Johnny Cook, Horseman, Trainer and Broker

Johnny Cook is a horseman, trainer and broker who resides in Georgia. He has competed in colt startings, shows and is always there to help local groups and programs. He trains, brokers and transports horses all over the country. His experience and savvy eye are a benefit to people looking for that "just right" horse. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Be a person who is the fan is a person who is killed in the person who voices. I believe it's so much more than that. The ability to communicate, build a relationship, partnership with a voice, work together as a result. Join us on the story of the way.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Yes, ma'am. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

Tell us a little bit about how you got involved in the horse business.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Well, you know, as a kid coming up, I just loved him. As a kid coming up, I if I saw a horse somewhere, I felt like I needed to touch him or I was gonna be around him if I could. And my dad always had horses. I am the baby of six. And of his six, my dad shot horses for about 40 years before he passed away. And of his six children, I'm the only one that took an interest in horses. So that was mine and his thing to do was horses. Or I say mine and his thing, he was gonna have a horse there, I was gonna be part of it, um, one way or the other. And and as I got just a little bit older, and um Daddy would go and and he'd buy a little horse at the sale or buy a colt or what have you, you know, and and I'd get that booger to riding, and I'd get him going pretty good. And as soon as I got him going good, Daddy would sell him. Yep. And I so I learned I learned pretty quick that if I wanted to have a good horse, I had to learn how to get him that way pretty fast. You know, I I had to learn how to get him that way. So we we worked toward that, and Lord, I started a bunch of them not knowing which end was up, you know, but we were getting good things done, but we got a lot of miles put on them, and I think that's what you know made them back then. We just didn't know which direction was really going. Um and then as I got just a little bit older, there was, I'm sure you remember the the six VHS set that was John Lyon's round painting for reason. And I got my hands on one of those sets. There's a Jack Holland in the background. Um I got my hands on one of those sets, and there was so much information. And nowadays, there's information everywhere. You can get information at the click of a button, you know. But back then, people just didn't tell you anything. And and if they knew something, they sure didn't share it with you. But John Lyons was on the scene, had that six VHS set, the round penny for reasoning, and I think I wore that thing out watching it and just picking up tips and learning tips, and he had such a way of uh being able to articulate what he was doing that it just it stuck with me, you know, and and I learned better ways, and better and as you learn better ways, you do better things, you know. So so in doing that, boy, I just continued on starting Colts, selling them, buying them, selling them, and have been at it, Miss Rose, for probably 40 years now. I just turned 55 last week, and um probably been at it 40 years now. Now, right here at home, we will sell between 250 to 300 horses a year. To some folks, that's not very many, and then to others, Lord, that's a heap load of them. But um, we're a family-based operation, or or it's it's family-owned and operated between me and my wife Brittany, my son Dylan, and my daughter Briley Rose, we do it all. We do it all from the feeding and cleaning stalls to the uh starting and riding to selling and buying to hauling all over the United States. And uh, I couldn't do it without them. I couldn't do it without them. Each one of us has our role, and uh you sure know if somebody's missing.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

Yeah, I can imagine. Now I've I've certainly watched Briley Rose grow up with your videos and stuff, and she's become quite a hand.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Yes, ma'am, she is. Turned 14 this year, and uh she's been around him her whole life and she loves them with her whole heart. Now, um Dylan, he gives me a lot of trouble because as as Dylan was coming up, if I bought Dylan a pony or a horse, um, and it got time for Dylan to step up to another horse, or if a good customer come along, I was gonna sell the one that Dylan had. I was gonna sell the one that Dylan had in order to get him the next horse, you know. But now Briley Rose, she's kind of a hoarder. Um she's never sold one. Like I think she's got the first one that she ever bought, and uh they just keep adding on. So I she's got one old pony we call Charlie, and I bet he's 42 years old. And um I tell them all the time that I'll be feeding Charlie on my social security check. She'll be eating Equine Sr. and I'll be eating cat food. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 6:57

Do, I sure do.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

You know, you go right ahead.

