Tad (really Edmund Sloane) Coffin grew up on Long Island.

As a keen young horseman, Tad became one of the beneficiaries of the appointment of Jack le Goff in 1970 as coach of the USET Three Day Eventing team. Jack selected a group of young unproven riders to work at the USET headquarters at Gladstone.

In 1975, after the cancellation of Badminton, due to rain, Ledyard Farm CCI became the most important international event of the year, and young Tad Coffin, who had spent two years with Le Goff, and Bally Cor finished 4th. Tad and Bally Cor were selected in the team for the Pan American Games later that year, and took home individual gold, again with Bally Cor.

At the Montreal Olympic Games, the following year, the Americans again took home the team gold, and Tad was once again individual gold medallist – at the age of 21.

Tad became a much sought after coach, before taking up a new trade – saddle maker, and it is no surprise that he approaches the business of producing the perfect saddle with the same intensity he gave to his riding and coaching career.