Activity Trackers - which one is best for riders?

AmyRai

AmyRai

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Hi Everyone, having used the MyFitnessPal app pretty religiously for over a year now, I am considering getting an activity tracker to get a better idea of my activity level / calorie burn. I would also like it to ideally monitor heart rate and sleep too. My initial instinct was to go for a fitBit, however I've heard there are issues with them registering your ride as steps. I've also read online that a Polar Loop allows you to specify riding activities, but I can't see whether there are variants within that (hacking/jumping/schooling/fitness work), or is it's a standard 'horseback riding' which wouldn't actually be very helpful.

So - what do you all use, and what are the pros and cons of each one?

Thanks,

Amy x
 
I have Endomondo, which lets you track horse riding but doesn't really do much more than map where you go and how long and gives a rough calculation of calories burned.

I've noticed that walking on horseback for 30 mins seems to burn more calories than a good decent 20 minutes of jumping/Cross country, by a long stretch so it doesn't differentiate between the types of activities you do while in the saddle.
 
thanks guys - that's not one I've heard of, but it sounds like its almost a combo of the myFitnesspal and Track my Hack apps. Anyone use one of the watch / wristband devices?
 
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 Endomondo for hacking and it tracks my routes pretty well, but is sometimes unrealistic regarding riding speeds - it recently showed that I had been riding at almost 100 km/h! No doubt, my boy is quite fast, but we were just trotting that day! :D
 
I use a Fitbit and several times I have walked the routes I've ridden. Every time I've done this I get several hundred steps less when I'm riding than when I'm walking.
 
I had a fitbit until I lost it whilst riding in the sea yesterday! I don't think that it gives you anymore steps than it would if you were to walk that route and if you're horse is anything like mine, it tends to be easier to walk myself than keep him going, especially if I'm on my own haha - so I deserve those steps even if the horse is the one that's walking :)

but like others have said, I do use endomondo to track the distances

https://www.facebook.com/9036840530...220028580079/1048219861913429/?type=3&theater
 
Sleipnir said:
I use Endomondo for hacking and it tracks my routes pretty well, but is sometimes unrealistic regarding riding speeds - it recently showed that I had been riding at almost 100 km/h! No doubt, my boy is quite fast, but we were just trotting that day! :D
Click to expand...

Might be worth checking the route in that day, Endomomdo once extended my hack from Hertfordshire to central Europe massive increasing my average speed and distance.

My experience is that some seem to suit different phones better than others. Endomondo and mapmyrun were awful on my nokia and kept jumping round, I had best results with sportypal and runtastic. Currently using Runtastic which gives me distance, elevation, average and top speed, route superimposed on a map which I like for planning new routes
The only thing I don't trust is the calories burned which is hugely optimistic, must be the calories the horse burned.
 
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