Does anyone know of a watch and/or app that can help in a fall? Unfortunately sometimes I find myself at the barn alone at night riding after work. I try to take all the precautions and let people know when I get on and off my horse, but I would really love if an app could notify a close relative when I stop moving for too long.
Any suggestions?
RoadID has one, not sure if it would work in a ring or not.
Apple Watch 4.
Smartpack’s “Ride With Me” app works well.
When you assign your emergency contacts they will get a email that they must click on to confirm to be your emergency contact.This enables them to get texts from you/the app in the event of a fall.
How do these apps know you have fallen?
The Road ID one tracks your movement, so if you stop moving for a certain amount of time it sends out an alert.
If it’s technology similar to how LifeAlert and similar pendants work… I’m not sure how they work, only that they do not work very well at all. And their GPS sucks.
The ride with me app determines a “fall” based on lack of motion for a preset amount of time. I’ve tested this several times at my farm & the gps has been accurate.
If you & your emergency contacts have an iPhone you can use “find my iPhone” for location also. Doesn’t detect a fall but a decent backup when riding.
Supposedly the Apple Watch 4 actually has a feature that will alert your emergency contacts if it detects you’ve had a hard fall. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208944
It will give you the opportunity to turn that alert off by buzzing your watch and giving you the chance to choose to stop the alert if you are ok, but if not, it will notify your emergency contact.
There are a couple of bike helmets that have built in fall detection devices – I have contacted Specialized to see if their unit would work on a riding helmet, and they say it would. But, I’m not enthusiastic about the attachment mechanism.
I would love for a helmet to be developed that had bluetooth capability, and fall detection like a couple of the bike helmets. I think for endurance riders or anyone that trail rides near a road, the ones that also have lights front and rear would be helpful. I would love to know if anyone from R&D in our helmet companies were developing such a thing!
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I was riding with my mother who uses an apple watch this weekend.
It asked her about three “falls” when we were out at the barn.
Before she got on, it asked her if she was ok while she was currying a muddy patch.
And once on the horse it alerted at a little kick-out, which didn’t really unseat her much at all.
Her last alert happened when she dismounted (her horse is 16’3 though, so it’s a fair bit of drop!)
Currently she doesn’t mind, and appreciates the function when riding alone, but she found it pretty annoying this winter, when her watch would be under 4+ layers of sleeves and gloves, so she’d try to remember to take off the watch before she rode, especially if anyone was in the barn.
I use the Road ID app with the motion detector, The Smartpak app got a bunch of bad reviews and seems to send out their alert via Email, which people don’t check constantly.
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