Dustin Egusquiza and Levi Lord were nearly flawless in pursuit of the 2025 San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo win, cashing in $23,130 a man.
Egusquiza and Lord won all three rounds in their bracket for $7,878 a man and locked in the overall title Feb. 22, with a 4.1 to win the Finals and another $15,252 apiece. This marks Egusquiza’s third San Antonio title–he won his first in 2020 with Travis Graves–but their second together in the last three years.
“I have places that I do seem to do extra good at and then some places that I haven’t won a check throughout my career, and I think San Antonio is just on the top of the spectrum on places that I like,” Egusquiza, 29, said with a laugh. “It likes me also somehow. I get in good spots over there and seem to win a lot. I think I’ve made the short round every year since I’ve qualified for that rodeo; I’ve always been in the short round. Then there’s places like Houston, I’ve never even made the short round at Houston. But San Antonio just really likes me, and I really like it.”
Egusquiza and Lord now sit No. 1 in the 2025 PRCA world standings with $44,263.06 won on the year. Having cut his teeth in the Southeast, Egusquiza feels at home on quicker setups, like San Antonio. Because of this, Lord, a Sturgis, South Dakota, native, credits Egusquiza for much of their winter successes.
“I think that comes with roping with Dustin also,” Lord, 29, said. “He’s for sure always done well at the winter rodeos. The setups just really fit, obviously, what he’s got going on. He can head ’em from pretty much anywhere in the arena and usually turns quite a few steers in the wintertime. And that’s been the case all three years that we’ve roped together. So far he has turned most of ’em for a lot of money, and I’ve been lucky enough to catch a lot of ’em. So, it’s nice to be able to go to those rodeos and feel like you got such a good chance to get a good start on the year.”
San Antonio strategy
One of the biggest bracket-style rodeos, it all comes down to money in San Antonio. The top money earners of each bracket advance, as well as the top money earners in each semifinals. To stay alive inside Frost Bank Center takes some strategy, according to Egusquiza.
“We were toward the end of the first round, and I think is was fairly easy to go to second at the time, but to guarantee yourself an advancement there, you need a little bit more than a first-place win,” Egusquiza said. “So, in my mind I would rather have three chances to win first than treat it as I’m just going to try to win third two out of three times. I was kind of on the fence on what I wanted to do, and then (Tyler) Tryan and (Denton) Dunning, they made a good run right ahead of us. That kind of freed me up and I just decided that I was going to cock my rope back and we were just going for first all three times, just live by the sword kind of deal. And when it works on the first one, that really sets you up to just have fun the other two times.”
Egusquiza and Lord won Round 1 of their bracket with a 3.5-second run for $2,626 a man. They won another $2,626 apiece for the Round 2 win with a 5.2-second run. They finished their clean sweep with a 3.6 to win Round 3 and another $2,626 a man. Based off the $7,878 a man they won in Bracket 4, Egusquiza and Lord were essentially free rolling into the Finals, which came in handy after they caught the barrier in their semifinals.
New mounts for the win
Egusquiza’s San Antonio equine counterpart is new to his herd but not to the game. “Ranger” came to Egusquiza from Kolby Avery, but prior to his life in South Texas he saw the bright lights of Las Vegas with 2022 NFR header Jake Orman.
“I tried him a couple years ago and I really liked him, but I didn’t really have the means to get the money and, I don’t know, it just wasn’t the right time, I guess,” Egusquiza admitted. “And Tanner had been riding the horse a little bit at some places and he told me that he wasn’t just getting along with him great. So, I called the guy and brought him over here to my house and I ran three steers just to make sure he felt the same as he did two years ago. And I bought him. He’s just really easy. He’s always great in the box and scores really good, and he’s really flat. I knew I needed something like that for San Antonio to let me do what I do. And with Austin coming up and San Angelo, to have a horse that’s just really easy that you don’t have to worry about anything but just rope.”
Lord’s heel horse is also new to his arsenal this year, but he’s already been proving his worth. Lord rode “Little Blackie” to the San Diego Rodeo win in January, and he’s found his spot in his lineup naturally.
“Everywhere I’ve rode him, I’ve seemed to have won decent on him,” Lord said. “I won the Odessa roping on him, took him straight to San Diego and won it out there. Then we won third at the Clay Logan, won a big check on him, and now San Antonio. So pretty much everywhere I’ve rode him it’s went pretty good.”
Foundation for 2025
A year ago, Egusquiza and Lord had their biggest winter ever after winning Odessa and Denver and taking home big checks in Fort Worth and San Antonio. Their winter helped them show up to the Reno Rodeo in June with over $78,000 won on the year. In 2025, they’re entering March with over $10,000 more than they had won at this time last year.
“The big difference was this week that we had, really,” Egusquiza said. “We won San Antonio and we won a lot at Tucson. That kind of jumped us up. But I think we were catching more steers last year than we are this year, honestly. We won Odessa and Denver, never missed one at either of those two. Fort Worth we placed in both rounds, placed in the semis and then I missed my dally in the finals. And then San Antonio, we won in our bracket first, second and then first, and then first in the semis and then I missed my dally in the short round. But it seemed like we were catching a lot more steers last year. Maybe we just connected on the right couple this year to give us a little bit more money.”
READ: Dustin Egusquiza and Levi Lord Win 2024 Texas Circuit with Over $60K
Egusquiza and Lord head next to RodeoHouston March 10. While the year is still just picking up, Egusquiza and Lord are hoping to lay the foundation for another season on top of the world standings.
“We got a couple big rodeos left and then it slows down before we’ll start planning the summer out,” Lord said. “But same as every year. I think we both have horses that we’re pretty happy with right now and kind of feel like we can compete anywhere. We’re wanting to try to get the most money we can to where I told Dustin, obviously the first goal is to get enough to make the Finals, but then going in toward the top or in the lead is always nice and a goal. So it’d be nice to go in in the lead again and maybe even have a lead that matters out there. Most of the time it doesn’t; you can’t get enough won to get ahead of anybody that matters, but it would be cool if you could. So just win as much as we can and rope the best we can to see what happens.”
