Equilab app review

You might have seen quite a bit about an equestrian app called Equilab floating about whenever you've been on Facebook and Instagram especially now that spring is here and the hacking season has officially started, as the app is gaining more and more popularity in the UK. Created in Sweden, this app utilises artificial intelligence to help capture the movement of the rider and the horse, and whilst it tracks your hacking routes it also tracks everything from the time spent in each pace and turn distribution to the intensity of stride - great for any rider who wants the chance to be able to analyse their rides better! 🤓

I've recently been trying out the Equilab app, it's very in depth and has lots of options and fortunately it is available both on Android and iPhone. All you have to do is to simply turn on the app and put it in your pocket whilst you're out hacking or riding - although for the first few days I totally forgot to have my phone on me as I never used to have my phone with me when riding. If you're like me, it only takes a few days to remember to take your phone with you, then it becomes an automatic thing! I find it very useful to see how I'm riding - I can tell how many turns I've done, whether I'm favouring one rein over the other, as well as my rhythm and elevation.  It's great when you don't regularly have lessons but want to be able to track your rides and evaluate how your rides have been going.

On the app itself you can set up your own profile as well as your horses' profiles, with the horse profiles being a little more in depth than the rider's. You are able to add a photo, the horse's name and nickname, the main discipline they do, their breed, weight and date of birth, as well as add multiple riders to each horse - so if two of you are sharing a horse it doesn't matter as Equilab has you sorted! I think this is a great feature that has been really well thought out, as not every horse has just one rider. I know several people who horse share and this app would be perfect for them as you can just open the app and see what they've been up to on the days that you've not been riding.

But really, my favourite thing in this app has got to be the trends tab for each horse, where you can swipe through several graphs of information over weekly and monthly windows. Under the trends tab (which is my most used section for sure 👍🏻) you can find informaation about everything that has been documented with each ride, broken down into weekly and monthly charts. The GPS data which the app collects whilst you ride is turned into graphs that show you where you've ridden as well as the general trends in your riding habits, which can be very informative as it highlights your good and bad tendencies. If you scroll to the bottom of trends you find a tab for all trainings for your complete ride history, your energy consumption for a calculated amount of energy burned and the compare section which shows an average comparison of your training in the last month in comparison to other trainings in Equilab, so you can compare your riding sessions to see what the average training in a selected discipline looks like! It's very interesting!

My phone is in the pocket on my leg to help track the ride

Personally for me, I like the turns page the most because I know even without the app that I spend more time on one side than the other and favour riding to the right. This gives a break-down of how much time you spend turning each direction and it has made me SO much more aware of how I’m riding, and I'm making a conscious effort to make sure I ride equal amounts in both directions on ALL the horses. Another favourite feature of this app for me is the chance to look back on my week and see what I achieved. I love seeing how long I have spent in each gait and how hard (or little) I have actually worked, compared to how hard I think I’ve worked! Although there are other companies and apps which also offer the safety tracking, Equilab is the first to offer an integrated riding app which also provides a tracking tool and this makes it the perfect analytical tool for equestrian sports in my opinion 🙌🏻

 

The premium version offers a customisable calendar that allows you to schedule vet and farrier visits, any stable work, upcoming competitions and training sessions. All your training sessions are also automatically logged, and the whole calendar can be shared with who you like (e.g. your trainer), which makes it easier for you to stay organised and up-to-date. Overall I think this is a GREAT app and I will definitely keep using it! You can find Equilab in the Google Play store, Apple Store or check out their webpage here.

I was gifted the premium version of this app for review by Equilab, but all thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you Equilab for wanting to work with me! 💕