BIG DREAMS FROM BIG SKY COUNTRY

Jeff Gollehon, 57, was maybe 9 years old when his dad took him to Jesse Bleaker Saddlery to watch the man build a custom saddle Gollehon’s dad had ordered. The young boy was hooked.

“My dad had custom saddles made because he trained horses and rode all the time, and he had to have good equipment. He took me to the saddlery and, watching that and seeing how it started with just a couple slabs of leather and a sheepskin and a wooden tree, it was basically like a blank canvas for an artist. Just raw material. It blew my mind.”

That experience, coupled with finding a Tandy kit at home a few years later, rebuilding old saddles with his dad, and then being able to do some leather work in a high school arts and crafts class cemented the deal for Gollehon, who worked with his guidance counselor to figure out how to go to school for the craft after graduation.

In the