Tommy Jarrard was born in Sheridan, and has been a cowboy since he started riding horses and working cattle on the family ranch long before he was old enough to go to school. He is a rancher, horseman, cowman, sheepman, cowboy. In the fall of 1962, when he was just 17 years old, Tommy started working at the Broken Box Ranch aka Sanford Ranch near Independence Rock during the fall roundup gathering, sorting, and shipping 5,000 head of cattle.
Tommy married Edna Irvine in 1965. That summer he worked at the Dumbell Ranch near Devil’s Gate. That November his father-in- law, Billy Irvine, asked Tommy’s family to go with him to Australia. Tommy became the working foreman on the outback cattle ranch in the Northern Territory of Australia approximately 150 miles from the closest town of Katherine. In the fall of 1966, Billy Irvine dissolved his partnership, and the family returned to Wyoming.
Tommy worked for his father Harold Jarrard on the family ranch at Kaycee, but the next year he bought a farm located at Poison Spider near Casper. He would then work on or manage other ranches in additon to his own. He also competed in saddle bronc riding and team roping, and broke, rode, and shod a lot of horses for extra income. He is a founding member of the Wyoming Rodeo Association.