Episode Four

On episode four we transition from talking about raising commercial angus bulls to riding bulls and fighting bulls as I sit down with my friend Drew Asbury.

Drew is a native of West Virginia and is a UW Rodeo Team alumni.

Growing up Drew was not rodeoing. He didn’t grow up going to gymkhanas, ranch rodeos, or little britches - mainly because growing up out east they aren’t as prevalent. Instead, he was a well rounded athletic child doing soccer, karate, swim, football, baseball, and more. He had watched rodeo falling more in love each time he was a spectator. When he was fifteen he convinced his parents to try out bull riding.

“The first time I got on, it was pretty much an overgrown team roping steer and it just kinda hopped across through there and when it made a sharp left turn at the panels. I didn’t turn - slammed into the panels, my head was ringing, and it looked like someone had taken a baseball and stuffed into my elbow. And I fell in love with it” Drew reminisces.

One day watching pageants with his sister Drew discovered there was a high school rodeo association and immediately researched how to join. The first year he joined he was the only member of the West Virginia High School Rodeo. The first time he qualified for the National High School Rodeo Finals and arrived in Rock Springs, Wyoming in the summer of 2012 he looked at his dad and said, “what have we gotten into.” This was the biggest rodeo Drew and his dad had ever been to.

If you’ve never been to the National High School Rodeo Finals let me tell you it is huge. I went for the first time in the summer of 2021 to the college fair to recruit students for the University of Wyoming College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. It was in Lincoln, Nebraska that year and man oh man it was much larger than I had imagined. There were golf carts, kids with horses, and pickups with trailers everywhere. Of course this is normal but for someone who didn’t grow up going to these events its a little bit of a shock and gives slight panic trying not to get in the way of anyone.

In 2014, during his senior year of high school Drew was elected as the National High School Rodeo Association student President. This is an honor and one that Drew looks back on fondly. He got to represent High School Rodeo and meet people from all over. It has opened doors for him and exposed him to all parts of the rodeo industry.

At the National High School Finals I mentioned there is a college fair in which I went to as a recruiter. Well back when Drew was in high school that is how he met the late George Howard, along with coaches from several other schools . George Howard was the rodeo coach at the University of Wyoming for years and he offered Drew the opportunity to come Rodeo at Wyoming for him. On their way home from the National High School Finals Drew and his dad stopped in Laramie to give the school a look. After that Drew signed on to rodeo for the University of Wyoming.

At the University of Wyoming is where Drew and I met. We did live in the same residence hall our freshman year of college, white hall. (A fun fact about White Hall is that it is the tallest non commercial building in the State of Wyoming.) We also have several of the same friends but it wasn’t until our sophomore year that we met and became friends. I was on the waitlist for a class I really wanted to take. Another friend of mine was in the class and needed to drop it from his schedule for something else so I took his spot in Farm and Ranch Business Management. This class will come up again in this podcast because it changed/shaped a lot of things for me. Anyhow, Drew was also in this class. Several of my friends in the class knew Drew and we would all walk to the Wyoming Union and wait for the bus. After several weeks in the class this became the routine. Go to class, walk to the bus, and get off at the third stop in the east lot. Eventually, we became friends. Drew was the first college bull rider I knew but he was not the last. One of the best parts about this friendship is I absolutely love to take pictures at rodeos and my rodeo friends would have someone there who would take their photos or videos. After that first year we had several classes together throughout college. One of my dog Paisley’s first friends was Drew’s corgi Teddy.

This is one of my favorite photos I have taken of Drew. This is at the National Western Stock Show in Denver, Colorado. Drew’s dad in the purple shirt was helping him get ready to ride.