John Whitaker

John Whitaker is a British show jumper, born in Huddersfield on 5 August 1955 and appointed an MBE. He won an Olympic silver medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Games on Ryan's Son, a horse he was given at eighteen and rode for fourteen years, and he has competed at the World and European Championships and at Olympic Games between 1984 and 2016. He has won the Hickstead Derby four times. He is best known for his partnership with the horse Milton, with whom he won the Du Maurier Grand Prix at Spruce Meadows and more than one million pounds in prize money before Milton retired in 1994. He is managing director of John Whitaker International, which makes tack and equestrian clothing, and belongs to a well known show jumping family that includes his brother Michael.