Top Shelf Ink

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. [more…]