Seth was born in Montana, but moved to Florida at the age of eight where his dad went to work for the historical Deseret Ranch.  By ten-years-old, Seth was doing ground work on colts for his dad.  At twelve, he bought his first two-year-old to start.    “I have always loved starting horses”, Seth says. “After school I’d work with a colt until I could get the saddle on and then once Dad got home, he’d snub them up to our old mare Ginger and away we’d go.  That was the way we did it then and I have a lot of fond and wild memories of starting horses with my dad that way.”  Not long after Seth turned fourteen, he started riding a few outside horses.  “None of those first few horses I rode were very nice.  They all had some kind of problem and I found myself asking my dad for lots of help and advice.  He always seemed to have the answer and I didn’t think there was much about horses he didn’t know.”  When Seth wanted to learn more about horsemanship, he turned to YouTube and clinicians.

Warwick Schiller is a clinician that Seth has spent countless hours studying.  “Warwick has been, and is, a huge influence on the way I start and train horses now.  He has really opened my understanding to what is going on inside the horses mind and not just what his body is doing.”  When Seth was sixteen years old, he was introduced to clinician John Hepworth.  “That was the first time I had ever heard of “natural horsemanship” and I ate it up.  It was like someone turned on the light to what the horse-trainer relationship could be like, and I loved it.” He set a goal to be able to ride his horses bridle-less while doing ranch work. “I figured if I could ride a horse without a bridle it would mean we were on the same page.”  Seth still trains some of his horses to ride bridle-less. 

 At 18, Seth and his family moved to Oregon.  They ranched in Diamond for the Roaring Springs Ranch.  Not long after he moved to Oregon, Seth started riding colts for clients around the area. 

 Seth met his wife Garrity in 2010 and got married in 2011.  Garrity grew up on her family’s ranch outside of Haines, OR.  She adds a wonderful perspective to their horse program and has a knack for pinpointing an area where a colt may be struggling.  Together they have 3 boys, John (8), Ty (5), Chad (3) and are expecting another boy in August.  John and Ty are Seth’s main crew when it comes to riding, ranching and about everything else.  As a family the O’Crowleys enjoy the rural lifestyle.  “Being able to teach your kids to have faith in God, work hard, and help their neighbor, all while getting the job done is the best pay of all.”

As a part of the Harney County community, Seth enjoys exposing his horses to “town” at team brandings and at the local Harney County Fair and Rodeo.  To get his horses broke for town and sales, Seth really values putting a solid foundation on them through groundwork.  “Having a ranch to ride on and all the chores that accompany it, creates a great environment to make a nice horse, but your ultimate product often comes back to how much time you spent on the ground building a relationship in the beginning.”  He says some of his best tools for training and desensitizing his horses are a home-made roping dummy and his kids.  His horses learn to rate, track, and rope by using the roping dummy and learn to be family friendly from his boys. 

 Seth started bringing a horse to the sale seven years ago.  “The Ranchers Horse Sale had a reputation for being honest and that’s what drew me to it.  Despite being a difficult sale to get into, Mike Bentz was encouraging and said that as long as I brought a good product, I was welcome.  I’ll always be grateful to him for taking a chance on me.”

 Seth has always brought a high quality, broke, exceptionally well-trained colt or finished horse each year to the Ranchers Horse Sale. This year Seth is offering his six-year-old “go to horse” Pistol, Lot #5. “ Pistol is the perfect combination of ranch and performance, he’s every cowboys dream.”  Seth bought Pistol from Roaring Springs Ranch as a two-year-old and says that, “Pistol is a powerful horse who is confident in his job.  He’s done everything on the ranch enough times now that it makes him a lot of fun to ride.”  Look for Lot #5 Pistol trained and ridden by Seth O’ Crowley. 

Story by Emily Bentz