I’ve been obsessed with playing Pokemon Go for a week and a half now. I never played Pokemon before and don’t have an nostalgic connection to the game, but I do have a compulsive gaming personality and like collecting adorable animals. Since my husband insists that I not collect actual animals, this game works well for me.
I’ve been jealous of other horse bloggers catching Pokemon at their barns. Unfortunately, my barn does not have cell phone signal. It’s like living in the stone age. No electricity, no cell service, no food, plague, saber tooth tigers. Some of those things may or may not be real.
Last week, I discovered that there is enough cell service at the park next to the barn to hunt for Pokemon while riding there.
I do occasionally look up to enjoy the view.
Thankfully, Nilla likes Pokemon hunting. She gets to meander slowly along the trail without me asking her to really do anything. And we stop at the winery for me to get off and collect a few pokestops. She gets to eat grass while I do so.
I returned to find this Nidoran hitching a ride
The park is lousy with Nidoran, which is great as I need a ton of them. The other night we even spotted this real life Nidoran. I tried to convince my husband I should catch it, but he made the point that it was probably rabid or at least sick, if it was just sitting on the trail in daylight and not moving for horses.
I also caught a ton of Pokemon at the Dover Tent sale this weekend. I don’t know why, but the game has decided that Moraga, CA, which is essentially a grassy desert, with no lakes or even streams nearby, was a water area, so I caught a bunch of fish Pokemon. I’ve never been a huge fan of Dover. Their prices are really high and their shipping rates suck. But I wanted to get a pair of full-seats for the show and figured we’d check out the sale. Definitely should have avoided. I ended up buying so much stuff. It was all cheap and all stuff I’ll eventually use (like vet wrap for <$1), but still. My husband also tried on tall boots and decided to get them. I was going to order them from my favorite Riding Warehouse, but they appear to be clearing out men’s tall boots and only had 2 sizes available (on sale if anyone is looking). We weren’t going to get them cheaper elsewhere, so he picked those up.
What I got at Dover
Pokemon is great even when I’m not riding. Before I did the ride to the park, I had already walked 36+ km hunting Pokemon. I end up taking my dogs for lengthy walks and walking around with my husband and friends. It’s the most non riding exercise I’ve gotten in a long time.
Is anyone else playing Pokemon while riding? Or while not riding?
My phone is too old for Pokemon and because I have mule, I can’t afford a new one. Do I need to get a second job?
I dunno about a second job just for Pokemon, but I’m not sure I could make it without a smart phone nowadays.
I just downloaded it. So far no pokemon have wandered into my property. I might be too far in the sticks….
I basically catch none at home. It wants you to walk around a lot. Try it at work maybe.
I’ve been tempted to try it, but can’t seem to find the time to do much of anything these days.
Yeah, it’s pretty addicting, so I would not recommend it for people who are busy and don’t want to add another thing to their schedules.
um i am all over this game. ive lived in philly for 5 years and i never went out and explored as much as i have now that i started playing this game.
havent done it on horse back tho, as my barn is kinda in the burbs and a total dead zone for pokemon :/
Even if your barn doesn’t have a lot of Pokemon, if you ride with the app on, you’ll hatch a lot of eggs. It’s great.
I’m loving it, but there are no Pokemon at the barn! Mostly I turn it on while riding to count steps to hatch eggs. Tons and TONS of Pokemon and Pokestops near work, though – both my offices are stops, actually!
You’re lucky. My office is a gym. I’d rather it were a stop so I could get eggs and Pokemon. I don’t really care about the gym aspect of the game.
I LOVE Pokemon. I have played all of the Nintendo games and for a couple of years was involved in a Pokemon league playing the card game (this is what I will do when I retire). I love the game and now I get to play on my phone. I haven’t tried on horseback yet, but am looking forward to it since that will be the best way to hatch eggs. IMO. And because the judge at my show would frown on me carrying my phone into the ring. 🙂
Just put it on battery saver mode and hide it in your pocket. I generally show without my phone, but I have done it by mistake since I almost always have my phone in my pocket.
Omg I love this game! I’ve played several of the video games and Johnny plays the card game, so this is a fun thing for us. There are zero Pokemon at the barn, so i just try to hatch eggs.
The egg hatching works really well on horseback. I need to buy more incubators though.
I refuse to start playing this game because I know me and I know I wouldn’t be able to stop! 😛
I know. In hindsight it would have been better not to ever start.
Same
I love Pokemon Go! I’ve been playing it with my brother and dad. It’s cool that you’ve enjoyed it and played it both while riding and walking.
I didn’t think it was out in Europe yet. I imagine there are so many cool Pokestops to go to over there.
I just started! There are no pokemon at my barn tho 🙁 It’s fun though, my dogs are sure getting more walks haha
My dogs are getting about the same number of walks as usual, but they’re definitely longer walks.
I’ve tried to play, but I don’t think time is allowing me to do so. I haven’t found any around our property or where I normally walk. Maybe because we are in the middle of nowhere? I suspect there are a lot at work, I just don’t get signal in my building and don’t get out much during the day.
*raises hand*
Oh guilty. So guilty. I made a joke about a friend’s horse seeing Pokemon when he kept spooking at a bush, and she about chewed me out for it (saying the game was stupid) Meh.
I don’t play when I’m driving, I don’t play when I’m supposed to be doing something important, like class (although my summer class is a pokestop — the WHOLE building) so before class and once we get a mid-class break, everyone whips out their phones. It’s just a harmless little free (well, ‘free’ as long as you watch your data usage carefully) game that when played responsibly, can be pretty fun. Plus, all the nice benefits of making someone get outside and walk. I usually keep my phone in my pocket while walking and stop when it buzzes to alert me to the presence of a Pokemon.
I haven’t done any Pokemon hunting while on horseback, although I’ll open up the app to try and get walking credit for egg hatching when I take my retired mare out for a walk.
Haters gonna hate. Just have your own fun. If your mare is good enough, try out catching them while riding.
Well, she is the retireds, which means no riding her. Otherwise, I think she’d be fine with it. My riding horse, my Haffie gelding, probably wouldn’t bat an eye about me trying Pokemon catching from his saddle, but I have yet to try.