Quick start

Everything you need to go from downloading Saddle to your first recorded ride, in one page. Each step links to a full guide when you want more detail.

1. Create your account

Download Saddle on iOS or Android and open it. Tap Continue with Google or Continue with Apple for the fastest start, or Create an account to sign up with email — if you use email, tap the verification link Saddle sends you and you're in.

You stay signed in from then on. More in Getting started.

2. Find your way around

Four tabs run along the bottom:

Almost everything opens as a card that slides up over the tab — swipe down to go back.

3. Add your horse

Open the Horse tab and tap Add Your First Horse. A name is all you need — photo, color, breed, and birth date can come anytime, and every detail saves as you enter it. See Horses.

4. Join your barn (or create one)

On the Barn tab, tap Create or Join:

You can use Saddle solo, too — a barn just adds the shared calendar, gallery, documents, trails, and weather. See Barns.

5. Record your first ride

  1. Open the Ride tab and tap Start Ride.
  2. Pocket your phone — tap the padlock for pocket lock so the screen sleeps safely while you ride.
  3. Tap the square Stop button when you're done.

Your route, time, distance, speed, and a walk-trot-canter breakdown are all captured — no signal needed, and no extra hardware. Wandered at the start? Trim route cleans up the ends later. See Rides.

Your rides are private. Nobody sees them unless you deliberately share — by saving a route as a trail or posting a ride to an event.

6. Set up ride safety

Before you ride out alone, open Profile → Ride Safety and add a riding buddy to your safety group — show them your QR code or send your link. Then flip on Share with safety group before a ride: they'll see your recent location on a map if a ride ever runs long, and you'll see theirs. See Ride safety.

7. Explore from there

Three things worth knowing