PUEBLO, Colo. – They say age is just a number.
At 35 years old – quite likely the oldest rookie in PBR Teams – Jeff Askey is setting out to prove them right.
Drafted by the Arizona Ridge Riders with their sole protected roster draft pick, No. 11 overall, Askey is making the leap to PBR after a long rodeo career during which he qualified for the National Finals Rodeo five times.
“I dabbled in (PBRs) a little bit when I was young,” Askey said. “I went a little here and there, but I didn’t really ride as good back then. My career has kind of been a marathon, not a sprint. It’s been a slow progression and gradual growth, and back when I did try them, I wasn’t at the level that I feel like I’m at nowadays. But then I’d already dedicated myself to going to rodeos and set my sights on that, and just never crossed over and went back over there.”
Askey has 76 outs in his PBR career and 15 rides (19.7% riding percentage) in Touring Pro Division and PBR Canada action. Most recently, he competed at the WCRA Rodeo Corpus Christi in 2021, going 1-for-2, and at the TPD event in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 2018, where he finished eighth.
The 2023 PBR Teams season, which begins July 24-25 at Cheyenne Frontier Days in Cheyenne, Wyoming, will be his first PBR competition at the highest level.
When he saw the opportunity arise with PBR Teams, he was intrigued.
“Just wanted to kind of try something different,” Askey said. “I’ve rodeoed for a living my whole life, went to PRCAs, been to the NFR several times, and thought if there’s an opportunity to make good money over here, and come over here and get some good money in the bank, why not give it a whirl and see what it’s all about?”
Askey is good-naturedly unashamed about being excited about the prize pool, which puts more money into riders’ pockets in PBR Teams than ever before.
“I’m going to be honest. You know what excites me the most about bull riding, point-blank, no matter what? Money. I could give you some cool, fancy answer, but money,” Askey said with a laugh. “I like winning money, and I want to win a lot of money. That’s the simple answer.”
But the love for Western sports runs deep. Askey grew up in Pennsylvania in a family that raised beef cattle, breaking colts and riding sale barn horses for his father.
“He’d buy 3-year-olds out of the sale barn, and I’d get on them and ride them around, see if they were broke, and if they weren’t, I’d break them,” Askey said. “And that kind of got me a little bit of an animal sense, staying on something that’s bucking, figuring out an animal’s momentum and what you need to do to stay on them.”
The father of one of his childhood friends rodeoed and rode bulls, and they began putting on junior rodeos and open bull ridings at their house.
“Through hanging out with him, I just ended up having them enter me in one of them rodeos,” Askey said. “And here I am, 23 years later.”
From Pennsylvania, Askey moved to Martin, Tennessee, to attend the University of Tennessee – Martin. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in animal science and a college rodeo championship.
College rodeo, he says, has given him some experience competing on a team.
“The scale of it’s different,” he said. “There, you’re interacting with all the different events on your team. You’ve got team ropers and calf ropers on your team. But as far as the dynamic, there’ll be some similarities as far as having a coach trying to help you out on being positive and stuff like that, and the mental side of things. And just hanging out and the camaraderie that you get from being a team and helping each other out – that’s going to be a little bit of a crossover there and a little bit of a similarity.”
Heading into the 2023 PBR Teams Draft in Fort Worth, Texas, on May 17, Askey had some communication with the Ridge Riders. He knew there was some interest, but the team’s same-day trade for Colten Fritzlan upended his expectations.
“When you show up to the draft, you don’t really know what’s going to unfold in the first few picks and what somebody’s after and all that stuff,” Askey said. “I knew, the last time I talked to (team manager Colby Yates), they were very adamant about wanting a strong lefthanded rider and that they were going to use their draft pick on that, which they ended up trading and getting Colten. So that accomplished that task, so then they went down the list and set their sights on me once it came down to there.
“It’s a good team. They just traded for Colten Fritzlan – he can stay on bulls both ways really good. Chase (Dougherty) is really good, Keyshawn (Whitehorse). It’s a solid team. I get along good with Colby; I like Colby. Don’t know (technical coach) Paulo (Crimber) that good, but I’m going to get to know him pretty quick.”
RELATED: Arizona Ridge Riders trade for Colten Fritzlan, set roster ahead of 2023 PBR Team Series season
As the oldest member of the Ridge Riders’ protected roster – beating out Eduardo Aparecido by two years – Askey might have some wisdom to pass on, but he won’t be forcing it.
“I’m kind of a proponent of everybody has their own way to go about things, their own little bit of a style,” Askey said. “You can match up a lot of videos of different bull riders, and a lot of them are going to do it a little bit different than another one. Just find your own deal. Like, what’s your pre-ride routine? What’s your body position look like? And it might be different than the next guy, and that’s alright. I’m big into finding your own deal and what works for you, so I don’t really push mine on other people, but if they want to ask me about mine and ask me about my thoughts on theirs, I’ll tell them.”
While age might be just a number, Askey is willing to embrace his veteran status.
“I don’t know what I have to teach, other than I’m old and cranky,” he said. “I like to drink coffee, if they want to sit around and drink coffee and be cranky. We can do that.”
Photo courtesy of Josh Homer/Bull Stock Media