A couple of months ago it happened – my first dressage competition, the second competition ever in my 21 year old life. I was super nervous for weeks before the competition would take place. On the D-day my alarm woke me up at 5.30, I fed the horses, did the last preparations and loaded the horse into the trailer. At …
The advantages of being in a Rural Youth club
A few days ago I had a talk with one of our board members discussing the question of advantages and disadvantages of living in the countryside. This really got me thinking about my life in a rural area and I caught myself almost finding just advantages. Certainly there are some negative points like a bus only once an hour or …
Hold side by side / form the countryside
This is this year’s main topic of the Landjugend in Austria. Hello guys, my name is Rosina and I’m from Austria, specifically from Salzburg. I’m in the board of the Landjugend county “Flachgau” since five years and since two of them I’m leader of this county. For me “hold side by side/form the countryside” in county Flachgau means the yearly …
Adapting to your surroundings – change is everywhere!
For the last 6 years, I have had the pleasure of attending several Rural Youth Europe events. During those years I have met many amazing people, and gotten to know several organisations similar to my own. Even though Young Farmers and 4H have different organisational structures, different activities and competitions we embrace the rural life. My organisation, 4H in Norway …
Easter with a European family
Being part of the prep team for Set Up Your Future was a very nice experience. At this first Junior Event the participants were aged between 13–17 years old and the main theme was employment. Twelve participants, three leaders and a great cook spent the Easter on the beautiful countryside in the southwest of Sweden. The prep team wanted the …
The competition with yourself
Life with horses as hobby probably brings success at some point, but before that more challenges than you could imagine. Meanwhile you learn a lot by living trough frustration, hard work and much joy. I practice dressage and jumping on my half blood mare Eleonora, but I have never expected to reach further in competitions than possibly some placements at local level. I get very easily nervous when someone is watching when I ride so already riding in front of a large …
Stay strong country girls and boys!
After becoming a member of the Latvian Young Farmers` club and visiting a few RYEurope seminars, I realized that there is not many people in my country (and maybe in yours too) who would like to take care of rural areas as we do. Young people with a huge passion, with some great ideas and a skill to “think outside …
We all have a RYEurope story
Now it is almost ten years ago, since I was lucky enough to go as an International Farm Youth Exchange (IFYE) delegate to Northern Ireland. During this six amazing weeks which I spent by the Young Farmer Clubs of Ulster, I have met a lot of amazing people that shared their life with me and gave me an unique impression …
Building bridges – connecting people
We are living in interesting times – aren’t we? Smart phones with hundreds of functions, web access in almost every public place, tons of Social Medias and even iWatches are giving us the opportunity to spread our lives around the whole world. We can check the Facebook status of our friends living somewhere in Europe or inform ourselves about the …
What Is A Green Smoothie?
Hi everybody! Greetings from Sungarden (Latvian 4H office) in Riga! The sun shines and it’s a beautiful spring day, here in Riga! This morning, I made my favorite green smoothie and realized that I want to write in my blog about the smoothies! Spring is an amazing season. It brings nature back to life. I don’t know about you (that is, if …