Can you hear me now?
My horse tends to lag behind Lennox. Sometimes we are as far back as a couple of city blocks. Mercutio keeps his head on a swivel. He likes to smell the roses - literally. He will stop and smell the leaves on a tree or bush we are passing. He is constantly looking around to admire the scenery.
Between the squeaky saddle and the ambient noise, I usually can’t hear anything Ari is saying and vice versa unless we scream at each other. Needless to say that is not conducive to a relaxing ride. We don’t chatter, but we will check in with each other and since Ari is in the lead, he may ask me - “right or left? which way do you want to go?” So, a few rides back I joked that what we needed was those ear devices that spies wear in the movies so we can talk to each other on the trail.
Well, why not? Surely there should be something like that out there for trail riders.
Turns out there is…The Sena Pi is a device that basically attaches to the straps in your riding helmet. You charge it up and connect/pair the devices and you can communicate hands-free without screaming at each other. It is supposed to hold a charge for six hours. Mine keeps losing the charge and we are having to charge it after each ride, but we are playing with it to see if maybe I am not turning it off properly after the ride. The second time we tried to pair the devices we couldn’t hear each other. It turned out that we have inadvertently turned the volume way down. Once we increased the volume, it turned out that we had paired the devices just fine.
We purchased them on amazon and they cost about $100 each - well worth it to reduce our stress levels. You can connect up to four people together, which is pretty chill.
I like that we don’t need to carry anything on our belts. These are totally hands-free and light-weight. They even pair with our cell phones, so I can answer my phone by tapping the ear piece. Of course, if you don’t wear a helmet, these won’t work for you.