Fall detection?

[BroncoMo]

Best I can tell, the conversations regarding fall detection are a few years old. Have Apple watches improved at all in recent years to detect an actual fall (or really, an actual wreck as I don’t make a habit of just falling off)? I read that someone’s watch “detected” a fall when she reached down to pat her horse on the neck.

I’ve been having to ride green ones by myself recently and have resorted to telling my boyfriend that I’ll text him when I’m done and if I don’t text in X amount of time, to send a rescue party. Inevitably, one of these days I’m going to forget to text him when I’m done. So it would be cool if there were something that would notify someone in the event of a substantial impact with the earth.

[bmellison]

Mine has never gone off with an actual fall (sample of 2). It does go off pretty much every time I hit something with any force with that arm I love the watch for many things but not the fall detection for sure

[skydy]

Do you know anyone near you, an actual person who has spare time, who maybe can’t work anymore but would still like to be useful to a neighbor? Most people are still capable of setting an alarm when you give them your ETA for the end of your ride.

Perhaps you could make an arrangement for them to call you after a certain time. You’d have to allow their numbers to call and make sure that your phone is on to receive them after that time. Tell them to call twice, let it ring and then call the cavalry. If you can’t remember to do that or have no other choice, then technology, as it is, will be your only friend.

[TheJenners]

I use a Garmin, so far had two false alerts easily diverted. One I dismounted pretty enthusiastically and one I had reached down to pat the horse as he was stepping down off something.

[Mouse_amp_Bay]

I use an Apple Watch. You do get false alarms, but fairly easy to clear (just hit the button). I found it was more sensitive earlier on, often thinking that me quickly reaching to pick something up or hitting my arm lower was a fall. It is now able to better predict if my movements are falls or not - now I can’t even remember the last time I had a false alarm!

I have fallen off and had it go off. Again, pretty easy to clear - hit the button and tell it you’re OK/did not fall. The nice thing with the apple system is that it both calls for help (emergency services) and also calls the emergency contact you have set up. I also find it exceptionally handy on a day to day basis - texting, adding things to shopping lists, pretty much ongoing conversations with SIRI!

[one1horse]

Mine detected a fall from a horse once out of 3 times, but that fall was pretty significant in the sense that I hit the ground HARD. The other two were not that noteworthy.

That said - I also use Equilabb App and have the premium subscription. You can enable safety tracking and it will notify whoever you list as an emergency contact if you stop moving for I think 5 minutes. That person can also see your GPS location as you’re riding.

I ride by myself a lot, so I appreciate having both features for safety reasons.

[Inimitable]

The Apple Watch is absolutely useless for fall detection, in my experience. Way too many false alarms and it has never actually gone off when I have involuntarily dismounted. I got it specifically for the fall detection after my baby launched me last summer and I had a good crack to the head. Just last week I switched back to a regular watch because there was zero benefit to the Apple watch for me. I am relieved to have one less connected device to annoy me.

[Mallard]

Yes… Mine has gone off more than once when giving the pony vigorous pats. Also when dismounting if I land hard.
If you’re wearing thick winter gloves and a heavy coat it is not easy to get to the button and turn it off.
On the other hand… it did go off when I did have a fall but someone was there and quickly reminded me to turn the alert off. Which involved ripping off my two pair of gloves and trying to get the sleeve of my coat rolled up.
So, for now, I have mine turned off. I also very rarely ride when I’m all alone.
And I would much prefer that if it does alert, that does not call 911. I wish it would only notify one or two of your contacts and then you can just call/text them to say you’re fine. Or not.

[risuenaVT]

I have a garmin vivoactive 4, so a few years old now. It’s incident detector has only gone off twice for me, both times involving horses. The first was when my lease gave a massive, long full bodied shake while I was in the saddle (I suspect the garmin thought I was having a seizure or similar). I didn’t realize it had gone off, so it did alert my emergency contacts and I got a text from my brother and a call from my mom to make sure I was okay

The second time was as I was finishing a catch ride flat class, so a horse I’d never ridden before who was green and very heavy on the forehand in a small ring with lots of puddles and I’d lost a stirrup… Pretty sure with all that and my nerves, my heart rate spiked really high. I was able to catch that and tell it I was okay before it alerted anyone.

It has not gone off for any falls I have had, but the falls I’ve had since I’ve had it have been ones where I was able to get back on my feet and start moving around quickly. I think with falls, the garmin only alerts after a fall if it hasn’t detected movement for a minute or two. And even then, it will still vibrate and give the wearer opportunity to cancel the alert.

I’m not sure I’d rely on it for safety purposes, but so far I’ve been okay with the two ‘incidents’ it’s detected, and it does give me some reassurance even if it is far from perfect.

[luvmyhackney]

@BroncoMo

Apple watches improved at all in recent years to detect an actual fall (or really, an actual wreck as I don’t make a habit of just falling off)?

My daughter has an Apple watch, it works great for when she falls off her bike and when she fell down hiking. She fell once riding and it wasn’t a hard fall thankfully, it didn’t go off.
I ride at home alone and other than texting or calling someone to let them know I’m riding, I didn’t find the options comforting.

I haven’t tried Equilab as between my PIVO, RideIQ or music, I didn’t want to have another app open draining my phone.

[eclipse]

I have an Apple Watch series 9 and yes it detects falls… I fainted a few weeks ago and it went off! I came around feeling it buzzing in my wrist and cancelled it (I have low bp so it’s normal for me to go down if I haven’t caught it in time I suffer from syncope as does my dr) my watch had detected my heart rate was low and I ignored it as I normally run low!!! Big mistake lol

It also detected when I fell off a horse last year and went off …. Good because I’d knocked myself out!

[BAC]

I fell off a ladder and fractured a vertebrae, it was a hard fall and my apple watch did not go off. I hardly ever wear it, I prefer my Rolex.

[giddybiddy]

I have also not had it go off when I fall, but it’s gone off during a few exuberant bucking sprees (and once when I yelled at my dog too loudly)

[BroncoMo]

Yes see the boyfriend situation above. I don’t particularly know my neighbors, the ones I do know work, plus I usually haul in to town to ride since I don’t have an arena. Sometimes there’s people around, sometimes there’s not. Frankly it’s when the yahoos are around where I’ll have problems because of whatever off the wall “training” method they’re using and their horses being feral. So if a green bean has a come apart, there will likely be someone there who can at least call 911; they just don’t know who I am or who else to call.

[BroncoMo]

I briefly looked at the Equilab app. Does it simply detect lack of movement? Because I don’t think iPhones have accelerometers to detect impact, but I could be wrong. I really don’t care about the other app features but an alert system and GPS tracking might make it worth paying for other features that don’t get used.

[one1horse]

I’m not sure exactly how it works, I would assume it’s just movement. It’s happened to me a couple times where I’ve stopped riding to talk to my trainer or something and then my friend who gets my alerts called/texted to check on me because Equilab notified her that I had stopped moving. It does that whether I’ve started the tracking on my phone or my apple watch. If you track on your apple watch you just don’t get as many detailed stats like gait analysis etc. But the safety tracking and GPS still works.

[trubandloki]

@BroncoMo

Does it simply detect lack of movement?

Wouldn’t this cause them to alarm if you took a nap or when you go to bed at night (if you leave your watch on)?

[endlessclimb]

You have to turn it on at the beginning of the ride, and off at the end.

[trubandloki]

@endlessclimb

You have to turn it on at the beginning of the ride, and off at the end.

Thank you for clarifying that.

I did not realize it was something you had to manually do.

[endlessclimb]

When I tried it, it was a phone app. Not sure if they’ve upgraded to a watch app too.