SPEAKER_02 7:04

I was just gonna say, tell us a little bit about your um hauling business because you you know, you it's hard to find somebody that you trust to haul your baby.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

It is, and you know, I with buying and selling, it started out a convenience for my buyers. A convenience for my buyers because you know, you years ago, Miss Rose, you traded horses with your neighbor. And nowadays you can sell a horse to a guy in Dallas, Texas as quick as you can sell one 15 minutes up the road um on the internet because of Facebook and the internet and all of those things. And so being able to offer that as a convenience to my customer or someone say, Hey, John, man, I'd like to have that Colt, but um I I gotta find somebody to get him to me. And and I'll say, well, we can bring him to you. We we can haul him, you know. And uh that and and then that I'll say, Well, when can you do it? And I'll say, Well, how about right now? How about in the morning, you know? And and somebody, me or Dylan Moon, is gonna jump in the truck and take him to him. Now, sometimes we would plan our trips uh where they'd work out to accommodate a few people, but a lot of times back then when we first started, um, and folks would ask us, how soon can you get him to meet? Well, heck, I can leave this evening, you know, because what we did, Miss Rose, was whatever it took to make a living in the horse industry. Um we wanted to make a living in the horse industry, but we were gonna do whatever it took to do it, whether that meant going over to the the sawmill and loading up a load of shavings to take to a lady and sell them at her horse barn or or hauling a horse up the road or you know, going to going to catch one. But in in hauling, in hauling and in buying and selling, I have had a lot of haulers pull into my yard for other people that I don't think had ever touched a horse. You know what I mean? That but they they drove a truck, but they hadn't ever touched a horse. And that was just something that we could always offer above having a truck and trailer, we were horsemen and offered horsemanship and care um and and the ability to load things a lot of times that people couldn't load. I've I've went and got so many where people would call me as the third option because they don't have two or three people come over there and try and load him and and couldn't get him loaded, and those people charged him, of course, and me and Dylan go over there and and Lord in three seconds or 15 seconds, he's just stepping right on that trailer. But it's all about horsemanship and all about reading him and uh pressure and release and all of those good things. But if you don't know that, then you might as well be loading a giraffe, you know.

SPEAKER_02 10:06

Absolutely. I can't tell you how many times that you know I've seen horsemen that I've worked with doing their TV shows and at the expos and all over the place. And uh one poor woman, she worked on loading hers for about four hours, and finally Jerry King saw her struggling and walked over there and loaded him in about five minutes.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

That's right. That's it.

SPEAKER_02 10:27

The knowing is such a difference.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

It is, it is knowing. And uh I learned a long time ago, uh and I thought I learned this from John Lyons that you drive him from his tail. I tell people all the time that um I can push a horse anywhere. I can't pull him nowhere.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

I can push him anywhere, but I can't pull him nowhere. And the key to pushing is knowing when to push, how much to push, and when to stop pushing, you know, and so like if I've got one that a lot of people have considered tough to load, I can stick Britney or Dylan behind him with a flag. But when I say behind him, I mean straight behind him, straight behind that tail. And if you will always be straight behind that tail, no matter where that tail goes, no matter which side of that trailer he goes to, no matter how he wobbles or weaves, as long as you're straight behind that tail, he's gonna step forward. And the very second he steps forward, boom, release him. Never, ever, ever pull on him. Never pull on him. If you pull on him one time, I tell folks all the time, a horse doesn't pull unless he's got something to pull against. So the very second you start pulling on him, he's gonna start pulling back on you and you'll never ever win. So if you'll walk up there and offer that booger a big loose line and give him the opportunity to step up without you ever pulling on him, I can't I bet, Miss Rose, we haven't went to get one in 25 years that we couldn't load. And I don't mean that boastfully, I mean load with a smoothness that you'd think they'd been loading their whole life. You know what I mean? But it's simply from simply from horsemanship. And I guess where I got where I was going with all that is we take that with us. We take that with us when we go to load our customer horses, when we go to buy something, we go to sell. Uh well, I can't tell you how many that we've bought that folks say, well, he don't load or he's hard to load, and then three seconds later when he's standing on the trailer, they said, I can't believe that. Oh my, you know, I can't believe that. But um it just horsemanship. It's just have having the desire to learn. I know lots and lots of folks that have ridden the same horse their whole life and and never learn nothing. You can stick them on another horse and they're lost as a rat in a thunderstorm. But because we had to ride so many coming up, so many different ones, um, and Dylan's rode so many different ones, Brittany's rode so many different ones that you've learned. You've learned from so so many different ones, and uh you're able to apply it, you know, what what you learned over here you can take with you.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

