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West Quarter Horses is a family owned quarter horse operation.  Lowell, better known as "Odie" was born on an island in the Little Bend, north of Pierre, SD.  His family always had horses with sometimes as many as one hundred brood mares.  It was not uncommon to drive horses from place to place, sometimes as far as thirty miles.  He broke many of the younger horses and then they were sold.  In his teens, he tried his hand at bareback riding at the local rodeos.  He married Catherine, a local girl and their love of horses continued.  When they were trying to get established in their ranching business, they would buy horses at the local sale barns, ride them for awhile and then haul them to Minnesota in their truck and bring back lumber for building corrals and buildings. 

They had five children, Sharon, Cathy Jo, John, Deanna and Christine.  They all rode horses and most of them competed in 4-H Rodeo, High School Rodeo, National Little Britches Rodeo, and the South Dakota Rodeo Association.  Odie was East River High School Rodeo Director at large for many years.   It was always a challenge to be able to compete at the State Finals and end up going to the National High School Rodeo, of which many of them were attended as a family with one of the son or daughters competing. 

Many of the grandchildren have continued the rodeo tradition and some of the younger grandchildren are still competing in 4-H Rodeo, High School Rodeo, American Quarter Horse Association, National Little Britches Rodeo and the National Cutting Horse Association.  Odie and Catherine have discontinued their farming and are now giving their full time to their horses.  They have mares with Doc Bar, Handcock, Driftwood, Peppy San Badger, John Red, and Orphan Drift breeding.  They are breaking their  colts and some of them now are being used for rodeo competition, cutting and ranch work.  They haven't moved very far from where they were born.  The ranch is located thirty miles north of Pierre. They would be very happy to have you come look at their horses.  (Update 2005)  A new riding barn 60x120 has been built to ride the horses during inclement weather.