Some years back, while still on the OJ Ranch in Farmington, Calif., Ozzie Gillum was involved in a bad horse wreck that left him hospitalized for several days and then placed on a lengthy bed rest once he was sent home. About the same time Judy had gotten increasingly involved in showing cutting horses and had a chance at a big title. Ozzie tells the story:

“Clay (O’Brien Cooper) called and said he had some time off and that he’d come babysit me while Judy was off showing horses. Judy said she’d cook some stuff up and all Clay would have to do is heat it up and feed it to me.

“So Clay showed up and warmed up my dinner that fi rst night and then asked me if I wanted anything else. ‘Chocolate pudding,’ I told him. ‘Judy always makes me some of that.’ So off Clay went and came back with his chocolate pudding. It had big old lumps in it—the size of your thumb—and I gave him hell. So he does this the next couple of nights and by the third night I hear him on the phone asking Judy how to make her chocolate pudding. ‘Use a whisk,’ she told him. He had no idea what that was, but he got it fi gured out and that night we had some silky smooth pudding.

“Fast-forward a few years. Clay and I had put a little land deal together in Arizona and we were coming from the escrow offi ce. He told me he wanted to go to an open roping out in Buckeye and asked what Groucho was doing. I let him take him and off they went. He dropped him off late that night in a hurry. The next morning I’m stomping and shouting all around the tack room when I realize he’s run off with Groucho’s bridle. I get a call about that same time when he realized he’d taken it and he says he’ll just drop it in the mail.

“A few days later, I’m standing there with a friend of mine and the UPS man shows up with Groucho’s bridle. We open up that box and nestled down in there are two boxes of chocolate pudding. My buddy sort of laughs and says, ‘Why in the world would he do that?’ “‘Mount money,’ I told him.”