I am thinking of investing in a Pivo, even if just to evaluate myself, shudder…
I see several references to a Pivo silver but even on the Pivo website I only see a Pivo or an equestrian version.
Does anyone know if the equestrian version is actually better for riding? When I went to the checkout, (checking on shipping) I was given an option for a microphone, is it worthwhile to have?
Any other tips or things I should know?
thank you
I think that what they just call the Pivo now is the same as the Pivo Silver. There used to be a Pivo Red, which was the first generation, and couldn’t really track fast enough for horses. The “Equestrian edition” looks to be the Silver with a lot of accessories. I’m not sure what all of the different mounts are. I just put mine on a tripod.
For the price, I think it is very useful. It’s not perfect and will often miss parts of your ride, but is a lot more useful than no video.
I just have the Pod with a remote control, I think it was the Silver. I use the free Pivo Play app in my iPhone and have a nice big tripod to set up on, and a ‘pocket’ tripod for backup, like if I’m in another ring. It seems to work best when placed in the centre of the ring, sometimes when you’re tracking directly at or away from the pod, it doesn’t read the horse shape. Riding too close or too far away will also cause it to ‘lose’ you.
Now that I have it figured out, I feel it’s a valuable tool to watch the ‘hard stuff’ I’m schooling every day. I feel much more purposeful about my rides, but I’m really used to coaching myself. I don’t bother recording warm up or walk breaks, so it doesn’t take long to review at night and saves space in the phone. I started offering it to students to use with their phones so they have something to ‘take home’ of their rides. It’s fun to make clips for social media, too.
One thing I’m struggling with right now is that my phone is new but the battery is critically low after just 2 rides. The pod is fine so I think it’s a phone issue, not Pivo.
The pod uses your phone to record sound. Mine is a couple of years old. I think some people are now using them for remote coaching if they have access to internet so that might be what the mic is for.
They do have sales throughout the year and there’s a very active FB group that I believe the company jumps in on to offer support.
Love mine. Lost the remote twice, permanently this time I think, so just turn it on before I mount up and turn it off when I get off. Battery lasts several rides, rides up to 40 or so minutes. Set your phone on DND so it won’t disconnect. Most of my pictures are stills taken from Pivo video. Some of this depends on the quality your phone videos in, of course.
A short narrative review:
I have a pivo. It’s great for the price if no one else is in the ring.
I’m almost never alone in the ring.
I just bought a pixem 
That is the problem–if anyone else is around it’s not going to work well. As luck would have it, shortly after I got mine other people realized how quiet it was when I rode and my quiet time in the arena to myself disappeared! And if you’re riding at night with arena lights it struggles in lots of ways. I bought a silver and was so excited but in the end I found it far more useful to set my phone up on the arena fence. The quality is better and I can zoom in and out when reviewing the videos and do so much more with that basic set up than I could with the pivo video.
I find the pivo frustrating because if I’m going to ride without my tunes playing, I at least want a decent video out of it and it loses me constantly.
The pixio is way better for that, but a pain to set up in comparison.
I haven’t had issues with tracking or it losing the horse, personally. I do always ride alone but my other horses are within view. My only complaint is that the panning gets VERY choppy if I get very far from it and it makes that part of the video semi-useless. It also doesn’t zoom much.
However, as others have said it’s better than no video. Or in my case, trying to have a 6 year old take video. LOL
Unless you have a super thin phone (or no case on it), definitely get the additional mount. Mine would not fit in the standard one.
I have the original silver (bought it in 2019) and I’m a big fan. I didn’t use it much at my previous barn because I was always riding around beginner lessons, but I tend to ride later than most of the other boarders at my current barn so I usually have the ring to myself.
The only real tracking issues I’ve had have been a result of me sticking it in the wrong location. If it’s on a tripod in the middle of the ring it rarely loses me unless I ride too close to it too quickly for it to keep up. I also use it in our indoor by sticking it on top of the kick boards in the corner behind our mounting block and it actually works great there, but our indoor isn’t dusty at all and we have decent lighting so that helps.
