Lightning Aguilera and Kaden Profili picked a vital time to heat things up, banking $30,740 apiece over the last two weeks as they head into Cowboy Christmas in 2026.
The two-time NFR qualifiers raked in $20,868 a man the week of June 16-21, highlighted by wins at the Snake River Stampede in Nampa, Idaho, and the Silver State Stampede in Elko, Nevada. They rolled into another strong week June 24-28, pocketing $9,872 apiece with checks at the Reno Rodeo, West Of The Pecos Rodeo and Greeley Stampede. For Aguilera, the last two weeks were an important game of catchup as they sit seventh and ninth in the 2026 PRCA world standings with $62,165.80 and $53,541.36 won on the year, respectively.
“We’re not where we want to be, but dang sure closer,” Aguilera, 32, said. “What stood out was that I was catching. Normally if I catch, my guy catches, so I just got to turn him more steers and give him a chance. Last week I was able to turn a higher percentage of steers, and we won some money. We drew pretty good and just kind of made it work.”
How $30K was won
Nampa was the game-changer for Aguilera and Profili as they collected the bulk of their Week 1 earnings there. They opened things up by placing third in Round 1 with a 3.9-second run for $3,104 apiece before coming back with a 4.1 in the second round for $2,830 a man. They headed out to Utah where they won third at Pleasant Grove’s Strawberry Days Rodeo with a 4.3 for $3,046 apiece before heading back to Idaho for the Nampa short round.
“We had to be like 5.2 to win it, and we were 5.3,” Aguilera explained. “I kind of got hung up facing a little bit, but it worked out; we were still able to split the win, so that’s cool. Then we went to Elko and drew one that ran. I kind of got to him before he got going too fast, and it worked out. So, we were able to get the win there.”
Aguilera and Profili’s 5.3 pocketed them $816 a man in the round and another $5,888 apiece for splitting the average title with a 13.3 on three head. In Elko, they picked up another $5,184 a man, thanks to their 4.3-second run for the win.
On the head side, Aguilera rode his 2022 PRCA Head Horse of the Year Jess A Moose for every run, aside from the first round at Nampa. After originally planning to ride his sorrel on all three steers at Nampa, Aguilera altered his game plan, an option he knows is only possible because of the solid horsepower he has.
“I was planning on riding the sorrel the whole time at Nampa, but it was kind of wide open in a sense of making it back,” Aguilera said. “My gray scores way better than that sorrel, so I knew I could get out of the barrier. We ended up placing. The steer didn’t go anywhere, but with my gray, I was able to score and for sure get out. So, he’s a little more forgiving in that sense. The sorrel’s good if you want to just go blast one or go fast. It’s for sure nice to have them both in the rig.”
Their second big week got an early start in between the Nampa short round and Elko as they ran their first steer at the Reno Rodeo June 19. At the close of Round 1 on June 26, Aguilera and Profili finished third with a 5.1 for $4,267 a man. They rolled into Pecos, Texas, where they won fifth in the first round for $1,163 a man, followed by the Round 1 win in Greeley with a 4.4 for $4,442 a man.
Hello, Cowboy Christmas
Few stretches in ProRodeo reward momentum like Cowboy Christmas, where athletes are catching trains, planes and automobiles to win as much as humanely possible over the Fourth of July.
“I for sure hope it keeps rolling, next week would be a great week to have a great week,” Aguilera said with a laugh. “I mean, horses feel good, so like I said, as long as I can give my guy some chances, we should win.”
Some look at having pre-Fourth momentum as a potential advantage as it’s hard to stop a rolling train. Never going too long without the taste of winning keeps momentum in motion.
“I feel like it’s happened to me several times, but you lose and then the next time you’re trying to win just that much more,” Aguilera admitted. “And I feel like it’s that much more added pressure, which it shouldn’t be; obviously you should just forget about it. But if you like to win—if you’re competitive at all—you don’t go off that easy with just losing. But it for sure helps to have some momentum where the last steers we caught we did good on.”
Aguilera and Profili are pleased with how they drew up over the Fourth run, too, having the opportunity to hit 10 rodeos over Cowboy Christmas.
“We’re at Prescott (Arizona) and then Oakley City (Utah), Mandan (North Dakota), and then Killdeer (North Dakota),” Aguilera said. “On the second, we go to Red Lodge (Montana), Cody (Wyoming), Livingston (Montana), and on the third we’re at Basin City (Washington). On the Fourth, we’re up at St. Paul (Oregon) and Mollala (Oregon). We get to drive, too—no flying. So, we should be able to ride our own horses everywhere and not have to just have one rig going.”