Does anyone have a recommendation for a free app that will track your ride and send a message if you fall? I have found a few online but they all require a large subscription fee and most don’t have good reviews. Anyone with personal experience would be greatly appreciated. Yes I know I can just text a friend but there are a lot of areas near me that do not have service in case of an emergency. I would like a way to still be able to get help if needed. Thanks.
I use Road ID. It is an app for runners, but works pretty well. My husband has been in China, and yet been able to see exactly where I am on our property in the U.S. You can set the time perimeters that will send out a notification if you don’t move within so many feet in X amount of minutes.
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I use Road ID too. It works pretty well.
Equilab is free and great for stats. They keep track of distance, speed etc. They also recently added a feature to track if you fall. IF you carry a cellphone with you (you should for safety reasons) this might be a nice option.
I don’t know of any that will send a message if you fall but I use Glympse if I am riding alone. It is meant for cars but it works well for riding.
I downloaded Equilab and it looks like it’s requiring a monthly pay subscription to opt in to send messages if I’m stationary for a set amount of time – like a fall. Has anyone else used it? Or am I missing something?
I got the free version that came with my smartwatch. The upgrade is available but I’m not going to use it. The free version does what I need to do.
G.
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Does anyone know how well the Equilab works on gaited horses?
FYI Road ID sends a text to up to 5 people if you are stationary for more than 5 minutes. I’ve found the text part works really well even in dubious areas. The challenging part is how good is your phone GPS, because if you are working in a 20m circle for a few minutes and you have crappy GPS (I’m looking at you samsung+sprint) your phone might not think you have moved at all and send out a blaring alarm. Xan actually learned to stop when he hear that thing go off it happened so often! Same arena, different service/phone (verizon/pixel) and that hasn’t happened since.
I use it for all my rides in my arena since I am totally out of eyesight of anyone living on the property.
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What little I’ve done with it seems to work OK with my Marchador Marchadors.
G.
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I use Equilab. The funny thing is I also use it to track my walks and it records a LOT more cantering than when I’m actually riding. It’s all in the arm movement :).
I have trotters, but I notice it now includes “tolt” in the gaits. My TB & Appendix QH have done 0% tolt so far, haha, but gaits done by actual gaited horses might fall into that category. I’ve been using the free version for about a year-ish & it has been accurate on gaits/time/distance as well as tracks. It works without requiring the data connection to be on, just using the phone’s GPS, which is important to me bc I’m data & reception limited in a rural area.
You do have to pay to get the “tracking notification.” I don’t have disposable income so I’m not paying, but I appreciate other folks pointing out the RoadID app if I do want that option.
I have an older version of the app (because it seemed like every time I updated it, something was taken away), but it has always been a little buggy & I think they don’t always test things thoroughly. One thing I have found that has helped it always get & keep an accurate GPS signal is I open some other mapping app first, turn on location there (I don’t keep location on on my phone), then when it locks, I open Equilab & it runs smoothly.
Maybe this is unnecessary now, but I try not to mess with what works.
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Yes, there is a charge for that service in Equilab. I’m not sure any such service is going to be free… it requires servers and connectivity and bandwidth and developers to write code… all of which costs money.
What other apps have you looked into? “Huufe” appears to be another similar one.
I believe the Apple Watch also has fall detection, if you have one of those.
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I’ve always ridden only in company, but lately I don’t have anyone to ride with . . . so I’ve just recently started looking into these apps. I used to tell my elderly neighbor, who could see my pasture from her kitchen window, but she’s not as mobile as she used to be so I don’t want to ask her to watch for my prone body ;).
I may just go ahead and pay the fee for the Equilab and try it for a month. It has some other features that appear interesting.