Yeah, definitely. And you know, when you go to ship and a horse across country, the trip itself is a little stressful for him. He's going to a strange place, and it really, really makes a difference if the person who knows horse.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

And it's super stressful for you and I as the hauler. I tell Dylan and and Britney a lot that uh my favorite time is when I unload that booger. When I when I got him to his destination and he was safe and sound and watered and hay, and there was no incident, you know, and and we got him off that trailer because, like you said, the variables are so out of your control going across the country, whether, like you say, whether he might get sick when he hauls, whether he might call it when he hauls, whether he might slip down or or somebody cut you off in traffic, or so many other variables that are out of your control. And boy, howdy, yeah, when you unload that booger, that is the most uh relieving time of that that whole trip was that he stepped off that trailer safe and sound.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

And you know, uh speaking about your horse sale business, you know, I watch all the things that you post and and drool, but I'm old and I can't have them. But you do such a good job at really showing him and showing the things that are right about him and the things that are wrong about him. And, you know, I I know you personally, and I know you're a very honest person. So when people see you on the video, you're really telling them the truth about the horse.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

Well, you know, I tell folks all the time, there's somebody out there for every one of them. There is a home out there for every one of them if you will represent them how they are and what they are. If you call me looking for a grandmother's horse and I've got a bronch, there's no need in me selling you a bronch. Uh a, you're gonna find out when you get him home that he's a bronch. Um, and B, I won't get to sell you another one. That that's that that was a one-hit wonder. That's all we're gonna do. But uh a lot of times I see people post a horse for months and months and months, and I just I feel like that if you will represent that booger exactly like he is, whether he is green or whether he is the very best grandmother horse in the world, still representing like that, then he will find his right home because there's somebody out there that'll buy that green horse. I'd buy him for a long time, you know what I mean? Yeah, sure. There's a lot of lot of folks out there that are like, hey, I can't afford that finished horse, but I can sure buy that booger right there and um you know, ride him and train him and make him to what I need him to be on that type of budget. So I just feel like that if you will represent them to the best of your ability, to the most knowledge that you have about that animal. Now they're animals, and and Lord knows things can happen. But if you'll try and and eliminate all that from the get-go and and re represent them for what they are, um, you don't have any problems finding customers. I tell again, nowadays with Facebook, the internet, all of that good stuff, you know yourself there's so many horse groups out there. So many groups that have 20,000 people or 50,000 people or 80,000 people. And if I can post an animal, if I represent him properly and truthfully, and I can post an animal in five groups at the click of a button, and all of a sudden 200,000 people saw my horse. If I can't sell that booger, then I got the wrong product. I I say all the time that I know every car dealership in the world would love to have 200,000 people see their product in in a two-minute span. You know, like when you click that button and used to on all your groups, you got a notification that says Rose Cushing just posted a Palomino paint for sale. You know, and and everybody got that. And so I say if you can show your product, whatever it is, if you can show your product to 200,000 people in a five-minute span and and you can't sell him, then you got the wrong product, or you did a poor job of representing him and and or pricing him. Lord have mercy nowadays with the horse industry and the prices of the horses. And you know, a lot of us say it was since COVID, after COVID, horses just went through the roof because people were looking for something to do outside that didn't involve a lot of social gathering and and all of that stuff, they could go do it on their own. So anyway, that's one of the things I think that contributed to it. But um I don't even know what I was gonna say right there, but but but the prices are so high. Oh, prices, prices are so high on them. And sometimes I think that people take advantage of the thought that prices are so high that they will have that thing that me and you think is eight or nine hundred, and they're asking people five thousand and and really and truly, but and they're gonna sit on him for six months. But I just feel like if you price him where he's supposed to be, the key to buying and selling is is price. You gotta buy him where you're supposed to, and and then to be able to sell him where he's supposed to. It it doesn't matter what I've got, if I've got it priced ten times too high, then you're just gonna get to look at him, you know.

