Spotlight on David Cameron

SPOTLIGHT

Following your heart

David Cameron is well known in Australian show jumping circles as a talented rider and an all-round nice guy. AMANDA MAC spoke to him about his early life in country NSW and the events that expanded his horizons.

David and Finch Farm Spruce at the Sydney Royal (image by Australian Jumping).

David Cameron is not long home from a Queensland show run. One of his current team, Alan 111 Z, came third in his first World Cup at Gatton, which David says is “pretty good” – a bit of an understatement I think!

Next stop was the Caboolture World Cup Show and an exciting round in the 2021 Australian Jumping Teams League (AJTL). Similar to the internationally renowned Global Champions League, the AJTL, which has some serious prize money on offer, is a four-round competition for corporate sponsored teams.

Besides David, the Coolmore Peachester team includes two riders who train at the Cameron’s Redleaf Lodge Stables. Managed by Tallara Cameron, David’s wife, the team jumped

some good rounds and were coming third until David didn’t quite clear the challenging Geopro Joker fence, bringing their overall placing to seventh. “I didn’t love the Joker idea before that happened, now I like it a lot less!” he says with a wry laugh.

Unfortunate confrontations with Jokers aside, David’s jumping career has been stellar. But then, he’s had a bit of practice. Raised in Forbes NSW, his family were enthusiastically horse focussed. His father was a successful show jumper, his mother rode dressage and trained young horses. David’s grandfather, Bob Cameron, coached around the Central West and throughout NSW, and had a lot to do with Pony Club and the implementation of the NSW coaching program.

Impressive family credentials to be sure – and they served David and Ian, his twin brother, well. While the twins attended any and all of the coaching clinics held in the area, it was their parents who were a continuous source of support, encouragement, and influence. “Mum and Dad gave us a very sound foundation in horsemanship, and although we didn’t realise it at the time, that was very, very useful,” David says.

Their grandfather Bob also coached the boys on occasion, but his most notable influence was in supplying them with a string of good horses, starting with their first ponies, Mouse and Powder Puff, who, David recalls, was “bomb proof, jumped, sported, and won heaps of ribbons.”

Bob later swapped the ponies for two Galloways, followed by larger horses some years on. “So the first horses we rode were ones that Grandpa gave us,” David explains. “He never owned them though. He sourced them from people he knew. And looking back, that was the reason we started to ride and kept riding. Everyone’s got to have a first good horse that they like, and Grandpa providing us with those early horses was really vital to what we did.” And what they did was to ride all the way through Pony Club, while giving the local competition a run for their money at Agricultural shows. “I think one year we did 32 Ag shows all told. We were pretty lucky because many of the shows were within two-and-a-half-hours of us. So there were a couple of really good show runs, as well as the Royals and World Cups.”

Involvement with the horse world doesn’t end with David’s immediate family. His aunt, Helen Page, a wellknown racehorse trainer now based on the Gold Coast, was at the time training out of Warwick Farm. A lot of horses came David’s way through Helen, and from Central West Thoroughbreds. “We were forever trying out off the track Thoroughbreds,” he recalls – and there’s nothing like variety for improving your skills. When you dig deeper, it’s not hard to see why, despite the variety of equestrian influences in David’s formative years, it was jumping that won him over. There were a number of able show jumpers in the Forbes area, not to mention the calibre of riders – Grant Hughes, Lindsay Ball, and Janelle Waters, for example – who were all competing at the same shows as young David. “There was a lot of great show jumping, and we saw that growing up. They were really excellent role models and that inspired you to want to do it yourself,” he says. And let’s not forget the twins’ peer group, a talented crop of young riders who all jumped well, and were the source of both firm friendships as well as spirited competition.

One of those friends was future Olympian Pete McMahon. Only two years older than David, Pete and his brothers grew up at Tullamore, just 80

Tallara and Alan 111 Z, trotting up for his first World Cup Qualifier at Gatton in June (Image by The J’Taime).

David steers Tony Norman's Nicolette to victory in the 2016 Showcase of Show Jumping Silver Final, (Image by Allira Fontana Photography).

kilometres from Forbes. “So we did a heap of stuff together. We’d often take just the one truck to go to the big shows. There were the McMahon boys, a couple of other guys who were quite good, Ian, and myself, and we all rode in the Sydney Royal, the Juniors in Melbourne and the World Cup shows. I think the fact that we were such a tight group helped us stay in the sport,” David says.

David’s first World Cup was with Warmblood Krome. Just 18 years old at the time, he attributes the horse’s arrival in his life as another factor in keeping him keen - and how the pair got together is an interesting story in itself. Originally owned by Ricki Cox, Krome was ridden and jumped by Ricki up until the arrival of her daughters. With two young people to care for, she could no longer attend many shows, plus Krome tended to be cold backed and was a little tricky, requiring more time than she could afford.

