A few days ago the search term “people that wear fitbit while horse riding is cheating” landed a reader on my blog. Never mind the grammar, after using my Fitbit pretty regularly for about six months now, I do wonder how my horse’s steps affect my calorie count and other stats. I keep thinking there has to be a simple coding tweak to allow equestrians to adjust the Horseback riding mode to take out the horse’s steps.
Here’s the Letter
Dear James,
I’m writing to thank you and to tell you how awesome it is that I can finally prove/quantify that horseback riding is indeed exercise, thanks to my Fitbit Charge HR!
I’m a middle school teacher and equestrian blogger who was thrilled when my husband bought my Fitbit for my birthday in October. I began wearing my Fitbit regularly for riding. I discovered after a recent lesson (jumping) that my riding was supposedly as rigorous as a spin class!
There’s one problem that I think could be fixed to dramatically enhance the Fitbit for my lifestyle and for thousands of other equestrians who are either current or future Fitbit owners.
The Problem: the Fitbit counts our horses’ steps as our own steps. I wish that it didn’t! It makes me wonder about the accuracy.
I did a search online to see if there was a way to delete steps after a ride, and I even called in to Customer Support. I was told that I could switch my “Horseback riding” activity to “Driving.” I would really prefer to not do that. I would like to keep my categories of activity pure to know when I actually drove as opposed to rode my horse. Perhaps there is a way the technology could be tweaked so that when an equestrian categorizes a workout as “Horseback riding” that the steps could automatically be deleted?
On my blog Saddle Seeks Horse (susanfriedlandsmith.com) I posted about my Fitbit and riding discoveries. The comments generated were quite interesting! One woman stated she used to wear her Fitbit while riding, but she found it annoying to have to go back into it to delete the steps, so she just stopped wearing it. (Sad.)
Another person commented that because she rides four horses a day, she typically will have over 50K steps per day, which is not entirely accurate. One more person said she just takes her Fitbit off when she rides.
I believe that you could expand your market share into a potentially lucrative demographic of equestrians by simply adjusting the “Horseback riding” category so the horse’s steps don’t show.
The majority of horse owners drop thousands of dollars per year on supplements, chiropractic adjustments, quarterly veterinarian visits, shoeing, etc. in order to ensure the health and well-being of their animals. A Fitbit seems like a very inexpensive way for horse owners to start looking after their own personal health and well-being!
I am eager to hear if this is something that can be addressed to make horseback riding it’s own unique activity minus our horse’s steps and mileage. I’m also seeking reassurances of the accuracy for horseback riding. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Susan Friedland-Smith
Blog Saddle Seeks Horse susanfriedlandsmith.com
Twitter @SaddlSeeksHorse
Instagram @SaddleSeeksHorse
Facebook Saddle Seeks Horse
So there you have it. What are your experiences riding with a Fitbit or other fitness tracking device? Are there any questions or design tweaks you’ve encountered?
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I'm Susan and this is my horse Knight. We have been a blogging team since 2015 and we're glad you're here. Tally ho!
I completely disagree so I guess if you send this I have to send a letter saying how much I love it to counteract it? Lol. I would be very upset to lose the capability to count my riding at part of my steps.
I love that it counts the steps because I’m riding a horse as part of my daily movement.
I know the charge hr accounts for my calories correctly otherwise I wouldn’t have lost 30+ pounds using it and myfitnesspal together, so what’s the problem? Do you have some research that shows the calorie count to be incorrect?
The calories are based on your heart rate not steps with the charge hr so no matter what you are doing it should be able to (and I believe it does) calculate things correctly.
I know that when I ride my easier horse, Mr. P, I burn less calories than I do while riding Stampede. I can see it on my app. Sometimes riding Mr. P doesn’t even register as a separate workout if I’m just on a leisurely hack. The product works properly so I see no need to change it.
Thanks for chiming in! I appreciate your candor. 🙂 Congrats on the weight loss too. I guess I feel guilty when I get my Fitbit reports and my friend who is not a rider shows a lower activity level than I do (have you accessed that feature yet–where it will show you how you’ve done relative to other friends with a Fitbit?). She runs up steps in sports stadiums and I’m positive she does harder workouts than me. I’m not knocking my own riding activity, but I would like assurances that the additional horse steps are not inflating my overall activity level.
Timothy Harfield (aka Horse Hubby, eventer Elisa Wallace’s hubby) made some interesting comments on my FB page today regarding what you’re talking about. You might enjoy reading his thoughts.
