Andrea Busby qualified for her third consecutive National Finals Rodeo in 2026, finishing the regular season No. 14 in the world after winning the Cinch Playoffs Governor’s Cup in Sioux Falls, S.D., on Jets Top Gun, the gelding she bred, owns and calls Benny.
Updated for the 2026 National Finals Rodeo.
She got there from No. 19 on the last weekend of the season, on a horse who had come back from an injury after the 2024 NFR that could have ended his career. Before any of it she was an ICU nurse off a Wyoming ranch, and Benny came out of a breeding program she and her husband, Jeff, started with a trailer load of yearling fillies from Canada. While he healed, she made him a promise.
“I told him for 600 days, if you want to do this again, we will, and if you don’t, that’s just fine too,” Busby said. “And he loves running barrels.”
Where she comes from
Busby grew up a horse-crazy kid on her family’s ranch near Lusk, Wyo., land that has been in the family for more than a century.
“My mom did not ride, but my dad, the horses were absolutely using horses for the ranch,” Busby said. “It was get the horses in so we can move the cattle. They were a tool to our livelihood, our survival.”
Her first horse, a pony named Lightning, bucked her off every day. Her second, an Appaloosa mare named Katie, was her first barrel horse. She ran barrels and poles and tied a few goats in 4-H, and she set her barrels up in the stubble after they combined the wheat or the alfalfa.
She high school rodeoed a little between volleyball and basketball, played both sports for a year and a half at Casper College, then played volleyball at Montana State in Bozeman while she went to nursing school.
“I thought I was going to (college rodeo), and it turns out I’m not superhuman,” Busby said. “College sports is a huge commitment, plus going to nursing school.”
Her horse at the time got colitis and died, and she stayed off horses until her first nursing job paid for one. She went straight into the ICU in Billings, Mont., through its new-graduate program.
“I wanted to be a flight nurse, until I realized that those crash a lot,” Busby said. “The flight program was based right out of our ICU, and every day it came across with things. They weren’t necessarily fatal crashes, but bird strikes, windshield, emergency landings. I’m like, I actually like living on land, and this is a really good gig.”
The road to the pros
She bought a horse, sold it, bought a better one and kept moving up. At the all-girls rodeo that ran with the ProRodeo in Casper, Wyo., she saw her first Dash Ta Fame horse run barrels.
“I remember sitting at the back thinking, I don’t know what that is, but I want one of those,” Busby said.
The search led her to Utah horsewoman Annie Rose, and Rose led her to Soul Flame. The gelding belonged to Jeff Busby, a Texan whose daughter was taking lessons from Ed and Martha Wright.
“He didn’t say no, but he didn’t say yes either,” Busby said. “But I was like, well, so you’re telling me there’s a chance.”
She called him three months in a row, then quit. That August he called her back. She worked her shifts in the ER, flew to Texas, and the first time Soul Flame went on the clock at Lone Star Arena, he ran a 15.2.
“He was a lot, though. He was a handful,” Busby said. “I’m like, he’s not trying to kill me. He’s just having fun. He’s just playing, and I think he’s a good boy. Yeah, I think I was too naive to know.”
He flunked the vet check with a chip in his ankle, so she leased him from Jeff and rodeoed on him. She came to Texas for those winter rodeos and never left. Andrea and Jeff married in 2010.
They tried to find another Soul Flame and couldn’t, so they decided to raise their own. In Canada they bought a group of yearling fillies out of Lady Perks from Grant Little, with Dr. Britt Conklin along to vet them.
In 2013 they bought the stallion Blazin Jetolena, a 2005 NFR qualifier with Melanie Southard. Jeff typed the 11-page contract on his iPad, with his finger, over Easter weekend.
“It was a 16-year plan from the time we bought those fillies,” Busby said. “It does not happen overnight.”
The program bred Famous Lil Jet, the horse Jordon Briggs rode to the 2021 world title, and Blingolena, the gelding Carlee Otero rode at the 2024 NFR. Blazin Jetolena died Jan. 17, 2023, at 24.
“Blazin Jetolena legitimately changed the course of my life, and not many people get to say a horse did that,” Busby said.
While they waited on the babies, Jeff got cancer. Sue Smith had the same cancer, six months ahead of him, and Busby leaned on her through it. They started riding together, and Smith has coached her ever since.
“Hundreds of phone calls. What do I do now? What’s next?” Busby said. “That changed the trajectory of my riding, my horsemanship, my barrel racing. Brittany changed the trajectory of my rodeoing.”
Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi hauled with her in the summer of 2022.
“Brittany absolutely taught me how to rodeo, period,” Busby said.
Most of what she knows about barrel racing, she said, came from Smith.
“If I have done my work during the week, it shouldn’t look like I’m doing anything on the weekend,” Busby said.
Jeff came through it, and so did her faith.
“Jeff’s cancer journey was the trenches of hell,” Busby said. “I knew who Jesus Christ was before that, but I don’t know if I had the relationship I have with him now.”
It changed how she competes.
“Barrel racing is not my God. I serve a big God, and this is fun,” Busby said. “This is what we do, but it’s not who we are.”
The horses
Jets Top Gun (Blazin Jetolena x GL Famous First Lady x Dash Ta Fame), Benny, is a 2015 sorrel gelding bred and owned by Busby Quarter Horses. His dam, GL Famous First Lady, is by Dash Ta Fame out of Lady Perks. Janna Beam Brown won on him through his futurity and derby years. In 2023 Pozzi Tonozzi rode him to her third world title, and he was the Reserve AQHA/WPRA Horse of the Year.
“I don’t think there are many horses to have got two people to the finals,” Busby said.
He is easy to show and hard to sit.
“He’s pretty literal, so you don’t have to show him very much,” Busby said. “There’s nothing hard about him except how strong he is.”
He also picks his favorite places.
“When he decides he likes a place, he’s very consistent,” Busby said. “He’s probably run more 16-second runs in Caldwell than he has 17. He loves that place.”
She hands him the credit.
“I sometimes feel like I’m just hanging on to Benny’s coattails,” Busby said.
Blazing With My Dude (Blazin Jetolena x Dasher Dude x Texas High Dasher), Tito, is a 2015 mare out of the mare Britany (Fleck) Diaz rode to the NFR in 2011 and 2014. Smith trained her through her futurity year. Dr. Marty Tanner later found a chip in her knee, Dr. Tommy Hayes removed it, and Tito won the first rodeo Busby hauled her to, in Alamosa, Colo. In 2022 she won Cheyenne Frontier Days from the bottom of the draw.
“Tito, we bred and raised her. Sue trained her. And that’s like home for me,” Busby said. “Tito, gosh, she’s the toughest. She’d run barrels on three legs if you asked her to. She runs where you turn, and that’s a very Blazin Jetolena thing.”
Born On Derby Day (Freckles Ta Fame x KR Last Fling), Derby, is a 2017 mare bred by Spitz Quarter Horses that Ashley Schafer took through her futurity career. Jeff wore Schafer down until she sold.
“She has her own fan club,” Busby said. “Life is scary when you’re Derby. Everything’s a big deal. She’s super reactive.”
HanksNTheFastLane, Goodbye, came from Sarah Rose Waguespack right before the 2025 summer run with no rodeo experience.
“He’s very honest. Very honest, which is a big deal to me. I cannot stand a horse laying on me going to the turn,” Busby said. “And he just doesn’t care. He’s like, I don’t care, which is so nice.”
Mitch is the other end of the barn.
“We bought Mitch from Seth and Ashley, and he’s just the opposite of Goodbye. He is hot. He is wild,” Busby said.
RC Black N Famous, Pickles, is a mare who fractured a hock at Salinas in 2026 and went home for surgery. Diamond Center, Hef, is Smith’s horse, and Busby rode him in Round 10 of the 2025 NFR.
“We call him the family horse,” Busby said. “I feel pretty lucky that I have friends that turn into family.”
She doesn’t pretend there’s a master plan.
“People are always like, how do you decide who you ride? And I’m like, whoever’s not limping or coughing, that’s who you ride,” Busby said.
The breakthrough
Over the Fourth of July in 2024, after a bad run at Mandan, N.D., Busby was ready to go home. Jeff put her on Benny at Killdeer, N.D., the next day, and she placed third.
“I’m glad he made me go to Killdeer,” Busby said of Jeff.
In August she won Hermiston, Ore., and Logan, Utah, on Benny and went on to her first NFR. In Las Vegas she broke the NFR aggregate record on 10 head, placed in nine of 10 rounds and won the average. Benny crossed $1 million in lifetime earnings that week.
“I’m starting to think he’s not even real anymore,” Busby said.
Andrea Busby and Jets Top Gun | Jamie Arviso Photo
The high didn’t last past the parking lot.