The horse was on an extended sojourn in the paddock when David ran into Ricki at the Bathurst Show. He asked after Krome and learning that he wasn’t in work, offered to take him on. Ricki agreed and later that year David took him on a show run in Victoria. Long story short, Krome jumped his way into bigger classes and David bought him.

But here’s the thing: when David was much younger, he remembers being at a show where he saw Ricki riding Krome. “I told my parents that one day, I was going to have a horse that looked just like him. So it was quite amazing that he ended up at our place, where he eventually retired and was 30-years-old when we had to put him down last year. He was the sort of horse that makes you want to ride because he was scopey and brave. He was a pretty good horse – everyone needs a horse like him.”

While David was studying – a four year teaching degree at Charles Sturt University – there wasn’t much time for riding, and competitions took a back seat. However, besides Krome there were always other horses at home, so he kept his hand in with a few shows during the holiday breaks. But it was while David was at uni that a twist of fate cemented his future direction as an equestrian. He had been enjoying playing rugby and was hoping to develop as a player when he badly injured his knee. “That ruined any chance of a rugby career. I think in the back of my mind I had always wanted to ride professionally at some stage. So when the injury happened I was like OK, well I'm really going to throw myself into the horses.”

Blessed with access to the family farm and paddocks aplenty, David began trialling different horses with the idea of building a team. However, as with other rural areas, opportunities to become a professional rider in Forbes were limited, so he was in some doubt as to whether that particular dream was feasible.

During the team building phase he taught first at Trundle Central School, followed by several years at Parks High School – jobs that with their regular holidays and good hours worked in well with David’s equestrian pursuits. “I employed twin girls to work alternate

days for me. So that helped me balance the horses and my job. I used to get home and ride four horses in the afternoon, often riding past nightfall.”

By now I’m curious to know at what point David decided that turning professional might be viable, but apparently there was no moment of sudden revelation. It unfolded through a process that was far more organic. David was seeing Tallara – who he’d met at the Bega World Cup – in what was a fairly long distance relationship. She was living and working in Sydney, while David was just under 400 kilometres away in Forbes. “I remember one day she said, ‘I’ve either got to move to Forbes or you've got to move to Sydney, and I'm not moving to Forbes’. So there wasn't really an option!” David laughs.

But that said, he admits that although unsure of where he did want to settle, he definitely didn’t want to live in Forbes long-term. So now with a clear-cut incentive to move, he applied for a job at Barker College on Sydney’s North Shore, and got through to the last round. The college indicated their strong interest and David, thinking he had the job, resigned from Parks just before the job at Barker unexpectedly fell through.

But with logistics for the move to Sydney already in progress, the die was cast. The couple rented five acres at Glenorie, some 45 kilometres north-west of the city, and with both an arena and yards it suited them perfectly.

I remember one day she said, ‘I’ve either got to move to Forbes or you've got to move to Sydney, and I'm not moving to Forbes’. So there wasn't really an option!

In need of work, David approached a number of schools but with the first term already underway, jobs were thin on the ground. Now with nothing to lose, he decided to see if he could match what he would otherwise have earned from casual teaching by working with the horses that quite a few people were asking him to ride. The experiment was a success. “Then I thought I'd give it another term, and by the end of that year I’d decided to keep going. If I’d stayed in Forbes, I don’t think I’d ever have made enough money out of horses. But when you’re around a bigger population, there's a lot more

opportunity to ride professionally,” he says. Nonetheless, David acknowledges that he probably wouldn’t have taken the leap to turning professional had it not been for Tallara’s support: “She was always very confident and positive about me going along that road."

And another unexpected source of income was about to materialise. Not long after he’d relocated to Sydney, a friend gave David’s details to Grahame Ware, the horse master for many of the films, TV series and commercials shot in Australia. Grahame eventually got in touch with David, asking him to come out to his property for a trial ride. At the time Grahame was involved in Channel 7’s period drama Wild Boys and very shortly after the trial, David received an urgent phone call: it was the first day of filming and Grahame’s usual riders were all out of action, could David come

Over the oxer with Rowan Willis’ Wellington Grey Goose at Florida’s World Equestrian Centre (Image by Andrew Ryback).

right away? Tricky if you happened to be teaching in a classroom! But David, now working for himself, was able to oblige – and that was the start of nine months filming for Wild Boys.

Other projects followed, including Pirates of the Caribbean. “That was great fun. The stunt was for the film’s opening scene. Four or five guys were riding 12 horses all in harness, and a lot of preparation was needed,” David recalls. “I’ve learned a lot from Grahame over the years, he’s a fantastic horseman.”

So if you happen to notice someone looking suspiciously like David trotting across the screen in productions like Underbelly, Australia the Story of Us, Thor Ragnarok, or in the not too distant future, Marvel’s Shang Chi, you now know why!

