Does anyone use a pedometer (eg Jawbone, Fitbit) whilst riding?

[Tash88]

Hi, I've been trying to lose a bit of weight recently (not a lot, just over a stone to be a comfortable size 8/10 from a 10/12), and have almost lost a stone! I find the dieting quite easy and have been using the My Fitness Pal app, and two weeks ago I bought a Fitbit to try and monitor my exercise. Technology is my friend at the moment!

I do find it really useful but was wondering what to do when I ride, as it appears that even though riding is a different movement to walking, it is still counting my horse's steps as the number of steps shoots right up, even in a 30 min schooling session. At first I was going with it as clearly riding (properly) burns calories as well and I have a long walk to the field and back (twice as he lives out, works out to be about 2 miles in total), but as the weight loss has slowed down a little this week I think I need to be a bit more accurate!

The usual advice would be to sync with the fitbit app before riding and say that I am starting an 'activity' and stop it when I've finished riding, but as it doesn't sync properly on my phone (I only have an iPhone 4 and it needs to be the model after that) I can't really do that at the yard. Has anyone else had the same problem? Does riding burn as many calories as walking a certain number of steps anyway, even when only walking out hacking?

I appreciate that I probably sound really anal about this but I spent quite a bit of my surprise tax rebate on this little gadget and I want to get it right, plus I have made quite a few changes to my diet and want my exercise to complement it.

Thanks in advance, Tx

 

[Honey08]

Can you not turn it off when riding? That's what I do if I'm using the weight watchers one.

And no, I don't count riding as proper exercise unless it's at a level where it's making me very out of breath.

 

[Tash88]

I think in that case I'll just take it off when I go for a hack, but keep it on when I school as that can be a little harder, especially if I have a lesson! I think anything that makes you sweat is an 'activity' that can be measured. Was just trying to see if there was another way around it!

 

[WindyStacks]

I've only just got mine (same phone too) and I'm sure I read you can whack it in sleep mode whilst you ride - although I've not actually managed to do this successfully myself so that might be bobbins!

 

[Tash88]

Yes you probably can, I didn't think of that; thought sleep mode was just for tracking your sleep... Good to think outside the box a bit!!

 

[sasquatch]

I have a similar goal to you - wanting to get down to an 8/10 at least!

In my opinion, I would say riding is exercise if it makes you sweat and you're tired after riding. Hacking definitely won't burn the same amount of calories as half an hour schooling.

From what I've read on pedometers and horses, the horses pace can make it inaccurate as it's registering the horses steps, not the activity you do. I think it comes into the fact that they're not designed for use by riders/not designed to incorporate a horses paces

 

[FfionWinnie]

I wear mine for hacking and reckon of I manage towards 30k steps that's a good days work out (about 15k on foot and 15k on a horse).

I don't worry too much about the horse riding not being the same as physical steps, as far as I am concerned we trot and canter nearly the whole hack and I find it hard work! What irritates me about the fitbit is it counting steps when I am driving. I now wear it on my waist when driving which cures this issue.

If you are that bothered just take it off to ride.

 

[Tash88]

I've never noticed it counting steps while I'm driving, might have to take it off for driving as well then. I have to do a fair bit of road work on hacks and often the ground off-road is too hard to trot/canter for very long so should probably take it off for hacking and keep it on for schooling. I don't have the same problem when lunging so keep it on then.

 

[neen]

Mine doesn't seem to count walking steps, but it does count trotting steps. But I think that's fair enough as trotting is quite hard work. Walking on horseback comes out as inactive, trotting as medium activity, whereas brisk walking on foot comes out as high activity.

 

[LovesCobs]

I keep mine on but don't add the activity in addition to the steps it gives me, it probably works out about the same in calorie burn? I thought to take it off but always forget. Mine does count some steps when driving but not enough to worry about. What it doesn't do is count my steps in the swimming pool. I teach in the water and so walk around in the pool rather than swim and I get a bit miffed that it doesn't count them!
How about you change the setting to your dominant hand if it's a flex? I think that changes the sensitivity as well.

 

[Kaylum]

Riding is proper exercise its a brilliant way to keep fit as your using your core muscles and cardio. Put an unfit person in a lesson for half an hour and you will soon see it certainly is exercise.

 

[Coblover63]

If you have an Android phone, you need to download DriveBit - a free complementary app - onto your phone. This is a simple app that you switch on when you start driving and off when you finish and it negates any bumps in the road that your Fitbit may have converted to steps. It still allows you "living calories" (ie for your heart beating and your core temperature).

I also use it when I go riding, to negate my horse's steps. Then when I get home and am back on the pc, I look on my activity log to see what time I started riding and how long and manually log the activity of "horseback riding, general" to get the calorie workout.

It sounds complicated but it's really simple once you've done it a few times

If you don't have an Android phone, you can still make a note of the times you are driving and riding and log them manually, but to get the steps taken off for riding you'd still have to manually log it as driving first, before logging it again as riding to get the calories.

 

[Two bays and a blonde]

I used to have a smart watch. Now I just use a pedometer app and turn it off while hacking.
(Or not, the stats look good on riding days!

 

[Skib]

My android has Samsung Health app on it and it counts rising trot as jogging paces. When using My fitness pal, I do count rising trot as exercise but only if we trot long distance. My friend and I used to refer to trotting like this as riding teacher trot because it entailed trotting much further than we would have chosen to trot on our own. We have a set riding track in winter and I tell the mare she has to keep trotting, that it fittens her like going to the gymn.

 

[lynz88]

Super duper old thread. I have a Garmin that has horseback riding as an option. It counts anything I want it to - I normally have time, pace, distance, HR, and a few other data fields that I can't remember. If you're moving, it's exercise. For me now, it's active recovery as we mostly just walk due to various factors.