“I remember carrying my average saddle out of the Thomas & Mack,” Busby said. “We get literally out of the parking lot. They’re like, ‘What are we going to do for dinner? Have you seen my car keys?’ I’m like, oh my God, life goes on. The pinnacle is so short, so short-lived, that you have to a hundred percent enjoy the journey.”
“This is home. This is my hometown rodeo,” Busby said at Fort Worth.
Goodbye was second in the Salinas short round, then got sick the next morning in Salt Lake City and spent three weeks in the hospital at South Valley. Busby made her second NFR anyway, rode Goodbye for most of the week, placed fifth in the average and finished No. 13. Derby went home from Las Vegas for surgery.
“I didn’t think I could do it without him,” Busby said. “So I am very proud of my horses for stepping up, and myself mentally thinking, I don’t know if I can do it without Benny. And we got it done.”
2026
Her winter was rough, and most of her horses were sore.
“I only had $10,000 when I left to go to Reno,” Busby said in August. “And if there’s a miracle on dirt and it’s meant to be, I am fine with that.”
Benny came back at the Woodward Elks Rodeo in Woodward, Okla., in June, his first rodeo in 540 days, and won it. Three years earlier Busby had left that arena in a Flight for Life helicopter. He made the short round at Hermiston and placed at Preston, Idaho. In August he won the Caldwell Night Rodeo average in Caldwell, Idaho, and tied Tricia Aldridge for the short-round win, his first short-round win since he came back.
“I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry last night,” Busby said. “I didn’t know we’d see the day.”
Tito came around that August. Busby hit a barrel on her one night and came out happy anyway.
“I was still happy that I could feel my horse coming back to me,” Busby said. “This sport can beat you up if you allow it. But I think if you look at it as this is not life and death. It’s a challenge. I like the challenge. I like figuring it out.”
She split her horses up more this year, with Jeff and girls from the ranch on the road to help.
“I said, let’s put the miles on me and keep them off of them,” Busby said.
She also won Durant, Okla., Rawlins, Wyo., and Kalispell, Mont. In early August she was No. 32 on the rebased WPRA board. She made the Puyallup field, then the Sioux Falls field, the only rider outside the top 15 in it. She came to the Governor’s Cup No. 19, $21,924 out. Benny topped the eight-woman semifinal and won the four-woman final. She went to 99 rodeos in 2026.
Her people
Jeff has been in the truck for all of it.
“I would not be here without Jeff. Period,” Busby said. “He is the cheerleader. He is the fixer. He’s the finder of horses.”
He drives the all-nighters so she can sleep, and when he isn’t on the road, he’s her first phone call.
“My second one is always Sue (Smith),” Busby said. “She holds this ship together just by being her.”
Hayes did Benny’s surgery, Tanner ran his rehab, Conklin shoes him and the girls at the ranch put in hundreds of hours under him.
She and Jeff have been at it together since a phone call about a horse.
“I’m not going to say we don’t try and kill each other some days, but I also know at the end of the day, he is my true north,” Busby said.
Andrea Busby by the numbers
2026 Season
Final world standing: No. 14, $133,911 (WPRA, Oct. 1)
Rodeos counted: 99
Rodeo wins: Governor’s Cup, Sioux Falls, S.D. (14.02, $34,000, on Jets Top Gun); Caldwell Night Rodeo average (33.74 on two head, $5,711, on Jets Top Gun); Woodward, Okla. (16.82, $3,682, on Jets Top Gun); Kalispell, Mont. (17.37, $3,377); Durant, Okla. (15.11, $2,765); Rawlins, Wyo. (17.23, $1,252)
Round wins: Caldwell finals, tied with Tricia Aldridge (16.76, $2,115); Governor’s Cup semifinal, top time (13.96)
Biggest checks: Governor’s Cup final $34,000; Caldwell average $5,711; Hermiston average third $5,136; Walla Walla second $4,906; Calgary Round 3 third $4,500; San Bernardino second $4,177; Caldwell Round 1 third $4,080
Horses: Jets Top Gun (“Benny,” 2015 sorrel gelding, Blazin Jetolena x GL Famous First Lady x Dash Ta Fame, bred and owned by Busby Quarter Horses); Blazing With My Dude (“Tito”); Awesome Arlo (Cheyenne final, tied sixth, 17.83, $1,047); RC Black N Famous (“Pickles,” NOKO Shootout Open win, $2,454, non-rodeo)
Circuit: Mountain States, No. 8 year-end ($12,027); fourth in Round 1 at the circuit finals in Loveland, Colo., Oct. 23–24 (16.90, $562)