And then an exciting opportunity popped up. David and Tallara were firm friends with show jumper Julia Hargreaves. In fact, David had ridden horses from Copabella Sporthorses, the Hargreaves family owned stud, for Julia’s mother Lesley. Julia was living at Redleaf Lodge, another family property, when she decided to give the London Olympics a shot – so would David and Tallara like to rent Redleaf? “At the time that seemed pretty unachievable. We were renting five acres with 13 horses, and here we were thinking of moving to Redleaf with 42 acres and the capacity for 40 horses! But we really wanted to do it, so we went for it,” David tells me.

And it was a great decision, even though it represented a steep increase in rent and the couple were well and truly out of their depth, they loved the property. So nothing daunted, David asked Alan Hargreaves for a purchase price and first option to buy. Alan agreed and for the next six or so years, the couple struggled to build the necessary deposit, selling several horses they’d have preferred to keep along the way. But after their fair share of trials and tribulations, they eventually became Redleaf’s proud owners. “And to Alan's great credit, in all that time he never changed his price,” David says. “I feel he did us a huge favour getting into this place, and we're very grateful to both him and Lesley for doing that.” The couple celebrated their 10-year anniversary at Redleaf this year.

In 2014 and 2015 David claimed the title of Australian Senior Show Jumping Champion, a hotly contested and hard fought victory on the Martin family owned mare RR Dyranta. Add to that Champion Part 1 at the Sydney Royal plus several World Cup wins, and they were in contention for the 2016 Rio Olympics. David took the mare to Europe, but after just two shows she suffered a suspensory injury that ended their campaign. “We put her in foal over there, brought her back to Australia and eventually retired her. She’s now a brood mare at Redleaf and it’s good to have her in the back paddock. I've actually got the filly we bred while we were in Europe. She’s been broken and I’ve just started with her, so that's pretty exciting,” he adds.

Missing selection for the Olympics must have been pretty devastating, and I’m wondering what it takes to come back from such a significant disappointment. For David, it’s looking ahead for the next opportunity: “There’s no point dwelling on it. You look at the team you've got and decide how to go forward from there. You have to either produce the young horses you already have, or put owners together to buy others.”

David and Tallara married in 2017 (his greatest triumph to date he tells me), and the couple are loving life at Redleaf, a property that for them has been a “game changer”. They’ve fine-tuned the way they run the stables, and many of their clients are now based there. “It’s a beautiful property with great facilities and it’s definitely allowed us to go to the next level. We’ve got a dressage arena, jump arena, cross country paddock, and we hack on the dirt roads around the property. So it's really improved our ability to produce horses,” David explains.

And on that subject, Redleaf is currently home to an exciting group of horses, including Oaks Come By Chance (owned by David and Tallara); RR Monster (coowned with Linda Martin); Finch Farm Spruce (co-owned with Liz Watson, and the Brydon family) who’s just started to jump at Grand Prix level; Alan 111 Z (owned by Linda and Graham Huddy, and Sally Watkins) who David reckons is one of the best horses he’s ever ridden; Pete Benson’s Femme Fatale; and Tony Norman’s Tulara Darkensky.

After the recent Queensland run, there are now three World Cup horses on the team. “Alan, a ten-year-old, Come by Chance who’s nine, and eight-year-old Spruce – so they’re a really exciting group of young horses coming through,” David says.

These days, the type of horse David looks for has changed quite considerably. Back in the day when finances were tight, re-saleability was important. So the aim was to source horses that were rideable, good looking, and commercial – horses that other people would want to ride. “And that's been really good for us. It’s because we've produced good horses and sold them that we were able to buy Redleaf,” David says.

Sadly though there were horses that David and Tallara were very fond of and would have loved to have kept, but didn't. They reluctantly sold several horses to Japan to help fund their Redleaf deposit. Oaks Kosmo, sold for the same reason to Maddie Sinderberry, one of their clients at the time, went on to jump in her first World Cup events. “But I’m sure there’re many riders out there that have those same stories. You have to do those things so you can do the next thing,” David says, “but hopefully now we're in a situation where we've got some really good owners and people around us. And we're in a bit of a difference place in our lives so we can build a team and hang on to it.”

So now their aim is to move towards horses with strong competition potential. Likely candidates need to have a good brain and be good to work with. Athleticism and strength are both essential and soundness is critical. “They’re got to be horses that are trainable, I think that's really important,” he says. “Then the aim is to have one that's a real athlete, as well as having commercial potential. The trick is trying to get all those dots joined.” Future plans include taking a horse overseas and getting home successfully: “I've had a couple of goes at it and it would be really good to be up there and win a couple of decent classes. Tallara has a good horse in Oaks Come by Chance, so it would be wonderful to do that together. And then of course, it'd be great to represent Australia at the World Equestrian Games. Denis Lynch once told me that your best years as a show jumper are between 40 and 50, so I've got a few years yet to get ready,” he adds cheerfully.

A wise man once said that if you throw your heart over the fence, the rest will follow – I think David must have been listening.

It’s because we've produced good horses and sold them that we were able to buy Redleaf.

A victory lap with RR Dyranta at the 2014 Summer Classic World Cup Qualifier (Image by Stephen Mowbray).

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