Show jumper James Arkins is off the USA with stallions Eurostar and Jovaro.

© Stephen Mowbray

James Arkins makes his move

By Adele Severs

With the FEI World Championships just around the corner, Australian show jumper James Arkins is about to embark on a trip to the USA with his two stallions, Eurostar and Joevaro, in a bid to gain exposure on the world stage and capture the attention of team selectors. Travelling alongside an exciting team of other riders, James is looking forward to experiencing some of the biggest events the country has to offer with the support of fellow Aussies.

“It’s probably affected me in a better way than a bad way in some regards, and the timing has been good,” says James Arkins of the impact Covid-19 has had on his life in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales over the past 18 months. James has been one of the lucky ones who has benefited from a little more time at home, as it’s allowed him to develop the business at his family-owned Rosthwaite Farm.

“We started a riding school about four years ago, and that's just gone crazy during Covid, as people weren’t able to travel internationally and instead travelled locally to places such as the Southern Highlands,” he says. James admits that originally the riding school wasn’t something he was as invested in, purely because his time was taken up with the show jumping side of his business. A lack of local competitions during the pandemic has changed that, allowing him to spend more time on the farm developing the riding school. He says their recent holiday program could have sold out threefold…

Read the full article in the December issue of Equestrian Life magazine here.