I’m definitely leaning toward the polar heart rate chest strap with a band to keep the stats easily visible. My one hang up now is chaffing. I’m trying to see if any stores near me have it in stock so I can go try it and feel the texture.
Read about another interesting device I came across called ESTRIDE (www.estride.store) that measures both the rider’s calorie count for a ride and the horse’s, as well as gait analysis and other metrics that are good for rehab, performance assessment, and the like. Looks like both horse & rider fitness, training & performance tracker. They are starting to accept pre-orders from Aug 2017 as per their website. Looks quite promising.
I’ve had 2 Fitbits and gave up on them. However, I just got a Garmin 230 which seems to be very accurate as far as distance and speed. It does have a HR feature but I didn’t get stuff to hook up with it because I want to get the adapter for it to do my horse’s HR. I really like that it has a screen where you can see total elapsed time, current speed and total distance. Plus it give you lap speed every mile.
Have a look at some of the Garmin watches on the market, most now come with wrist based HR but can also be paired to a chest strap if you want even more accurate data.
I have done a fair bit of comparison between wrist and chest strap HR while riding and have found them to be pretty accurate overall. The biggest thing is making sure that you have the watch done up tight enough that it isn’t sliding around.
Initially I felt like the step count was cheating with getting credit for riding however when I look at HR comparisons between walking, jogging, and riding I feel that you should get step credit for time spent in the saddle.
I had the same issue finding a fitness tracker that worked while riding. My wife bought me the Fitbit Alta a few months ago and I couldn’t be happier with the results!
I have a garmin. In “run” mode, it tells me how many miles I rode and the time for each mile. I don’t pay attention to steps.
I use a Fitbit and it massively overstates riding activity.
Pleased with myself today as I found my target 10000 steps today before I got to work for the first time (riding not involved).
If you want GPS, get a Garmin watch. A colleague is an ultra runner and swears by it.
I use a Fitbit and it massively overstates riding activity.
Pleased with myself today as I found my target 10td steps today before I got to work for the first time (riding not involved).
If you want GPS, get a Garmin watch. A colleague is an ultra runner and swears by it.
For use at the barn, I don’t think I’d want to wear an Apple watch purely because of the $$$ invested. I’ve got a Samsung Gear 2 (I think? Something like that) that I got pretty cheap on Amazon Prime day '16. It’s great for counting steps around the barn and it does measure riding the same as walking steps or running. That’s fine with me though because I think some study showed that riding correlates pretty well workout-wise with walking or running depending on intensity.
Anyway, I would definitely aim for a rugged outdoorsy version of whatever watch you choose, rather than a stylish Apple product. The ability to sync with your phone and send or read text messages is a nice bonus btw. If you can get a deal on a 3G version of a smartwatch via your phone company you’d be able to text from out on the trail or in the farthest pasture out of shouting range without having your phone in your pocket, in an emergency. I have often wished I’d thought of that before I settled for the non 3G version.
I’m using Garmin Vivo HR right now and it seem everything okay. I mean its stats always came accurately,
Which make me love the Vivo Hr is that its Always-on display shows your stats, even in sunlight! I don’t have to stop Arcane for tracking stats.
I’m also very active on Garmin community where you can join fitness challenges and save, plan and share your progress with other users.
A fitness tracker is the perfect way to monitor your activity and health effortlessly and with unmatched accuracy. Think of it as an electronic finger on the pulse, constantly measuring your vitals, quality of sleep and step count.
Today’s fitness band market is stuffed with fantastic devices, most of which can do a pretty good job at the basics of tracking. But frankly, we’re only interested in the best, and you should be too.
I got a Polar OH1 arm-band heart rate tracker for keeping track of calories burned while at the barn, and I love it! It goes around your forearm or upper arm (not wrist), and you can easily sync it with one of their apps on your phone (Polar Beat tracks minute by minute workouts, or if you want to use the HR monitor without having your phone the whole time, you can use it independently then sync it with the Polar Flow app to get a summary of your workout). It even syncs with my Fitness Pal. I’ve used it multiple times in conjunction with my Garmin running watch, and the two devices come up with amazingly close calorie burn figures. Cost is only about $70 on Amazon.
