Some men have jobs. Some men have passions. Chuck Drake is a man fortunate enough to have a job that is his passion.
As manager of RCJ Land and Cattle Company and Parker County Equine Aquatic Therapy, Drake goes to work every day living his dream.
Prior to 2003, Drake worked for 23 years as a technical buyer for Delta Airlines. As he sat at his desk locating jet parts from around the world, he told himself someday he would walk away from it and follow his passion.
“I stayed there because I was raising kids,” Drake said. “I needed insurance and a 401k. But all I ever wanted to do was cowboy full time, and I promised myself that when the chance came, I’d take it.”
In 2003, opportunity knocked, and Drake was listening for the door. In the midst of a major Delta restructuring, he chose to take a ranch job rather than put his family through the changes Delta required.
He leased a training facility between Decatur and Gainesville, at the Cross N Ranch, where he specialized in training 2-year-old cutting horses. Five years later, Gary and Diane Johnson, co-owners of RCJ Land and Cattle Company with Gary and Debbie Reynolds, called the cowboy to come manage their operation just north of FM 1885 and Garner Road in Parker County, Texas.
The deal, however, came with one unusual component. Besides managing a mamma cowherd and training the RCJ cutting horses, Drake would also be teaching horses to swim, in a manner of speaking.
When the owners of RCJ purchased the ranch, it had been a racehorse training facility complete with an aquatic treadmill. The new owners envisioned a therapy pool open to the public.
In 2008, their dream became a reality when Drake moved his family to the ranch to manage all operations.
“This was a whole new deal for me,” Drake said as he pushed his Stetson back from his brow and leaned back in his leather chair. “I knew how to train horses, and I knew how to work with injuries, but I had never swam a horse. Part of my job duties required me to go around to Parker County vets and introduce myself and this facility.”
If Drake expected to be met with hesitancy, he found just the opposite. Many of the veterinarians Drake talked with already knew of the benefits of aqua tread therapy.
Sonny Seale, DVM, of Garner Equine, was one such savvy vet.
“I introduced myself to Sonny, told him what we’re doing out here and handed him a few cards,” Drake explained. “He said, ‘I’ve already got horses to send you.’ And they came.”
Seale became just one of many local vets who regularly refer to Parker County Equine Aqua Therapy (PCEAT), and not just for the benefits the therapy affords, but due in part to the professionalism and compassion of the cowboy in charge of the pool.
“Chuck is an exceptional horseman and one of the most honest and caring individuals I know of for the horse,” Seale said. “He understands the mind of a horse. He knows how it thinks. I’ve worked with him on several cases. If he thinks he sees a problem, he’s going to get professional help. If you’ve got a horse with Chuck, 100 percent of the time he’s going to do his best for your animal. And they’re not in it for the money out there. They’re in it for the horses.”
I watched that compassion and care play out before my eyes as Drake put one of RCJ’s own brood mares through the exercises. Little Lena Merada, by Smart Little Lena and out of Lena Merada, stood composed and patient as Drake hosed her down before entering the five-foot-deep pool.
I had a brief flashback to summers as a kid when the pool managers insisted we shower off before entering the water. I used to wonder why, but Drake was ahead of me.
“We always hose them off good before they go in the water to keep bits of straw and other stuff from clogging the filter,” Drake explained.
I was pretty sure that was not the reason we kids had to shower off before swimming, but it made sense for the horse as pieces of stall debris washed off and floated toward the drain.
After a good five minutes or so of washing, he led Little Lena Merada toward the pool. An old hand at this, having been through therapy three days a week on a regular basis, the mare didn’t even roll her eyes at the water.
Drake walked along the fence at the side of the pool, leading her slowly into it.
“You let them set the pace going in,” he said. “If the horse stops, you stop. You don’t want to force them or do anything scary for them. You don’t want a battle on your hands at this end or you’ll never get them down there in the water.”
