the vet.
The good news is it sounds like the vet actually came up with a solid diagnosis for a treatable condition, which is a lot better than an indefinite diagnosis, or no diagnosis, or a diagnosis for something that can’t be treated.
I hope you have better luck with her going forward. 
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I’m sure it feels devastating to learn that something is wrong, but the great news is that you actually know where she’s hurting, and so you have a good chance of helping her.
I’ve heard lots of stories of successful kissing spines treatment, so hopefully you’ll end up with good results, especially since you care and will likely commit to whatever exercises she might need to keep her spine happy.
I forget if you mentioned front shoes. Does she wear them? I know a horse with naturally thin soles who can get sore even in shoes, but with shoes and leather pads has no foot soreness.
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I’m sorry about the diagnosis, but as others have said, now you know what the root of the problem is and it turns out to be something that can be addressed medically.
I don’t have any personal experience with kissing spines, but there are many on the board who do, and I’m sure you’ll get a good idea of what to expect.
Good luck: Ginger already had the very good luck to get you as an owner!
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I’m terribly sorry this is how your first horse ownership experience is going. I’ve been at this for my whole lifetime at this point, and unfortunately there always seems to be an epic amount of heartbreak that comes with owning and caring for horses. Please don’t be hard on yourself, you can do all the right things and be very experienced and still have everything go sideways.
The good news is that you are still doing all the right things. Getting good advice, getting the vet involved. There are lots of things that can be done for foot and heel pain from corrective shoeing to meds to injections, and also some updated treatments and rehab protocols for kissing spine that were not available even 5-7 years ago.
She came into your life for a reason, even if it wasn’t the reason you initially hoped for. Big hugs and keep us updated.
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Hey, welcome to the footsore and kissing spine horse club! We have cookies! I am sympathetic to your situation, though. It’s emotionally draining and exhausting sometimes, the whole owning horses thing. Your horse sounds a LOT like my gelding, though if you want encouragement I suggest you DON’T go look at my topic history 
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Any chance you xrayed all her feet? KS can be correlated to/comorbid with caudal failure/NPA. Kissing spine itself is more treatable than it was in the past - but it’s a good idea to make sure the feet are in order while you treat the back. If her feet are sore due to NPA or thin soles, she’s gonna hold herself poorly to protect them and make her back/SI/suspensories sore.
Magic cushion under 3D frog support pads and an aggressive breakover shoe on all 4 feet made a HUGE difference for my KS horse. The one that also benefitted from Mg supplementation 
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That said, jingles and hugs. Keep us updated, we are all hoping for the best for you both!
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My friends are horse hunting and of the four or five they’ve considered, two had kissing spines.
I thought they were a bit extreme doing x-rays on horses that were sound and doing the job expected going forwards, but I’m now of the mind x-rays are wise.
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Please keep in mind that kissing spine on xrays means NOTHING in terms of if it’s causing performance issues.
It’s a mixed bag on surgery. I don’t think you should do it yet, because your handling skills need to improve in order to correctly execute the physical therapy part of the rehab. If you can’t do that part, there is no point in pursuing the various surgery options, because rehab is where the rubber meets the road.
In fact MANY horses relieve their symptoms with correct shoeing and correct work.
Myself as an example. My young mare showed close spinous processes/very mild kissing in the lumbar region during her PPE. It was not a show stopper for me. Now, 3 years later, I was doing xrays for something else and said “hey do her back, I’m curious”. The close/touching processes were GONE. We took 8 shots just in the lumbar region, looking for them.
Correct work does WONDERS.
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It will depend on what your vet found but there are treatments for kissing spine. It doesn’t always have to be career ending.
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Happy to share my kissing spines experience with my TB. He’s still jumping 1.10m+ and schooling fourth level and PSG dressage movements after getting our Bronze medal last fall. Don’t give up!
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Don’t panic over the back xrays. Just because the xrays show changes doesn’t automatically mean the horse has pain. If your PPE didn’t show any back pain, to me, that’s a good thing.
Did your vet do any additional testing of her back? (palpatations, flexing, etc)
Did the vet also xray the neck?
Again, keep in mind, the xrays are not the story. They are a PIECE of the story to consider. No insurance (or surgeon) is going to jump immediately to surgery based on xrays. Likely, if you think the horse is sore at all, they’ll do some kind of injection first (steriods or other) to see if the horse improves clinically. If there is zero clinical improvement, they may or may not do surgery because the back findings may or may not be clinical.
Take it one step at a time.
This thread has gotten very long so I don’t recall, does she currently wear any shoes?
Did the vet do any xrays of her front feet?
Ultrasound?
Did the vet determine a reason for her front feet being sore?
Can you post pictures of what her front feet currently look like?
How often does the farrier come?
Have your moment, cry it out, feel sorry for a few days, then get over it.
It seems there are a large majority of people in this world who do NOT take good care of their horses, and either are ignorant to lameness issues or that naive. Lucky for your horse to have gotten you, who actually cares.
I think that most people on this forum would agree that it’s not a matter of if a horse will have a lameness or health problem but a matter of when. Some diagnosis are worse than others. There’s management for front feed issues. There’s management for kissing spine. These are not life-ending things (usually).
Currently, two of my three horses have pain in their front feet (among other issues on top of that) that need managing. Thank goodness my third horse hasn’t needed anything special, but knock on wood she’s young and this is only my 3rd year with her.
With horse ownership, I guarantee this won’t be the last time that a vet delivers unwanted news. It’s just part of owning a horse, who seem to have life goals of killing themselves (said jokingly … but yet seriously). Heck my horse Red cut one of his back legs down to the bone not once … not twice … but THREE different times. I think he finally gave up trying to cut off a leg after 3 tries.
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Day after the news. Slept in today, I think I needed it.
Thank you guys for your kind words. I feel a little better today now that some of the shock has worn off. Looking at it, it all makes sense. One of the spots where she usually balks is right before we come onto the pavement of the driveway. She tends to veer onto the grass. The pain explains why she was so reluctant to stand still to be mounted. It explains why she was sold to auction.
She doesn’t have front shoes because we were going to see how barefoot goes, but this week I’m going to see if the farrier can come to put fronts on her. He’s usually got pretty good availability.
My concern is that if she needs surgery in the end it needs to be done this year, because I can’t afford it without insurance and now that it’s on record it will be ruled out in next year’s policy. Once a condition is detected and treatment starts you have 120 days before it is no longer covered.
All I can say is, from the bottom of my heart, what a nightmare, but at least a lot of this is fixable as opposed to part of her personality. If anything it’s a testament to her willingness to please and stoicism that she never once bucked under saddle. She’s a good horse, a really good horse. Thank god my instructor checked her for soreness.
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