SPEAKER_02 19:06

Yeah, I know. You better like him.

SPEAKER_00 19:09

That's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 19:10

Well, that's one thing I can say, you know, when I watch you post horses, I feel like they're always fair prices because, you know, when you have a like a grade horse that's got some age on them, you price them really fair. Because I you know, I'd be loan if I told you I didn't consider every one of them. Roddy would divorce me, but well, I wish you're in my budget, you know.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

Well, that's what uh what I always say is uh what can we do to get get him to you, Miss Rose? I wish you'd just quit considering and start mine. You know, that that's that's what we got to do. You never can tell.

SPEAKER_02 19:45

I may decide I I want, you know, I always think I'd love to have a grandma horse that you know I can get on once a month and plug around the farm on. That's right, you know, and be safe. But I'm trying to I'm trying to live without him, but it's hard. And you have some beauties. That little donkey you showed this morning. I wanted him to come home real bad.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

How about that? Yeah, he is he is a cool dude. And I tell, you know, probably one of the brokest donkeys I have ever put a halter on. Like my experience with most donkeys, you know, you've always heard stubborn as a mule or stubborn as this. And most donkeys that I've ever gone to get from anybody have been exactly that way, especially when it comes to loading them on the trailer. They get to the back door and they plant all four feet in concrete and they're just stuck right there, not not moving in. This little thing just leads around with a haystring and he jumps on and off that trailer and he's been handled. He's been handled. I don't know if he went through one of those donkey um programs shows show deal everybody was doing, but uh he he has sure been handled and a neat little dude.

SPEAKER_02 20:50

Yes, he's cute as a button. So now you you with your selling horses, you know, we've talked about that. Now, what about training? Do you train for outside people anymore?

SPEAKER_00 21:01

Every every day, yes, ma'am. Every day. We and we generally keep uh only about six in a month to train. Um, a lot of folks will tell you they've got 10 or 12 or 15 or 20 to ride today, and it's just hard to ride that many. It's hard to ride that many and do a good job. We keep about six in a month to ride. Um, Brittany likes to do a lot of the groundwork, a lot of the kindergarten work, um, handling rub and doing the Jeffries method on them and all that good stuff, and then Dylan and I will ride them and do 90% of the riding on the Colts. Um But with six, and with it being Dylan and I and Brittany, um if one of us has to run to Fort Worth, Texas, or one of us has to run to Delaware, then you can still handle the workload. You can get too stinking many, and if you get too many, you can't do the job you're supposed to do, and nobody's gonna be happy. You're in a yeah, your customer's not gonna be happy, and and you're gonna not gonna be happy the next time you step on him. And they always say that that horse is a a direct reflection of you. He's a direct reflection of the work that you put into him or did not put into him, you know. And so so if if you ever miss a day, you know it. You can you can look back and say, yep, that you know, that booger needed more work or what have you. But but with us keeping, you know, five or six, at the most seven a month, with the amount of folks that we have here, somebody's always got a hand on them. Somebody's always got a hand on them, whether it's riding them or groundworking them or bathing them, brushing them. Um at our place, we bring them in and out every day. They they go outside every day, they come inside every day. So every day, regardless, they got a halter stuck on them and and let in, let out, got checked on, you know, took care of like that. So um it's full time. It's full time, and and that you do we we stay pretty busy with that and could stay, Lord have mercy, we could stay wrapped up, but I just don't want it because uh I've been there and we've had 15 or 20 standing here that were riding horses, and it becomes not so enjoyable because you stress about did they get road, did they get this, did they get that. You know, it it becomes a great big issue. And and with six, we can handle it, we can do you a good job, um, and we can be proud of what goes home.

SPEAKER_02 23:48

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense because you know, if you get in get him one and he don't respond to what you're doing, it sometimes it takes more time than what you've put on the calendar.

SPEAKER_00 23:58

You know, it does. It does. And you know, if you and the thing is, is if you get one of those, um sometimes he might have took up three hours of your day where that other colt was gonna take up one hour, you know what I mean? Or and so boy Audi, when you get those kind, um you yeah, you it you just have to work through it. Yes, you do.

