Andy Barber at the Herkimer, NY, APRA rodeo, June 2013 – Courtesy of the family
Andy Barber
story by Lily Weinacht
Andy Barber grew up in the suburbs of Long Island, N.Y., but the cowboy in him was dreaming of an arena with calves aplenty to rope. While neither of his parents competed in rodeo, Andy was fueled by the stories of his grandfather, Charlie Roy, a retired rancher from Texas. It was after he had been out of college several years that Andy began to seriously pursue his rodeo dream in 1984. Still living on Long Island, Andy started rodeoing with some instruction by rodeo old timer Jim LaBue and his son Jimmy, who got Andy started in steer wrestling and tie-down roping. By 1990, Andy and his family were looking to move, and ended up in Altamont, N.Y. where they settled with land for several horses and a greater number of rodeos to compete in. “I started roping with the Reynolds family, who are a multi-generational rodeo legend in this area. Dave Reynolds is the patriarch, and they’ve all helped me tremendously,” says Andy.
Andy, 57, continues to tie-down rope in the APRA since joining the association in 1985. He competed in the APRA finals rodeo in 2007 and 2012. “I’ve played a lot of sports,” Andy explains, “and there’s really nothing like it (rodeo). It requires speed, athleticism, and a great love of animals. We have unfortunately a relatively short season, but it’s tremendous fun. It’s exciting and it has good people.” These people include the Reynolds family, and Andy ropes with them often. “I want to send a big thank you to Dave Reynolds and the Reynolds family,” says Andy. While he can rope the dummy at home, Andy goes to practice pens or ropes with friends, especially since he doesn’t have the time to look after roping calves of his own.
Something that occupies Andy’s time between rodeos is his job doing environmental engineering work. His work is usually at industrial sites or landfills investigating soil and ground water contamination. More recently, he has been involved in the remediation of older, abandoned industrial properties and helping prepare them for commercial use.
When he’s not at work, Andy spends his time riding and maintaining his property. “I find plenty to do in my little world between fences and building trails and keeping trees cut down,” he says. His two rodeo horses are an eight-year-old mare named Boo and a 22-year-old gelding named Opie who is still going strong. Boo is Andy’s tie-down horse, and he hopes to team rope more often again on Opie. Andy and his wife of 30 years, Linda, also make their home with two Australian Shepherds and a Golden Retriever. Andy and Linda’s two daughters, Allison and Carolyn, are grown. One lives in Boston and the other outside of New York City.
Andy is thoroughly enjoying having more time to rodeo these days. “I’m sort of the reverse as I’m getting older,” he says. “I have more time to rodeo now than I did before between work and kids.” Andy coached soccer for 10 years while his daughters were heavily involved in the sport. He says of his current goals, “I’d like to get my PRCA permit filled. Other than that, I’m not exactly a spring chicken, as they say, so I want to keep going, work out, and stay healthy. Dave Reynolds set the standard and roped well into his 70s. I’ll probably team rope more since tie down roping is physical and there’s a lot of pieces to it.” Andy reflects, “I can’t see myself out playing golf all that often as I get older. Rodeo – there’s nothing else like it.”
