Andrea Busby won the average at the Caldwell Night Rodeo on Saturday in Caldwell, Idaho, riding Jets Top Gun to a 33.74 on two head worth $11,906, the richest barrel racing purse on the week’s schedule and the gelding’s first short round win since surgery.
Busby, of Brock, Texas, was third in the first round, tied for the win in the short round and won the two head average.
Benny was the obvious choice for Caldwell. She has made the short round there four years running, twice on her mare Tito and twice now on him.
“He won that rodeo with Brittany in 2023, too,” Busby said. “When he decides he likes a place, he’s very consistent. He’s probably run more 16-second runs in Caldwell than he has 17. He loves that place.”
Jets Top Gun (Blazin Jetolena x GL Famous First Lady x Dash Ta Fame), or Benny, is an 11-year-old sorrel gelding Busby bred, owns and rides. In the QData numbers he has earned more than $1.1 million. He crossed the first million at the 2024 NFR, where he broke the aggregate record with a 136.18 on 10 head and placed in nine of the ten rounds.
Benny’s always been a winner. Janna Beam Brown won on him through his futurity and derby years, and Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi rode him during her $468,255 year and a regular season earnings record in 2023, the year he was named Reserve AQHA/WPRA Horse of the Year.
Then he got hurt. Tommy Hayes operated. Marty Tanner is his veterinarian, and Chad Marsh put the Busbys in touch with a peptide specialist.
“He had an injury after the 2024 NFR that could have been, should have been probably career ending,” Busby said. “And Dr. Hayes did the surgery. Marty did all the rehab, all the things.” Busby made the horse 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. And he loves running barrels.
Andrea Busby
The work was done at home. Busby started riding him last winter, hand walking first, and did not run him until June. The crew at the ranch was on it, too. “They spent hundreds of hours under him, lasering him, wrapping him, sweating him, icing him, aqua treading him, cold spa-ing him, all the things,” Busby said.
The rule came from Tanner. “Marty would just say, we just let the horse tell us,” Busby said. “And he never said no. He never backed up. Everything we asked of him, he just kept progressing. And so here we are.”
Tanner is also the reason she kept getting on. “There was days when I was like, ‘Oh no, I think we’ll just let him be good,’” Busby said. “And Marty’s like, ‘No, get on.’ And really held my hand through that whole process.”
Busby does not talk about her own part in it. She hands the credit to Hayes, to Tanner, to her farrier Britt Conklin and to the girls at the ranch.
Her husband, Jeff, is also on the road with her this summer, and when he is not, he is her first phone call. “My second one is always Sue (Smith),” Busby said. “She holds this ship together just by being her.”
I sometimes feel like I’m just hanging on to Benny’s coattails.
Andrea Busby
He won the first rodeo he entered coming back, at Woodward, Oklahoma, in June. He made the short round at the Farm-City Pro Rodeo in Hermiston, Oregon, and placed at Preston, Idaho. Then there was Caldwell.
Sydney Graham won the first round at Caldwell in 16.71, with Makenzie Mayes second (16.90), Busby third (16.98), Megan McLeod-Sprague fourth and Emma Smith fifth (17.00). Busby tied for the win in the short round and won the average at 33.74 on two head, and her $11,906 was more than anyone in barrel racing collected at a single rodeo on the week.
“I actually felt like I missed my first barrel on him a little bit in the first round, but he was running so hard,” Busby said. She worked him the morning of the short round. “He’s pretty literal, so you don’t have to show him very much,” Busby said.
She ran second out in the short round and waited on ten more. “It’s warming up with these girls in the short round, the horsepower out here, it’s just like one gladiator after another,” Busby said. “And so no, I didn’t think I had anything won until they tell you. But it was pretty tight. The long round was pretty dang tight.” She has a rule about it. “You never get on the victory lap horse till last person runs,” Busby said.
The week at Caldwell was worth $14,443, third best in barrel racing, and moved Busby up four spots to No. 20 in the world standings. Twelve days earlier, on the WPRA’s rebased board, she was No. 32. She has Puyallup made, and by her count she locked up the top 30 the night she won the average.
For the 2-26 plan, Busby chose to lose hours of sleep over the horses. She has split the string among more people this season to keep the miles off them. “This is a part of the year that’s grueling and I’m trying to keep me fresh, my horses fresh,” Busby said. “I’ve done a little bit different stuff with them to try and keep the runs off of them and spread them around a little more. But so far it seems to be working.”
Asked what the win does for her mentality this deep in the season, Busby gave a one-word answer. “Nothing,” Busby said. “[The goal is] the same thing as it always is. You want to make your circuit finals, you want to get in your top 30, and then the NFR. And I’m not going to ask anymore or any less of any that we’ve been doing. And if there’s a miracle on dirt and it’s meant to be, I will be thrilled.”
She hauled him to Tanner the morning after the win. Tanner looked him over and told her he looked great. “That was a pretty good day,” Busby said.
“I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry last night,” Busby said. “I didn’t know we’d see the day.”
What she wants out of the rest of it is simple.
“He kind of just keeps getting better the longer we’ve had him back,” Busby said. “So we’ll keep going like we’re doing and enjoy him every day we get to.”