SPEAKER_02 24:25

So how can people find you to get in touch with you, to help them find their their horse or have you train their horse or haul them?

SPEAKER_00 24:33

I'm in most post offices on the on the wall in in most post offices, right over there in the wanted pictures. Um, but most of the time on Facebook, Miss Rose, Johnny Cook on Facebook, um, or Johnny Cook's horses on Facebook is one of the groups that my horse groups that I post horses for sale in. But simply my Facebook page is Johnny Cook, uh, Brittany Cook and Dylan Cook. You can reach out to any of us and and we'll help you the very best that we can, and we'll all help you equally. It doesn't matter who you get on the phone, whether it's me or Britney or Dylan, um, we'll we'll help you equally and be glad to do it, you know. But but Facebook is uh, you know, if that thing goes out, I don't know what we're gonna do. But um that's where we that's where we do 98% of our business at probably is through Facebook and word of mouth, but word of mouth through Facebook, you know.

SPEAKER_02 25:32

Yeah, definitely. So I the horse business is a tough business to get into. What kind of advice would you give somebody that's starting out as to how to be successful?

SPEAKER_00 25:44

Be honest. Be honest. I yeah, you know, I've I had a young boy call me the other day that was about that had just quit his job. I'll tell you another little story real quick. Dad just had just quit his job, and he had, I think he had like$2,000 in his pocket, and he was gonna start riding Colts. And he called me and he first of all he was asking me if I had any colts to spare, like if I didn't have if I had some that we couldn't get to that we wanted to send down his way, he'd sure appreciate it. And I didn't, but I told him, I said, look, I said, just be honest, just do what you tell people you're gonna do and feed them, feed them, make sure you feed them, make sure you take care of them, and um uh if you can do something, tell them you can do it. If you can't do something, tell them you can't do it. Don't take a dead gum raining prospect if you can't uh hardly get out of a trot. You know what I mean? And there's sure just just be honest. Honest, honest, honest is is my best advice. And do it. Do it. Um you know, you I I guess you you gotta you gotta take that leap. You gotta take that leap and and don't be afraid to leap. But don't feel like that you've gotta cut your neighbor's throat in order for you to do business. For a long time, especially before Facebook really got big, um horse trading or horse training and all of that was such a cutthroat business. Like your neighbor could be doing it, but everybody in the world would be talking about him in hopes to get his business. Uh when I say talking about him, I mean in a negative way in hopes to get his business. I tell folks all the time, I do not have to cut your throat to get business. There is enough business out there for you and for me and for Cliff and for this one and for that one. There's enough business out there for all of us. And and a lot of times when you start talking about someone, it's more of a reflection of who you are than it is who they are. Yes, and so I I just always say that if you can just be positive, don't cut your neighbor's throat to get business. There's business out there, and then and then on top of that, don't be afraid to price it. Don't be afraid to price it. I see so many people now starting colts that'll stick something on there and say$700 a month. And you and I'm sitting over here going, shit, I can't, excuse me, I can't feed one for$700. I mean, I can barely, barely, but I dang sure can't make a living. You know, by the time you feed him and uh water him and buy shavings and pay some help and all that good stuff, you reckon you're gonna do anything at$700 a month? You better have a hundred of them to ride, you know. So don't be afraid to price it. Don't be afraid to price it. And when I say don't be afraid to price it, folks will have their farrier come in and spend an hour. And they'll pay him$150, or they'll pay him$200 or$250, depending on where you're at and what the farrier charges. Uh, they'll pay him, like I said,$150,$200,$250 for an hour. You're taking that booger for 30 days. You're taking his responsibility and his care and your livelihood in your hands because you can get hurt just as quick and, or if not quicker, than that farrier can. Don't give it away. Don't give it away. You've got a special skill set that I don't know, maybe 2% of the people in the world have. Starting Colts, you have a special skill set that very few people have. Charge for it. I'm not saying rob people, I'm saying it's what it has value. And you don't have to give it away just to get someone's business.

