Mr Vallance has returned to town to design this year's course after designing courses across the globe in Asia, North America and the Middle East.

"Westbury has a special place in my resume because it was one of the first show's that I came to design at that was totally new territory to me," he said.

"I was very busy in Victoria than I shifted to NSW and it was even busier, so it was great to get an invitation to come back and work at Westbury again."

Mr Vallance has also consulted with the Beijing Olympics horse jumping committee for about 18 months and designed youth Olympic Games courses in Singapore and Nanjing, China.

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He will design the weekend's course for the 156^th show but said he had never actually ridden one of his courses.

"I can't ride, I've never learnt to ride, I just got involved by going to tournaments and helping out," he said.

"The last time I was on an equine was when I was in the middle of the desert in the United Arab Emirates and it was a donkey.

"I only got on because I thought if I fall off i'm only going to land on the sand off this little donkey...that was 10 or 15 years ago."

Mr Vallance said despite his lack of riding experience it had not affected his course designing for the last 40 years but rider safety and rhythm were paramount.

Show riders will walk his course on foot today before the feature events are held on Saturday.

"It's a challenging arena, we have the very famous bearded oak tree we have to avoid," Mr Vallance said.

"I'm looking forward to catching up with people I haven't seen for 25 years.

"And to see where the sport is at in Tasmania, because this is, if not the major show, it's one of the major show's in the equestrian calendar for Tasmania."

The Westbury Show begins on November 9, with gates opening at 8.30am.