Well let me know - I mean, our bodies aren't the same so I can't use your numbers for myself - but Im just interested what the randon number on here is based off of!

I still have no idea - I've been using MFP generic number and just counting the time i ride - which is about an hour - not counting the other couple hours Im there grooming, cleaning tack, etc.

Well - now I'm even more torn! i was going to get a HRM but now Im not so sure after your post about it saying you burned over 1000 calories.

I know one thing for sure, my calorie burns vary, a lot, when I ride. Monday I did hill work with my mare and rode her in a large field - something we don't do too often. she was SO strong that it took alot more body control on my part to hold her together. i tried to really pay attention to what i was doing. i noticed my leg was on a lot harder - i was riding a bit more defensively, and I wonderied if the sheet fact that i was a little more "on my toes" about things was burning more calories, because I was getting tired - but I wasn't sure why. This day i only rode for about 20 minutes because I knor doing trot and canter sets up and down the large hills is way harder for her than riding around the ring, and I wanted to make sure i didn't push her. But was it harder for me too?? I think it actally was, i feel like i got a better workout than I generally do.

The day before that I rode for a little over an hour doing ring work, but I wasn't nearly as tired. yesterday, I was pretty sick all day 9I think i had a stomach bug) and felt dehydrated even though I drank over a gallon of water, so I only rode for a half hour in the 90 degree weather as to not feel like passing out! I also went to bed at 8 last night... so I may have done too much. Anyway, point being, my 20 minutes monday burned more than my half hour yesterday, Im sure, but i just logged the same standard thing in MFP.

its a mystery!

Im also now realizing yesterdays ilness and dehydration is probbaly skewing this mornings weigh in...crap.... I will weigh in again tomorrow!

I bought the fitbit charge which has a heart rater monitor on it!

It's... ineteresting.... I got to say it way overestimates calories burned. For one, it doesn't recognize recovery time - so - if i jump a course on my mare then walk for five minutes, it still records my heart rate as high, when Im cooling down, and sais I am burning calories which Im actually not (to put it really non scientifically).

Anyway - Ive had it for over a month now but I "lost" this group when everything was re-vamped so I didnt post about it. The first couple times I rode with it I checked it alot. I cant remember exact numbers... but my heart rate maintained in the low 80s for trot and canter. When I jumped - it shot up to over 100 putting me in the "fat burn zone". When I walked after jumping, my heart rate was still high, but the charge kept me in the "fat brun zone" thus giving me an increased caloric burn.

** On the same note, on days it was 10-20 degrees farenheight at the barn, which was basically the entire month of February, my heart rate was recorded to be over 100 for the entire 4 hours i was at the barn - I wasn't riding during this time, just walking, brushing, hanging out. Not sure if it was so high from shivering, of from the 7 layers of under armor compressing it against my arm, but again it put me in the fat burn zone when really I was just freezing.

Suprizingly, what my fit bit read as calories burned after about an hour of riding was pretty similar to MFP's generic number - it was about 416 calories after an hour of mainly trotting and cantering, with a little bit of jumping and walking. Because I believe MFP over estimates, and the Fit Bit Charge does not account for cool down periods, Ive been logging half of what it gives me as exersice calories (well, in reality I didnt ride all february because it never broke 20 degrees F so i actually didnt log anything ha). I also assume while the fitbit is judging caloried by my heart rate - its also accounting for steps, which are increased dramatically on the horse.... so Im not sure if thats why the caloric burn was higher than i thought it should be too....I really dont know.

Im going to set the fit bit to track my calories burned again today and see what it reads - Ill just do a normal ride which is about 15 minutes walking, 10 minutes of stretching trot, 10 minutes of working trot, 20 minutes of canter, and 10 minutes (or less) of jumping.