Tad Coffin

Tad Coffin grew up on New York’s Long Island during the 60s and early 70s. He started riding at age 10 on the family farm, riding in Pony Club, fox hunting and competing in equitation, junior hunters and jumpers. His interest in combined training developed in high school and he was selected for training at the USET with Coach Jack LeGoff in 1973.

Riding the mare Bally Cor, Tad won Individual and Team Gold medals at the Pan American Games in Mexico in 1975 and repeated this success at the Montreal Olympic Games the following year.

Turning professional, Tad developed his business teaching and training. He was the head instructor at Flying Horse Stables in Massachusetts and was co-director at the Westmoreland Davis Equestrian Institute at Morven Park in Virginia with his former instructor and mentor, Raul deLeon. As a coach, his Area 1 Young Riders team won three consecutive individual and team gold medals.

Tad became involved with saddle design in 1976 when he was approached by Miller Harness Co. to endorse an all purpose saddle for event riders. The popular Crosby Lexington TC was the result. In the late 80s he developed another best seller for Millers, the Equilibrium close contact saddle, also manufactured by Crosby.

A quest for improved saddle performance led to an extraordinary period of research and development for Tad at his farm near Charlottesville, Virginia in the early 90s. The result was a new saddle, a new company and a new and very innovative manufacturing process. Tad has come to believe that, of all the tools available to riders, the saddle has the most untapped potential to positively impact horse and rider performance. In partnership with his long-time friend and horseman Justin Kenney, Tad’s saddles have gained immediate popularity with many of America’s top riders.

Tad and his family live on their farm outside Charlottesville, Virginia.