I think the problem with Fitbit is how much others compare themselves to their friends. I checked where I was at before I rode and after I rode. Averaged how many steps riding counted for after a week and increased my step goal by that much. The competition between friends is fun, but my Fitbit is for me. As long as I am meeting or exceeding my goals I am stoked.
Humm, I’m torn on this. I definitely don’t like that the steps count triple what I actually feel like I do in a day, however considering I am posting when I’m riding I would like for some of that to be counted because that is exercising. Most of the time I don’t really go by the steps anyway, I just go by the heart rate monitor. I like seeing what riding causes me to get a better “workout” then others. For that reason, it not counting steps would be ok but at the same time I am using my legs so I just don’t know I want it to not count it.
With all that said, I honestly have not played around enough with my blaze to see if there is a better option for me to use. I could possibly just put it in workout mode or bike mode but I’m not sure how that would affect the steps if at all. From a mental aspect the days that my steps are high I know I rode and the days they are lower I know I was lazy and didn’t. Another reason I like it counting the steps, because I can look back and see how “active” I was during the week or month.
What I think would be better then turning steps on or off, would be for them to come up with a way to find a more accurate way to track it since it is still exercise and our heart rate going up and down proves that. Maybe you could ask them to do a focus group with us (riders and equestrian bloggers – so we can document the experience of course ::wink wink::). I’d love to be able to talk to them and work out a better solution that doesn’t involve doing one or the other. Surely there is some way to make it work better for us!
I would buy the first watch/fitness/stepcounter thing that has a dedicated horseback riding mode. I also had a fitbit for a while and gave up on it. I didn’t want to delete the steps because that’s annoying to get into, but I also knew I wasn’t doing 10,000 steps in an hour while trail riding.
Man I hope they come through!! I honestly would want to buy one if this happened. You’re right, so many of us spend so much $$$ on our horse’s health, a fitbit is a great way to take care of us!!
I have a fitbit flex that I use while riding. I’m torn as well because I don’t really see how the device could really pick up on the horses steps while riding. I agree the system should be updated for equestrians. I was using mine while riding dressage. My hand and arms never move much at all, and with posting or sitting the trot I think the device would pick up more on the riders impact and movement than the horses steps. I mostly use mine for the calorie amount. If I do a light 20 minute ride the calorie count is lower than if I do a more vigorous 20 minute ride. Also keep in mind that even with an hour long walking trail ride you are still burning a lot of calories…
Thanks for your input, Kate. I’m not as familiar with the Flex. Your observation about the calorie count seems on target. And I’m all for burning lots of calories on those trail rides. . . relaxation AND fitness.
I attach mine to my hip(belt loop) or the exterior boot loop, pending safest location during riding workout. Not only does it count when I am actually working my leg or posting/using my hips to canter, sit the trot, transition through the forward movements (landing jumps in 2 point/half seat work), I find it does not catch the walk steps or the less active and therefore less calorie burning moments.
Forgot to mention mine is a fit bit flex and does not need to make contact with skin to keep count.
That is a brilliant idea! Thank you, Faith. I need to try that. Very smart.
I love the steps it adds! I have friends I can never consistently beat!!! But regardless, its about ME and not anyone else – a lot of times I cannot hit 10 thousand without being active out at the barn – including riding. I have a HR monitor in mine so it tracks my HR and I base my overall activity off of that. I specifically got the HR one because I knew that steps alone would be a moot point knowing that I ride horses. I wish that perhaps it could calibrate steps for my activity level rather than delete them altogether. Just because I didn’t take 8 thousand steps in my hour ride doesn’t mean I didn’t do the activity equivalent of maybe 4 thousand! Isn’t the whole point of a fitbit to track your activity level? Having a horse is a huge part of my activity for most days! Some people go to the gym for 30 minutes and I go to the barn and walk in circles, groom, hike up a mountain to find my horse, saddle, ride, etc.
“Isn’t the whole point of a fitbit to track your activity level? Having a horse is a huge part of my activity for most days! Some people go to the gym for 30 minutes and I go to the barn and walk in circles, groom, hike up a mountain to find my horse, saddle, ride, etc.”
I love this point you made. So true. It’s pretty much impossible to be sedentary when you have a horse! When people say, “You ride horses! The hose is the one who does all the work,” we know better. 🙂
It also applies to driving tractors ,quad bikes motor bikes 4×4 vehicles or any other vehicle driven over uneven terrain