Any Apple Watch 4 users?

[goodmorning]

For mothers day, I’m receiving an Apple Watch 4. I’m wondering if anyone uses these watches while competing XC? If so, what size face of watch do you have? I know I will be able to set it for intervals like my iPhone, but I want a nice clock on my wrist, however I don’t want to bang/constantly break it, and need it to look professional for the corporate job. I never bothered with an XC watch but am notoriously super slow XC (I enjoy my nice lopes around beautiful country :lol: ) so figure this would be a useful feature.

I think I have decided on the cellular free version, my phone is always strapped on as I ride by myself often and can rarely unplug.

Any other benefits besides fall detection for the equestrian? Favorite features? I’m interested to monitor my activity levels throughout the day.

[Chouteau]

I don’t have a 4, & I know they have a lightly bigger face but if you are looking to use it as your main watch when running xc, it won’t work - the face & buttons are too small & it will go to sleep on you and not wake up at the worst moment & if it does wake up, it may be on the wrong screen - you can’t be trying to push buttons while on xc. I do wear mine all the time, it has survived the barn & shows & everything else invoved & I love it for tracking my rides - I record time & distance of every ride with it & also use it for conditioning intervals at home.

[goodmorning]

Hmmm I can keep my phone awake with the interval timer running, is that not an option? I know they have enhanced features.

I’ve never bothered with an XC watch, but, it seems crazy to me that it couldn’t serve as that…I know people use it for marathon training and don’t constantly wake it up…

[crittertwitter]

I have a 4 (bigger face) - and previously had a 3 (smaller face). There isn’t a big difference in visibility or feel IME. And I do think you could easily start a workout at the start of your start box countdown… and then the face is visible throughout your “workout”. Bonus HR tracking and you could check your spikes - “oh yea, that was when we were approaching the trakehner!” “D’oh, there’s my refusal! Man, I was pissed.”

I don’t event, but I am heavily invested in the ins and outs… so this has not been tested.

[cour10ay]

I use my watch for fitness sessions on my horse and it’s SO helpful–basically I downloaded an intervals app (I think designed for HIIT for people, but it works) and programmed in 10 mins walking, 3x5 mins trotting, then whatever my canter intervals are, with walk breaks in between each. It’s great because the watch tells me what to do and I dont need to look at the time during the interval and I can customize what the alert is, whether I get a halfway alert, how far ahead of the next interval I get a heads-up, etc.

I have tried to use this for XC twice now but haven’t quite managed to get it to work–one time I didn’t think to change the default settings for wakeup (now my watch shows whatever app I last used for an hour, rather than for a minute–so annoying to get into the startbox and then need to navigate to my intervals app rather than have it right there), and the other time I had the app up but my “touch screen gloves” didn’t work and I couldn’t start the timer, so I think I will just cut a finger off an older glove for next time. But conceptually this same app should work for XC… I set up a program to tell me out loud at each minute marker (again so you don’t have to look down at the watch), you could even get it to tell you “fence 8” or whatever landmark you should be at.

If you want to just have ability to look at the timer, change your watch settings so it does not go to sleep for x minutes, so you can avoid the semi dramatic hand lift to cue the screen waking up while also trying to steer…

Finally, the thing I feel like I am on a one-woman crusade about is the fact that I think the heart rate measurements are off once you get on a horse. So I would take your riding calories calculated via the workout app with an enormous grain of salt.

Oh also one other thing, in terms of protecting your watch… I have a bumper and a screen protector, but, I’m busy and accident prone so that’s just me. The bumper case is easy to take off for nice dinners out, etc.

Have fun with your new toy!!!