Benny's Back: Andrea Busby Goes from No. 19 to NFR-Bound at the 2026 Governor's Cup

Andrea Busby and Jets Top Gun Win the Governor's Cup and Punch Their Third Straight NFR Ticket

The Highlights

• Andrea Busby came into the 2026 Cinch Playoffs Governor's Cup sitting No. 19 in the world standings, the only barrel racer outside the top 15 with a real shot at qualifying¹
• She won the finals on Jets Top Gun with a 14.02, earning $34,000 and moving from No. 19 to No. 14 in the projected world standings¹
• The win locks her third consecutive NFR qualification
• In 2024, Andrea won the NFR Average Championship on Benny and set a new Thomas and Mack aggregate record of 136.18 seconds on 10 runs²
• In 2025, with Benny sidelined by injury, she qualified for her second consecutive NFR on a string she built from scratch, finishing 14th in the world standings³
  
• The Busby Quarter Horses program manages between 120 and 150 horses and has produced some of the most successful barrel horses in the sport including Famous Lil Jet and Famous Ladies Man³
  
  

Three years. Three qualifications. Three completely different roads to Las Vegas.

Andrea Busby entered the 2026 Cinch Playoffs Governor's Cup in Sioux Falls, South Dakota as the only barrel racer outside the top 15 with a real shot at qualifying.¹ She needed everything to go right in one weekend, and did it ever.

Riding "Benny" Jets Top Gun, she won the Governor's Cup finals with a 14.02, the fastest time in the final four, earning $34,000 and moving to No. 14 in the projected standings.¹ With the ProRodeo regular season closing September 30, that check all but seals her third consecutive NFR qualification. This is the Busby story in three years: aggregate champion, back for more without her best horse, and now locked in again on sheer grit and a program that keeps delivering.

One Afternoon in Sioux Falls

The format was unforgiving. Twelve of the best barrel racers in the country. Two long rounds Friday and Saturday, a semifinal Sunday morning, and a final four Sunday afternoon.

Andrea ran a 19.00 in Round 1, barely surviving to the aggregate, then came back with a 14.12 in Round 2 to make the top eight.¹ In the semifinal she ran a 13.96, the fastest time in the building that round, to punch into the final four.

Then she and Benny stopped the clock with a 14.02 in the finals.

Emily Beisel was second with a 14.04. Makenzie Mayes third with a 14.18. Megan McLeod-Sprague fourth with a 14.30.¹

Two hundredths of a second separated first from second. That is what $34,000 looks like.

When asked about the pressure of coming in on the bubble, Andrea said it best.

Three Years, Three Qualifications, Three Different Stories

What makes Andrea Busby's run to a third consecutive NFR remarkable is that each year has been a completely different story.

2024 — Andrea and Benny made ten clean runs at her first NFR and set a new Thomas and Mack aggregate record of 136.10 seconds. She walked in as a first-time qualifier and walked out as the average champion. Nobody does that.²

2025 — After the 2024 NFR, Benny sustained an injury that by Andrea's own words "could have, should have probably been career ending." Dr. Tommy Hayes operated. Dr. Marty Tanner managed every step of the rehab. The girls at the ranch spent hundreds of hours lasering, wrapping, sweating, icing, aqua treading, and cold spa-ing him. Andrea made Benny a promise: if you want to do this again, we will, and if you don't, that's just fine too. She didn't run him until June. He won the first rodeo he entered coming back. Andrea leaned on the rest of her string, hit eighty rodeos, stacked more than $133,000 in earnings, and qualified for her second consecutive NFR finishing 14th in the world standings. The program carried her. And Benny kept getting better.³

2026 — She came in at No. 19 as the only barrel racer outside the top 15, needing everything to go right. She won the Governor's Cup with a 14.02 and locked her spot.¹

Three qualifications. Three completely different paths. The same fire and passion every time.

The Horse Behind the Win

Jets Top Gun is one of the most decorated barrel horses in the sport.

He was bred by Busby Quarter Horses, a program that manages between 120 and 150 horses. Everywhere you turn in barrel racing, there's a Busby bred and raised horse in the headlines and history books. Famous Lil Jet carried Jordon Briggs to the No. 2 spot in the world and held the Thomas and Mack average record before Andrea broke it. Famous Ladies Man carried Kassie Mowry to the NFR. The Busby program doesn't produce one great horse and call it a career. It keeps producing them over and over. 

Benny's own résumé speaks for itself. He helped carry Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi to the 2023 WPRA World Championship and was named Reserve AQHA/WPRA Horse of the Year that season. At the 2024 NFR he and Andrea set the aggregate record together with a 136.18 on ten head, placing in nine of ten rounds. By the time they left Las Vegas he had cracked $1 million in lifetime earnings.²

Then he got hurt. An injury after the 2024 NFR that Andrea said could have, should have probably been career ending. Surgery. Six hundred days of rehab. Hand walking first, then slow work, then June before she ran him again. Andrea made him a promise and she kept it. He never backed up. Everything they asked of him, he kept progressing.

He won the first rodeo he entered coming back, at Woodward, Oklahoma. Then Caldwell, Idaho, where he won the average at 33.74 on two head for $11,906, his first short round win since surgery. Andrea said afterward she didn't know whether to laugh or cry.⁴

At the 2026 Governor's Cup, with the season on the line and everything at stake, she went back to him. He ran a 13.96 in the semifinal and a 14.02 in the finals.¹ "He kind of just keeps getting better the longer we've had him back," Andrea said.⁴

That is what a program horse looks like. That is what a partnership looks like.

What the Win Means

The ProRodeo regular season closes September 30. Results from Sioux Falls are unofficial until the WPRA posts standings, but the math is clear.¹

Andrea moved from No. 19 to No. 14 at $129,755 in the projected standings. Tricia Aldridge holds No. 15 at $128,747. LaTricia Duke dropped to No. 16 at $122,274, $6,473 behind Aldridge.

The Program Behind the Person

Andrea's consistency and success aren't an accident. Early mornings, late nights, and a detailed management approach that keeps horses competing at a high level across an eighty-rodeo season.

From her training regimen to her dialed in nutrition program, nothing is left to chance. She knows each horse individually, watches the small things, and keeps their care as consistent on the road as it is at home.

Andrea keeps her horses on FullBucket Equine Probiotic Pellets year-round and leans on the Equine Probiotic Paste during hauling, weather changes, antibiotic use, and anytime the gut needs extra support. 

She doesn't chase fads. She trusts what works.

Shop Andrea's stack here.

We'll be cheering for every run in Las Vegas.

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At FullBucket, our horses mean everything to us. If you have questions, just reach out to info@fullbuckethealth.com. Every message and question is read by our veterinarian founders.

— The FullBucket Team