Ranching was a hard way to make a living. “On the ranch we’d go out riding at 20 below,” he says, “I was hooked.” Then he went to work for a local rancher stacking hay, fixing fence and tending to cattle. He bought a young colt and a horse training book. He packed his vehicle and drove until he came to Wyoming. “I looked over the valley one night at sunset and had an epiphany,” he says, “I saw a neighbor’s horse in a pen and decided I wanted to own a horse, but decided it had to be somewhere it wouldn’t have to be in a pen.” The company welded parts for Hobie Cat sail boats, aluminum backpack frames and other custom parts.īusiness was good, but by 1980, he was burnt out. By Monday, I left my job and started my first business at 23 years old,” he reminisces. “One Friday afternoon, I was having a conversation with someone about starting my own business. “I was a really good employee while working for each company, but I was restless and moved from job to job,” he explains.īefore long, Baldwin reached a fork in the road. He excelled as a craftsman, but was never content. “There was an endless amount of work available and it paid really good,” he says. His first fulltime welding job was for Hooker Headers, a race car exhaust system company and by age 21, he was certified to weld government aircraft. He began experimenting with his father’s acetylene cutting torch and soon learned of an opening at a local welding shop. His route took him past a small welding shop, “I saw this guy welding and he sparked an interest,” he says. Though his father was a welder and his younger brother eventually became a metal shop teacher, it was Baldwin’s teenage newspaper route that ignited an interest in welding. Raised in a family that enjoyed the outdoors, but one that had no interaction with horses, he never imagined he would one day be known around the world as a master craftsman, specializing in bits and spurs. Forks in the road have lured him from his birthplace in Southern California to the open skies of Sheridan, Wyoming and from steady full time employment to the owner of not one, but two successful businesses. Like nearly every bit in our store, this Tom Balding Dr Tom Loose Ring is eligible for Mary's Bit Rental Program.Life, for Tom Balding, is about forks in the road.įorks in the road have led him from hot rods, to aerospace, sailboats and eventually, to horses. Mary's Tack is proud to offer top quality Tom Balding bits in our Del Mar store and online. Tom Balding is a self-taught expert welder who created custom hot rod engine parts and sailboat equipment before finding his true passion creating custom bits and spurs. This bit is hand made at the Tom Balding shop in Sheridan, Wyoming. Baseline bits are the choice of riders who want function plus superior craftsmanship for everyday use. This bit is part of the Tom Balding Baseline collection of useful bits that are attractively priced and boast the handmade quality riders appreciate. This heavy, well-balanced Western bit is hand crafted in Sheridan, Wyoming. The mouthpiece is curved to lie evenly over the tongue. The Large Iron Worker D-Ring Snaffle By Tom Balding Horse Tack has a single jointed mouthpiece that allows quick action. The ridges are found only on the mouthpiece ends, starting near the cheek and extending approximately one inch toward the center, to impact lips and bars. Tom Balding Large Iron Worker Dee has Tom Balding Snaffle mouthpiece with angled ridge.
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