Tom balding bits and spurs sheridan wyoming11/28/2023 ![]() He’d perform welding repair jobs, fixing trailers and rebuilding engines for people around town. He learned to ride a horse, and got by as a ranch hand. As idyllic as it may sound, Balding was drawn to the cowboy lifestyle. ![]() In 1980, he set down his torch and boldly left Southern California for the wilderness of northern Wyoming. ![]() I thought, ‘Someday I’ll make a product where people admire the welds,’” he says. “I grew frustrated by the fact that these beautiful welds would be buried, unseen, in the bottom of the sailboat or plane. ^ "The Science of Spurs" HorseLink.Tom Balding Bits and Spurs welds its way into a successful niche of equestrian componentsįebruary 2015 - After almost two decades of welding aircraft parts, sailboat components and other precision TIG welding jobs, Tom Balding was burned out."Tom Balding, Discovery Channel Complete Filming." Sheridan Media. "Wyoming artisan sells his bits and spurs worldwide." Billings Gazette. ^ "Balding Bits & Spurs makes gear for Texas Tech University”."Tom Balding Bits and Spurs" Cowboys and Indians Magazine. "Eperons et mors, Tom Balding” NEWestern Way of Life. The Horseman's Guide to Tack and Equipment: Form, Fit and Function 2013. "Tom Balding: Custom bridle & bit craftsman was inspired when bucked off a horse." WyoFile. "Crafting a Legend, Bit by Bit” Western & English Today, p. The company has also been featured on Discovery Channel’s How It’s Made. Tom Balding Bits & Spurs products are known for their design and craftsmanship and have been featured in galleries and in museums. The company also sells other items such as jewelry and belt buckles, including a variety of silver and turquoise jewelry money clips, leather belts, and photo albums. They also handcraft bits made for shank bits, snaffle bits, baseline bits, bit shanks, and mouthpieces for Western and English markets. Their products include spurs, custom spurs, heel bands, spurs, shanks, and rowels. Each part of every product is made to 1/1000 of an inch accuracy. All custom pieces are made at the fabrication shop where they are precision cut into parts and fitted together, instead of being cast. The company handcrafts metalwork products and other items in Sheridan, Wyoming. The business is now widely recognized throughout the world of western horsemanship. Īfter that, the business expanded due to increased popularity from the endorsement of multiple National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA) Snaffle Bit Champions such as Bobby Ingersoll. He built her a new one, and for the next 15 years, he ran Tom Balding Bits & Spurs out of a repurposed mobile home. ![]() In Wyoming, he worked as a ranch hand until 1984, when a neighbor asked him to repair a broken bit. He continued to TIG weld in the aerospace and sailing industry until he moved to Sheridan, Wyoming in the late 1970s. In 1974, he opened his first welding and fabrication shop specializing in a precise type of welding called TIG welding. In the 1960s, Tom Balding began working with metal as a teenager in Ontario, California, building such things as custom hot rod parts and aluminum backpack frames. Their products, most notably bits and spurs, are used by professional horsepeople and trainers. Tom Balding Bits & Spurs is a small metalwork manufacturer in Sheridan, Wyoming that designs and sells handmade equine riding equipment. ![]()
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