Manual

Download the Guardian Horse app for Android / iOS from the respective app store under one of the following links:

• Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.guardianhorse.android

• Apple App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/guardian-horse-reiter-app/id1439428981

Install the app on your smartphone.

When you start the app for the first time, or when you updated the app from version 3 to version 4, you have to create a Guardian Horse account by clicking the REGISTER button and following the registration flow. In the course of the registration flow, you have to provide your name and an existing email address. With respect to the name, we recommend to use your real name as this name will be shown to potential first-aiders in your HelpMe Board and in the emergency SMS that your emergency contacts will receive. You can change the name at any time in the setup area of the app.

When you open the app for the first time or in the process of using the app, you may be asked whether you want to allow access to SMS (Android only), location and contacts. In order to be able to use the app, you have to grant all these permissions. Here we briefly explain why we need these permissions:

Contacts: So that you can select the phone numbers from your phone contacts to which an SMS should be sent in an emergency.

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SMS: To automatically send an SMS to your stored contacts in an emergency. This only affects the Android version of the app, as in the iOS version of the app the SMS cannot be sent directly via the operating system.

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Location: To be able to show your current position on the HelpMe Board. The location retrieval is only active if you have actually started a ride, otherwise your location is not queried. However, as our app is running in the background while you are on a ride, you have to make sure that you select the "allow always" option when granting the location permission, and not just the "when in use" option.

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We only use the permissions for the purposes mentioned above. We treat all data confidentially and only use it for the purpose of providing a function (see data protection declaration).

In order to start a ride, you must always have at least one emergency contact registered. To do this, click in the setup area on the "ADD CONTACT" button and select an emergency contact from your address book. Please make sure that the telephone number of the contact is a number with which an SMS can be received and that is saved in international format (a number from Germany should start with +49 or 0049, for example)

Along with your account, we created your personal Guardian Horse HelpMe Board for you. You can find your unique ID and gh-help.me URL in the setup area of our app. We also created an initial random 4 digit PIN for you, to restrict access to your board data. You can change the PIN in the app at any time. Please check that you are able to access the URL and to login to your board using your ID/PIN combination. Please find here a detailed description of the HelpMe Board components.

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The board data is synchronized as long as you have an active ride in the app. When you stop your ride, the app does not send data to your board anymore. The data of your last ride remains visible on the board until you start your next ride.
 

The unique URL of your HelpMe Board is fixed and remains active as long as you have your Guardian Horse account. Hence, you could give the URL and the PIN to your emergency contacts upfront to allow them to proactively check, for example, your location when you do not return home in time. Please also see the description of the basic safety mechanism supported by the app.

With the iOS version of the app, for technical reasons, we have to send the emergency SMS via an external SMS dispatch service and cannot, as with the Android version of the app, send it directly from your device via the operating system. Since in this case we incur costs with every SMS sent, we had to introduce an SMS credit in the iOS version of the app. When you install the app on your device for the first time, you will receive a free SMS credit from us so that you can test the app and be prepared for the first emergencies. If you have used up your SMS credit, you can buy new SMS credits via in-app purchase. Please make sure that your current balance (can be viewed in the app under "SETUP") is always large enough to send an emergency SMS to all your emergency contacts. An if necessary, also to be able to send an all-clear SMS to all of them. For example, if you have two emergency contacts, your SMS credit should be at least >= 2, better >= 4.

You should definitely inform your emergency contacts before your first ride that you will be using the Guardian Horse app from now on and that they will receive an SMS in an emergency. Please also carry out a test alarm so that you can be sure that your contacts can also receive the SMS that the app sends and that in an emergency your emergency contacts know what the message looks like and what to do then. Please also make sure that your emergency contacts know how to access your HelpMe Board and how to interpret the information on it.

To activate the Guardian Horse System, you have to actively start your ride in the app before every ride. Without an active ride, no emergency alarm will be sent.

To start a ride in the app, open the home area of ​​the app and then click on the "START RIDE" button.
 

The status message above the button should now change from gray to green and confirm the active ride. If a ride could not be started (e.g. because Bluetooth is not switched on or you have not saved any emergency contacts) an error message with a red background appears.

When you are back from your ride, you have to actively stop your ride in the app so that the monitoring is ended and there is no false alarm when you leave the stable (in case you are using one of the accident detection mechanisms). To do this, go back to the home area of ​​the app and click on the "STOP RIDE" button.

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The status message via the button should now change from green to gray again and show that no ride is currently active. Then you can close the app and start again on your next ride.

You can actively trigger an alarm in the app without using or waiting for automatic accident detection. To do this, open the SOS area of ​​the app and press the red "START EMERGENCY ALARM" button. The app then tries to determine your current location directly and to send an emergency SMS to your stored contacts.

If the app has triggered an emergency alarm, but you're feeling better in the meantime, you can also send an all-clear message via the app. To do this, go to the SOS area of ​​the app and press the green button labeled “SEND ALL CLEAR MESSAGE” (note: the button is only visible if an alarm has been triggered via the app).