But we were holding out for the Soloshot 3, which if you know anything of THAT saga, it's been delayed multiple times due to engineering challenges. She finally got fed up a couple of weeks ago and ordered a Pixio Move n' See:
This thing is awesome. It works indoors, and has a range of 330ft, which is pretty decent. If you leave the range briefly, it just stops moving where it last saw you, and then when it sees you again it moves to where you are and continues.
Ours is on a tripod in the corner of our indoor, with those smaller tripod things in each corner sitting on the rail. Each tripod emits a pretty bright green LED, and apparently horses can see green, cause:
This was at least the fourth or fifth time we'd gone by it. Oh and the second spook was because I laughed at him.
(I finally got his cat crouch spooks on video, even if the Pixio was not calibrated correctly so we're not in the middle of the frame. I am so excited.)
Overall, once we got it calibrated, it does a really fantastic job of following the rider. (We put the sensor in our pockets rather than wear it with the watch band.) It honestly feels like a human is running the camera. It follows and zooms in and out as needed.
She set up a YouTube playlist for each rider, and after each lesson or training ride, she uploads the video. While it's total information overload, it's also incredibly useful. More useful than if we had mirrors. I can go back and listen to cues that worked for me in the lesson, and see what things looked like from the ground. One of the big reasons I blog is because during lessons I get so in the zone, I seriously struggle to remember what we did in the lesson afterward. This is going to help a lot with that.
And not to mention I get to see what his training rides look like and how her rides differ from mine:
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| Get ready for all the blurry screenshots you can handle. Also, we are getting so much more foreleg reach these days. |
I'm also looking forward to taping one of my rides on my own and having her watch it with me and give pointers on how I could be more effective, since I am never as good on my own as I am with her, and that drives me crazy.
After seven years of mostly never having video or under saddle pictures on this blog, I am so excited to have this resource. Get ready for tons of cute pony videos!
After seven years of mostly never having video or under saddle pictures on this blog, I am so excited to have this resource. Get ready for tons of cute pony videos!
That spook tho... what a stinker!
ReplyDeleteAt least he never goes anywhere when he's scared. He just lives out his cutting horse dreams for a brief moment.
Deleteoh this sounds wonderful. I know that spook well, and I laugh at them too.
ReplyDeleteIt's just so non-threatening and funny. What evolutionary need could spooking in place possibly have?
DeleteWhy can't my horse spook cutely like yours? And I'm so excited for media overload... There's no such thing as too much Connor, IMO
ReplyDeleteLol thanks. His cute spook is definitely a selling point. I don't think the words 'bolt' or 'buck' are even in his vocabulary.
DeleteI want one! Granted, I ride 90% of the time in the field so that might not work so well...
ReplyDeleteWe're intending to use ours in the field when, y'know, the weather is hospitable. I'll let you know how it works. At 330ft, if you put it in the center of the field, you effectively get 660ft diameter of range from end to end. As long as you're not doing an XC course, it should be good enough.
DeleteAlthough I'll say I'm not sure what the range on those tiny tripods are. Hmm...otherwise, it would have 360 degree range. We'll have to play with it.
DeleteOh this is SO cool!!
ReplyDeleteYes! Anyone who rides by themselves all the time *ahem* :D NEEDS one. Tell your husband to buy you one. Haha.
DeleteThis is fantastic! Looking forward to all your videos. And I know that spook...Castleberry Cob trait?
ReplyDeleteHaha. I won't say they're all like that, but some of them definitely have it. It's so easy to ride through, I don't mind it.
DeleteI preordered the soloshot and honestly am so annoyed with the delays. I understand the engineering issues, but I don't understand how a company who relies on the money raised from preorders can be so recalcitrant in their communication
ReplyDeleteWe canceled our preorder and went with this. You could do the same thing... :D If it really is March, that's not so long to wait, but my confidence in an accurate ship date is so low after so many delays.
DeleteBUT Connor is the cutest ever and I am very stoked about all the video to come!
ReplyDeleteLol thanks!
DeleteOmg I need this. Off to research.
ReplyDeleteWith Redheadlins off to AZ for the winter, plus riding alone a lot, I am suffering from a sad lack of riding media this year.
Every blogger needs one! They are not cheap, but worth it. I'm going to be in GIF and blurry screenshot heaven! Haha.
DeletePlease share what you discover! :)
DeleteThis is super cool! I'm actually really impressed with how well it follows you
ReplyDeleteYeah, I honestly think it's better than having a human videographer - it's totally smooth with no shakes or jerky zooming.
DeleteSo cool! Ever since I found out that these type of products exist I've wanted one, but not sure I can justify the cost yet. That's awesome that you were able to split the purchase price. Maybe I need to set up a fundraising page on my blog for any readers who want more media? lol j/k. Does it work well in cold temps?
ReplyDeleteLol that's awesome. It was pretty cold for that lesson, in the low 20's I think, and it worked fine. I'm sure I'll have more opportunities to test that out this winter!
DeleteI want it!!!! Now that you have given it a good review I might have to investigate the pixio. So the pixio comes with a camera? Def going to investigate!