SPEAKER_02 30:08

I agree a hundred percent. And you know, when you undercut what you should be charging, that is no guarantee they're gonna come to you because that scares me when I see that. I say, well, it ain't worth nothing, or he wouldn't be so cheap.

SPEAKER_00 30:19

That's right. That's exactly right. And I've had it both ways. I mean, I've had it where I was hungry, and and I had to take that booger, whatever he was, and you know, work on that price, trade for their saddle, and and then I'd sell the, you know, I'd trade them out of a saddle, and then I'd sell the saddle or whatever it took, whatever it took by then. But boy, once I got, as I grew older and more experienced and learned that there was a value in what we offer, that um don't be afraid to price it. Don't be afraid to because it it's definitely um, like I said, there only 3% of the people in the world can probably do what you do for a living. And um it's it's worth something. It's worth something.

SPEAKER_02 31:10

And you know, you gotta stop and figure out what how much money do I need to live, and how many can I do a day, and let that be some of the determining factor because you know, if I need$500 a week and I'm trying I'm doing 10 horses a day, you know, I and not making it, then I gotta restructure.

SPEAKER_00 31:28

That's right. You gotta go look for another job, don't you? Um and and that's the blessing for us is that the truth is our living mostly comes from buying and selling horses. And our training horses, I s I say a lot that our training horses, they they foot the feed bill. They, you know, they put the feed bill for the for the rest of the horses for the month and or helps me pay some labor or things like that, whereas our buying and selling horses will generally be our living itself.

SPEAKER_02 32:09

Sure, sure. And it's smart to have the different streams of income too. You know, because when one's down, you got another. Now I got one last question for you. You've accomplished so much. What's left on Johnny Cook's bucket list?

SPEAKER_00 32:24

That margarita shack. There you go. There, there you go. I I tell them all the time that one of these days I'm gonna sell all these horses and and move to the beach, and folks will tell me they say, Um, you can't do that. You couldn't live without horses. And I tell them, I said, Man, I've been feeding these things 50 years. I got give me a shot. Let me just try and and run the margarita shack one time on the beach. But uh, no ma'am, you know. I don't know if there's anything on my list other than preparing my family for them to be able to go on and make a living doing what they love. Um that that's my biggest that's my biggest thing is is that I want them to be able whatever it is, whatever it is, but right now Dylan and Briley Rose absolutely love these animals and and want to do it. I don't see them doing anything else, or don't see Dylan doing anything else for sure. Briley Rose may be a doctor or something, you know, who knows. But uh I'm uh to just live every day, being the best example that I can in doing good business and um set him up in a way that that they'll be able to s succeed on their own.

SPEAKER_02 33:57

Now, I I gotta brag on you a little bit because the last Colt starting we did, you did well and you placed, but you were not feeling well. And you've come you've come a long way since then.