I usually switch my phone to low power mode when I use the Pivo just because I’ve found that it about halves the power draw if I do that. There can be a bit of a challenge if you live somewhere with real winter—I pretty much can’t use it unless it’s over 30 degrees (Fahrenheit) because the cold will sap my phone battery, especially if it’s not in my pocket against my body and is instead in the middle of the cold air. Over the rest of the year it’s a great tool and my trainer loves that she doesn’t have to try to coach and video at the same time (she likes us to have some footage to watch back for learning purposes).
Looks like the equestrian version is the Pivo Pod with extra accessories. I already had a tripod so I just got the pod with remote and can’t say I feel like I’m missing out not having the accessories.
As others have said it works best when you are the only one in the ring. If you get too close to the camera or there’s a lack of contrast it does lose you. I found that happened to me in the far dark corners of the arena. Depending on the lighting in your arena and coloring of your horse contrasting polos might help.
It’s not perfect, but for the money it’s a great way to get decent video of your rides.
I also got a set of headphones with a built in mic and it works great, so wouldn’t bother with the microphone in the bundle.
Good to know thank you.
Finally a good reason to put polos back on!
What would you use the mic for?
Thank you for the replies, I will order one today.
It seems if I order a Pivo and tripod separately it is much cheaper than the package deal.
I got the headphones with mic for video lessons so I can hear and talk to my instructor. I should also add I got the bone conduction style of headphones so I can still hear what’s going on around me while riding.
If you care about the sound quality in recorded videos, maybe a mic for that would be warranted? But for me the phone mic is just fine.
I have had one for a few years. I have NEVER gotten it to successfully work. Now I have a grey horse and white footing so there is no way it even tries to follow me.
Seriously considering selling it.
That said, I have friends who use it successfully. They have bay horses and no horses in the background and sand/grey arenas without mirrors…
I have 2 Pivo and use daily. I have at least 1000 hours of video of my work stored on a 5T hard drive. I work remotely with 2 instructors via recorded video uploaded to YouTube. And one live via Pivo Meet.
The Equestrian version" is just the pod + (largely useless) junk.
I recommend the straight up pod ($149) + octopus/gorilla mini tripod from Amazon. $10 -$20.
Yes, a quiet arena is better.
Pixem set up is $1000, a nuisance to set up, and does not hold up to daily use. But could be worth it is your arena has lots of traffic. Honestly, having daily video is worth the $1000 if you are a hard core learner/intellectual equestrian. But I am grateful I can get away with the (priced at $100 over the holidays) Pivo
Soloshot 3 is only for outdoors.
Concur. If you ride with others, buy a pixem.
If you don’t mind me asking, what brand/kind of headphones with built in mic did you get? Any issues getting it to fit with your helmet?
Huh odd, I mostly ride a grey pony (my bay horse passed and even leading up to that, he was often on stall rest…) and it has lost me in the setting sun a few times but that was it. I read on Pivo that if riding a dark horse in an indoor, a light saddle pad helps, so I wonder if a grey horse outside would benefit from a dark saddle pad? My arena is…arena colored, not white, sort of a greige color. Now a few times it has stopped on a horse outside the arena standing broadside when I was at an angle and once it decided to follow my dog 
But if the Pivo was ever going to lose me, it would have been this time when literally everything was the same color…
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like I said, I have friends for whom it works perfectly. I have asked on the facebook forums and been referred to videos on line… now there are new apps, no one can answer which to use, and frankly I am done. especially now that we are advised to use the front facing camera so you cannot tell if it is recording or even seeing you. Holding on to it for a while in hopes someone might walk me through it but like I said, it didnt work with a bay horse and didnt work with a grey - and both were well-tacked in colors and leg wraps.
Glad it works for you.
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