ReplyDeleteThe Pixio CAN come with a camera, but we chose not to. We bought a Sony for $133. I honestly don't think I want an integrated camera, this way we can always upgrade the camera if it dies or new features come out or SD cards are obsolete someday.
DeleteHahaha, Cosmo also does a cat crouch spook.
ReplyDeleteSo so cool to get se much video now for you, your trainer, and everyone at the barn!
Lol, aren't they fun? It's going to be great!
DeleteI want one! I'll have to convince my trainer that that barn needs one ;)
ReplyDeleteAlso I love Connor's canter. And his crouch spoook.
Every barn needs one! Thanks, I am especially proud of canter compliments since A) Welsh Cobs get a bad rap for having a terrible canter and B) Connor's canter was atrocious the first few years I owned him.
DeleteSame with he Haflingers. My favorite compliment on Tony was "not only does he have good gaits for a Haflinger, he has good gaits period."
DeleteT applied for a job at SoloShot without knowing wtf its all about (just app development) and I was like "omg babe.. get that job so my friends and I can all have free or discounted cameras" The pixio looks good, there is a european one too that I can't remember the name of. But damn how useful is that shit.
ReplyDeleteFrom the sounds of it, they need him. They're having problems with heat dissipation with the built-in camera. Personally, for all the reasons I stated to Hillary above, I don't even want a built-it camera. That shit changes too often to get locked into a $600 device like that.
DeleteThat's so cool! Connor is adorable.
ReplyDeleteThanks :D
DeleteWow, thank you for posting this, I was so curious as to how the Pixio worked. I want one!
ReplyDeleteYou are so welcome! So far, I am in love with it, I see no reason not to get one!
Deletethis is fantastic - and such SUCH a valuable tool. i'm a media junkie for a reason: yea, sure, i like pretty pictures. but i also learn SO MUCH from watching myself ride (whether i love it or hate it haha).
ReplyDeletewhen i was a kid, it was a big yearly event when our trainer would tape our rides and have us stick around after to all watch the video together. crazy how technology has changed since then lol.
also. love that cat crouch spook - he gets LOW lol
Yes! That's where I think this will be more valuable than mirrors (and I keep saying that because the two things are comparable in cost and we've always talked about doing both but did this in the end). You do learn a lot, and being able to compare the way I ride him to the way she rides him is just incredible.
DeleteAlso yeah, lol, I describe riding that as feeling like a cartoon character where you run off the edge of the cliff and you're in midair wondering how you got there haha. He literally drops out from under me.
Oh god do I want one of those things. Interesting that u can use a different camera, I wasn't aware of that.
ReplyDeleteI have a soloshot2 but have been curious about this one. I'm also curious about the 3 but they are almost a year behind which makes me wonder. Having the video has made a huge difference.
ReplyDeleteThis is AWESOME! I know that spook well ;) And he's adorable.
ReplyDeleteSo cool. I've been wanting to get one of these but trying to justify the cost. I wish I had barn people to go in on it with me.
ReplyDeleteI've seen adverts for this everywhere, but to hear that you really like has made me want one even more! Also the cat crouch spooks are just so funny, Vallu is an expert in them as well :D
ReplyDeleteI'm so jealous! I ride alone 90% of the time so I definitely want one of these. Can't wait to see more media of you and Connor.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! I've always wondered how those things work. Much better than just sticking a camera on a fence post and editing 20 minutes of footage to like 10 seconds of trotting by.
ReplyDeleteThis is so completely cool!! It's so tough for me to find someone to take pictures of video of my rides that I'm seriously jealous. Hopefully this technology will continue to become more affordable so I'll be able to get one for myself some time!
ReplyDelete100% this, thanks so much for the review - great to hear from handson first time users that aren't part of advertising campaign (aka honest) 😇
DeleteThis is definitely going on my wish list! So neat and useful!
ReplyDeleteI hated the cat crouch spook (my mare has one too) until I rode a real cutting horse... Literally the biggest 'oh shit' feeling ever when your horse literally just melts himself into the ground.
ReplyDeleteI want this so bad.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned blurry, can you set auto focus? Is there a lot of blurriness? Is it user friendly, is it easy to set up? How long did it take to ship?
ReplyDeleteI think I said the screenshot was blurry, the video itself is crystal clear. The Pixio ties in to the camera's autofocus, and it honestly does a better job of following and focusing than a human videographer does. It's very user friendly, takes a few minutes to set up but was easy to calibrate (and that is in the indoor too). It shipped so fast, I think my trainer ordered it and had it within a week.
DeleteJen, how are you still liking the Pixio? Would love an update!
ReplyDeleteStill loving it. I almost can't live without it. Even at lessons when no one is at the barn except me and my trainer, I get perfectly following, perfectly zooming video of my lessons. Being able to see what a lesson looked like vs felt like is especially helpful for me. Lessons that feel great look awful, and it's changing the way I approach my rides to have this much video.
DeleteI do videos for lessons and burn DVDs there. Does it only up load to the web? How easy it it to put up and take down?
ReplyDelete