last minute things to do

It's getting close to the day we leave so here are a few reminders:
1. sort out your phone options. If you are going to bring your mobile phone with you remember that it is expensive to make AND receive calls when we are overseas. Check with your phone provider to make sure you can use your phone overseas. Find out if you can get a SIM card or a phone card that allows you to use a German number. You can either pick up the SIM card in Australia (contact the Youth Hostel Association for details) or when you arrive in Germany you can purchase a new card.
If you are on a pre-paid plan you may not be able to make calls overseas so check before you leave Australia.
2. Bank account cards- check that you can access your money via ATM's in germnay, most cards can but recently ther have been problems with cards that do not have a particualr chip in them. Contact your bank and check before you leave.
3. Try to have at least 2 sources of money - an ATM card, a few travellers cheques and some cash is a good idea. Write down the card /cheque numbers on a piece of paper, leave a copy at home and bring one with you in case your bag is stolen.
4. Make sure you have travel insurance. Accidents can be costly overseas so make sure you have insurance. it should alos cover loss of your valuables.
5. Contact details in case of emergency. I will forward a contact list to everyone shortly together with contact details for all of our accommodation.
6. Personal health; get a tetanus booster if you are due and talk to your doctor about hepatitis and any other vaccinations. Have your teeth checked. If you are on any medication bring a good supply together wtih a copy of your script with you to prove that they have been prescribed to you.
7. Make sure you have enough warm clothes,cothes for hot weather, a hat,insect repellant; bring a water bottle as well. It would be sad to miss out on anything because you are sick.
8. A sense of humour and adventure, travelling can be tiring and sometimes things don't go according to plan. The agent and I have worked quite hard to put together a fun and interesting itinerary but from time to time our plans may change, I will do my best to make it as fun, happy and interesting a trip as it can be. It's always good to go with the idea that you will see and try new things and hopefully meet some new friends.
9. Bring your voice too. If you need something, or don't like something we are planning please speak up, we want you to have a good time, not go home complaining when we could have fixed things up for you.

10. Be part of the group. We are all looking forward to meeting the New Zealand members of our tour as we often have teams visit us and we compete in NZ nearly every year; these trips can lead to other visits and friendships.

11. Bring a few small souveniers from home with you, we hope to meet up with other young riders on our trip so pins, koalas/kiwis or other items are great to give away.

12. Bring a clock and torch.

13. Security. Make sure you have airport firendly locks on your bag. You can also purchase temporary clips to close outside pockets so no-one can put anything into your bag. Get a passport pouch that you can wear under your clothes, it is a drag to have to do this but passports and tickets are valuable; we need to take care when passing through any crowds but especially in airports. Hve a bag that you can zip up and keep over your arm. get a lock for you backpack too.

can you ad anything ot this list? Click on the comment after this post and add anything else that you think is useful.
More info shortly
regards
Jenny

I'm getting bored talking to myself, come on, have a go. Some basic directions to get you started.

To put some details of yourself and your horses up here. Or to ask a question about the trip (if you have a question I'm sure someone else will also have the same query). You can either add your comments to this post by clicking on the comments heading at the bottom of this post. A post is a piece of information that is usually a new topic. The sections on the left hand side of the page are all separate posts. You can ad comments to any of the posts once you are registered.

If you want to start your own topic or use it to put up your own information look for the light blue heading at the top of the page on the right hand side - new post.
Once you click here a page will come up where you can ad a title.

Underneath this is a small icon of a picture; if you want to ad a picture, click on the icon and follow the directions. Remember a low resolution pic is best, otherwsie it will take too long to load.
Below the picture icon is a space to type your comments, questions or info.
After you have done this you can preview how it will look & check any mistakes(you can use edit to change anything).
If you publish it before you are ready you can go in and change it by going to the top right hand side of the page and click customise.
Under this heading you should see posts. When you click on this you should see a edit post heading. Click on this and you can select the post you want to edit and make any corrections.

Once you are happy click publish and your info will appear as a new post.
Good luck, come on Sarah, Julian Alisha and Emily ( both Emily's) have a go, you mnaged to get yourselves registered, the next bit is easy. Kate,Casey,Dimity, Robbie, Charlotte, Lilah, where are you?
Jenny

News about the venue for the Pony Championships

The following information was published by the FEI after a fire at the pony championships venue recently:
12/06/2007 - FEI European Pony Championships, Freudenderg (GER), 19 – 22 July 2007
The FEI has been informed that on 9 June 2007, part of the infrastructure of the site which will host the abovementioned championship was destroyed by fire caused by a lightening storm. Representatives of the German National Federation met with the Organising Committee to assess the damage. Given that none of the destroyed facilities would interfere with the planned organisation of the event, the FEI has decided that no change of venue will be necessary.

Hello from Trisha

Hi everyone. just saying hello and testing if this works

Payment for accommodation & transport now due

Payment for accommodation and transport in Germany is now due, please arrange to make payment as per the tour itninerary sent to you last week as soon as you can.The agent needs to send payments to the bus company & hotels now that we are only 3 weeks away from departure.
Once this is paid the agent will book our competition tickets and hopefully we can confirm riding fees as well so that we have covered all of our major expenses before we leave.
.

How about adding some information about you now

It would be great if you could all ad a few words about yourself and your horse experience. Once you have accepted my invitation to join our team you will beregistered with blogger and you get a page of your own where you can put up a pic and some information about yourself. It is best if the pic is low resolution otherwise it can take too long to upload. If you are having trouble working out what to do, send me an email & i'll help you get started. Come on, have a go! Here is a pic frm the National Young Rider and Pony Champs which was held at Werribee in April.
Jenny

Jenny and FEI young rider freestyle finalists 2006

Update on tickets for the Pony Championships

Hi again,
I have managed to find out the cost of tickets for the Pony Championships, they will be around 15 euro for a competition pass, there may be a slight surcharge for postage and handling but at least we are now getting a clearer idea on costs.

Welcome to our blog

Hi everyone,
I thought I would set up a blog so we could share information on our trip.
I will post website links and other information that may be of interest to you and I invite you to ad stuff as well.
While we are away I hope we will be able to ad more information on our trip so our friends and family can see what we have been doing.
There will be a list of things to bring on the trip up shortly but in the meantime how about adding a short profile and a photo of you (and hopefully your horse) so everyone can get to know each other before we leave? Tell us a bit about your horse experience so far and what you are hoping to learn on the trip.

There will be around 18 of us travelling together for most of the trip. The young riders are:
From Australia
Kate A and her mum Judy
Emily H
Emily J and her mum Lyn
Sarah K and her dad Stephen
Casey S and her mum Jeanette
Dimity L is a member of the Australian Youth Development Squad
Robbie S. Robbie will be staying on in Germany for further training and looking at horses before heading back to Australia. She is a member of the Australian Youth Development Squad
Lilah N and her mum Mary.Lilah will also be joing us for part of the trip before she heads off for some training in Germany. She is also a member of the Australian Youth Development squad
from New Zealand
Alisha S and her mum Megan
Julian W and his mum Susan
Tricia L will be joing us in Germany and possibly a german friend of Tricia's will also meet up with us
Charlotte M will also be joining us in Germany she is currently working in a horse establishment in the UK