SPEAKER_00 34:11

So I was gonna I was gonna tell you that and I I didn't know if you would ever ask about it or not, but I was gonna tell you that I felt like I did good. Like I felt like I didn't know. I didn't know you were right. Yeah. Well at the end of it, the judges they told us, they said, um, once this is over with, if if you have a problem with the judging or you want to know how we judged or why we judged, the way that we did, just just come to us and and we'll tell you. So I did. I walked over there, and let me tell you this, Miss Jackie, and I wish I could think of Miss Jackie's last name. Um say it again. Turnbull. Miss Jackie Turnbull. She told me, she said, Johnny, she said, to be honest, it seemed like you would just take a little time off every once in a while. And in my competitive mind, I said, bull crap. I backed off because I was where the horse needed to be, and so I I kind of backed off of where he was and just let him breathe a minute. But the truth is that I probably had to breathe a minute because that was February the 27th, your Colt starting. And on March the 21st, I had a quadruple bypass. And now I had a quadruple bypass. And then I had kind of dealt with that for I don't know, five or six years. Like I would I could work outside all day, I could work colts all day, I could unload hay all day. As long as I stayed at a moderate pace, I didn't have any problems. But if I ever had to turn it up a notch, then I'd start feeling some pressure in my chest. I'd start feeling some cramping in my chest. And when I say five or six years, like it really rocked on for five or six years. And finally, one of my horse buddies, Stan Smith, made a post, and this is after y'all's colt starting competition, made a post and put it on Facebook, and he said, Man, I'm so glad I got my stents put in. It feels so good to work, and my chest not hurting. And I said, You know what? I I need to get mine checked out. And so the next morning I told Britney, I had never even told her about the chest problems I'd been having. And uh the next morning I told Britney, I said, I need you to make me an appointment, and told her why, and she's like, Well, Johnny, so sent me to town for a little EKG. They sent me from there down to Tanner for a stress test. And six minutes into that stress test, they said, Mr. Cook, you are not going home today, and sent me from Carrollton, Georgia to Emory in Atlanta for a quadruple bypass. And uh good Lord, because I was probably one exhilarating moment away from being dead out in the yard, but I feel like I've got a brand new pump and I feel like I got a brand new lease on life, and we work at it every day. We go to the gym every day and try and eat right. I've I lost right at 100 pounds. Um and we we try and make good choices, and and again, um hopefully some of that rubs off on uh on those around me, you know, that they see. I I tell them all the time, hey man, you don't have to wait till you're 50 to just to decide to get there. You know what I mean? And I wish that I hadn't, but uh it uh food is is a great big huge addiction, and that's a whole nother segment, you know, and a whole nother story. But I'm that that is my that's my biggest addiction. Like I never drank, never smoked, never did drugs, any of that stuff. But now gravy biscuit and uh pinto beans, Lord, we could do 55 gallon drum of them, you know.

SPEAKER_02 38:14

I know. I'm southern, I can't live without biscuits. That's right. Now, you know, inter uh if you don't mind talking about this for a minute, you were very physically active, but you still go to the gym and work out, and that's made a big difference. So can you tell people a little bit about that? Because that's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 38:34

Well, you know, I prior to, like I said, prior to my quadruple bypass, I always had a desire to be in good shape. And I always like I always wanted to weigh 235, 240. I'm a big guy, but I always wanted to weigh 235, 240, something like that. Um and I tried every fad diet in the world and and everything, but some of it I think was education, Miss Rose. And what I mean by that is you know, like you would have the Atkins diet or what folks call the carnivore diet or something now, where it's in my mind, they I it would be like it's protein, it's okay. You could you, you know, you could have all the chicken you wanted, or all the steak you wanted, or all the such and such you wanted. But the truth is you'd still eat 6,000 calories. You know what I mean? Like, like I felt like I could eat all the smoked chicken I wanted. Well, hell if I eat all the smoked chicken I wanted, I'd done eat six of them or whatever, and and you'd still eat six thousand calories. And I had to learn that until you're in a calorie deficit, until you're in a calorie deficit, you're not gonna lose weight. You know what I mean? And so um also now I cannot take 100% credit for that because after my quadruple bypass, my endocrinologist put me on Ozimpic. Now, a lot of folks will hear Ozimpic and they'll say, Oh, you cheated, you cheated, you cheated. Look, you're talking to a guy that didn't go to the doctor for 10 years or 15 years until the day that he had the quadruple bypass, and and uh that's how I got there, and then the doctor put me on the Ozympic for my um diabetes. So, anyway, but I will say, and I've said this to folks, that I feel like without the Ozympic, that I personally um would not have ever lost the weight. I I wouldn't have had the appetite control to lose the weight that I lost. Now, I did the work, I put in the work, and I worked every single day. We'd go to the gym every day, and I'm still in the gym five days a week. But uh for those first two years, I was on Ozympic, and and it did help me um with my appetite management because when I tell you food is an addiction, I'm talking about like it's it's like crack rock to me, and I can fall off the wagon um so easily, so easily I can I can fall off the wagon. By off the wagon, I'm talking about uh leave here to go to Texas to to haul horses, but know that when I leave here at exit 109 in Mississippi, there's a Jack's restaurant, and in that Jack's restaurant, there's gonna be two sausage egg, cheese, biscuits with some gravy and some hash browns. And and like the thing is, is when I wake up in the morning going to Texas, it's already on my mind where I'm gonna stop and eat or how I can make better choices. And it is a fight, like it it's a real fight to say, um I'm gonna make, I'm gonna make good choices, good choices, good choices. And I can say that to myself all the way to Mississippi and then crash the damn wagon into the jacks and and get the biscuit and gravy. You know what I mean? So it's like it really, and then when you do crash the wagon, you just start over tomorrow. I I had to learn to start over tomorrow. It's not like alcohol in the sense that some people, when they crash it, I guess maybe if you didn't start over tomorrow, um you just fall into a deeper drunk or a deeper, you know, go crash right there. But I had to learn to say, okay, you did that. Now to the rest of the day, we're gonna eat right, or tomorrow we're gonna do this, we're gonna try again tomorrow. And um just just try and put more good days on top of the bad choices, you know. Like when I talk about food, it's really like talking about like talking about a drug for a lot of people. But you know, I tell people as a kid coming up, every gallon of tea my mother made had two cups of sugar in it. And that's that's all we drank at the house. Like if we didn't drink out of the hose or drank out of the faucet in the kitchen, if we had a drink, it was that sweet tea, and it was two gallons. I mean, it was a gallon with two cups of sugar in it, and she made it all day long, you know? Yeah, I know. So yeah, I mean, like uh predestined, predestined. But uh I sure, I sure love my groceries, and that that was the thing is just learning how to control that. And then if you do um make a mistake, or I ain't even gonna say you make a mistake, you know what? If you do overindulge, get back on track tomorrow. Get back on track tomorrow. And then move. Move, move, move. And Brittany will tell you that I set my walking shoes by the back door for two weeks. My I set my walking shoes by the back door before I ever put them on and went walking. But for two weeks I planned to go walking. I had it in my mind that I needed to go walking and I was gonna do it. But for two weeks they sat by that back door and then finally I laced them boogers up, you know, and and laced them up and have it look back.

