By Sonja Eschenburg
A waterfront city in California, Morro Bay is a popular tourist destination along the Central Coast. It gets its name from the infamous landmark, Morro Bay Rock, originally named by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, when he first ever charted the coast way back in his 16th century voyage of discovery. With no such thing as traffic, all you can see for miles is blue water full of seals, otters, fish, birds, and quite a few other sea critters.
Although it has quite the surfer-beach feel going on, Morro Bay sits right next to Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo, two horse-country areas. Considering this is practically the best of both worlds, it is easy to see why Morro Bay turned out to be the perfect spot for Ryan and Tammy White, founders and owners of Best Ever Pads, to start a saddle pad business.
With over thirty years of experience under their belts, Ryan and Tammy took what was just a simple trade and completely turned it around into a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Today, Best Ever Pads are designed and made by professional horsemen who have spent countless hours in the saddle – whether it be training horses, competing, or even cowboying. It is without a doubt safe to say the employees here have very literally done it all! Best Ever saddle pads are hand made in the United States by not only the people who physically make them, but by people who personally use them – on their own horses – as well.
An interesting quality about Best Ever Pads as a company is the fact that it is so family-oriented and people-friendly. It is especially hard to not enjoy work when Paradise Ranch has its own arena, steers, and chutes. Ryan and Tammy have been roping together as a couple for years now. To this day, the two still enjoy the sport just as much. Gabby Sowden, who has managed the business for about nine years now, spends a majority of her free time at the ranch with the White family, too – just for fun. When she can, she even runs a few steers here and there! As nothing short of a family sport, rodeo has brought the White family closer together than ever before. Both sons, Colton and Trey, are heavily involved, as well. They often spend their days roping the dummy or just riding around in the arena – sometimes the whole family takes the horses to the beach for an afternoon ride.
Best Ever, as the original custom saddle pad, specializes in real life hands-on operations. They see their saddle pads all the way through, from start to finish, and make sure the end product is something they would feel comfortable using on their own horse. So next time you order a saddle pad, think about who you would want making it. With all of the power in their hands, saddle pad makers at Best Ever get the job done with a degree of precision and expertise that is, by far, difficult to find elsewhere.
To start creating your own custom Best Ever Pad, click here.