Little Lena Merada snorted and grunted as the water came further up her sides, and once she was neck deep and touching bottom, Drake turned on the jacuzzi, explaining not all horses get hydrotherapy, and treatment varies depending on the type of injury the horse presents with.
“The greatest thing we can do is treat a horse based on a vet’s recommendation,” Drake said. “A horse that comes from a vet comes with a complete set of instructions on how much time it gets in the water and whether we use the blowers or just the treadmill.”
As Drake turned on the treadmill a few minutes into the therapy, and Little Lena Merada began her water trot, he explained most of the horses PCEAT treats come in with performance-related hurts, such as stifle or suspensory injuries.
“When a horse is in the water he loses up to 60-percent of his body weight from the buoyancy,” Drake said. “It takes away the pain and lets them move without pounding the ground. It’s a tremendous tool for heart rate and blood circulation. We can take a horse with a suspensory injury and keep him legged up so that when he’s able to be ridden again, the owner won’t have a long down time of getting him back in top shape.”
As we talked, bubbles came up over Little Lena Merada’s back and neck while she trotted in place, grunting with pleasure and leaning into first, one water jet, then the other.
“Once they get used to it, they love it,” said Drake, a big cowboy with a quick smile and a gentle demeanor that belies his size.
I had to agree she looked satisfied as she stretched her neck out as far as she could and licked her lips in contentment.
Injured horses, however, aren’t the only kind Drake sees.
“We get the backyard owners who don’t have as much time to ride as they like. So they bring their horses in to keep their air up, keep their stamina up,” he said. And money is no obstacle for most horse owners. At only $30 a treatment, all horses receive the same spa pampering.
“We don’t care how much a horse has won or what it’s worth, we’re going to treat the million dollar cutting horse star the same way we treat the horse of the little junior high girl from Perrin who rides in Playdays every Sunday afternoon. They all get the same care here.”
Typical of the closely-knit horse world, word-of-mouth referrals have spread quickly through the various competition events. Once considered a treatment primarily for race horses, the cutting industry of Parker County has begun to realize the enormous benefits aqua tread therapy holds for their horses.
“We opened here at the first of March 2008,” Drake said, “and in the six months since we’ve swam upwards of 100 horses. We have 20 stalls here, so if you don’t want to drive your horse in and out for treatment, what with the cost of diesel and all, you can leave them overnight and we’ll take care of them.”
The hotel amenities add only another 10 dollars to the overall treatment.
Drake finished off the brood mare’s pool session with another bath to remove the chlorine, then a slow brushing, complete with mane and tail conditioning. She whinnied her pleasure several times.
“I’m a very fortunate man,” he said, his hands moving over the horse with a lover’s tender touch. “I cut hay, mend fences, train horses and manage cows here. This pool is just a part of my job. But anywhere else I worked I’d be riding 25 colts a day and hoping to get paid on time. The owners here have given me the opportunity to still train and do this, too.
“For me to come to RCJ was an opportunity not to have my entire livelihood depend on riding. And with this pool, we play our part in equine health. Where else can a horse stay built up and maintain his wind through an injury?
“If I were a football player and I tore an ACL or a shoulder, I’d have to sit out and rest for a long time to heal, then I’d have a long time getting back in shape. These horses stay in shape while they heal. Nobody knows how great this pool is until their horse gets hurt.”
As he led a friskier Little Lena Merada back to her stall, he said, “We are here for the public. You don’t have to have a vet referral to come here, but we like to get those, too. We want to expand into the ropers, the barrel racers, the racehorses. Cutting horses are just one type of performance horse in this area, and we’re here for all the horses of Parker County.”
I looked at my watch when he shut the gate on the mare’s stall. From start to finish, Drake had spent an hour with her. Quite a luxury treatment for a mere 30 dollars.
What had Seale said? “They’re not in it for the money, they’re in it for the horses.” I had to agree.
Karen Mitchell Smith is a freelance writer and editor living in Weatherford, Texas. She can be reached for comment or questions at www.topshelfink.com.