SPEAKER_02 44:36

Well I know now, you know, you amazed me because what you bench press a lot.

SPEAKER_00 44:43

I I turned 55 last week and so I had said as a goal of mine, I wanted to bench 255 for my 55th birthday. And uh I was able to get that done. I was able to get that done. But I I enjoy it like to me that's almost my favorite part of my day because it's it's all um it's all mental and it's relaxing. And I tell people all the time that that gym is the easy part. That gym's the easy part. It's what you do those other 23 hours or other 22 hours that's that's the hard part. Um going to the gym, doing that workout, doing that, that's the easy part. It it really, really is. It's making good choices the rest of the day that is that is the struggle.

SPEAKER_02 45:43

For sure. Well, you certainly are a shining example to all of us because you know you really did a complete turnaround and and made such a difference. And I'm glad you're gonna be with us a long time.

SPEAKER_00 45:54

Me too. I feel like I am. I feel like I am. I tell them the ones that have the most birthdays live the longest, and uh, I just want to keep having birthdays.

SPEAKER_02 46:02

There you go. So they can find you at Johnny Cook and Johnny Cook Horses.

SPEAKER_00 46:07

On Facebook, yes, ma'am. Johnny Cook, Johnny Cook on Horses on Facebook. Um, and again, Brittany Cook or Dylan Cook, all three of us are there. All three of us are willing to help you, and all three of us can help you equally. Uh if if you reach out to one of us. A lot of folks like Brittany, she's a lot prettier than me and Dylan, and uh they'll reach out to her, I think, maybe just talk to her. But me and Dylan will try our best to help you too.

SPEAKER_02 46:35

Well, she is beautiful, there's no question about that. That's for sure. Well, thank you so much for being on the show today, and I really appreciate your time.

SPEAKER_00 46:43

Thank you, and I appreciate it, and and I hope someone gets something out of it. Um, if if you can use it, sure put it in your toolbox and use it. If you can't throw it out the window, but if I can help you in any way, just reach out to me uh through Facebook and I'll sure be glad to help.

SPEAKER_02 47:01

That is awesome. It's my pleasure to host today's Horseman Podcast, a chance to hear working horsemen's voices, hear what inspires them, experience their trials and struggles, and realize we all have a story to tell, and it's worth telling. I hope you enjoyed the show today. As always, thank you for listening to Facebook.