David’s first love was sailing: “I was doing a lot of sailing, then when I left school I started working at my parents’ equestrian centre, and decided I had to do one sport seriously. I thought I had a better chance with eventing.”

David’s first Advanced eventing star was Unprovoked Vengeance and together they won the three star at Gawler 3DE in 1996. David’s next star was Willowbank Jack. David has a reputation for taking very, very rough diamonds on board and polishing them with success. So it was with Jack:

“I bought Jack from a girl who was having a bit of a problem riding him… Jack really motored along – he also stood on his back legs a few time when I went down to try him, but I forgot about that when I got off him and I made an offer.”

“When I got him home, three times we galloped down the middle of the road, leaping and carrying on, through an inter-section. I thought ‘what have I got here?’ but we got through that. It wasn’t overly difficult getting him through that stage, just a bit scary at times. He’s not quite all there up-top.”

Willowbank Jack and David represented Australia at the 2002 WEG in Jerez where they were 11^th.