Dustin Egusquiza and Levi Lord kicked off 2025 with the San Diego Rodeo win Jan. 10-12, for $24,750 a man.
For the reigning PRCA regular season champs, success at the new high-stakes, stand-alone rodeos has been elusive, until San Diego.
“We’ve never done good at these types of rodeos, so it just feels really good to win one,” Egusquiza, 29, said. “I mean, I would’ve just been happy winning something. It seems like we don’t win anything at these rodeos that pay a lot of money, and it’s an awesome venue here at Petco Park. They put us up in a great room, some 50 steps across the street; pretty crazy place to have a rodeo it seems like, but it’s also really, really cool once they get everything set up and we’re in here.”
Roping in front of a sold-out crowd inside Petco Park, home of the MLB’s San Diego Padres, is something Lord, 29, never would have imagined for rodeo.
“These venues like here and then they have the rodeo in Phoenix, The American and the Kid Rock Rodeo (Kid Rock’s Rock N Rodeo), it’s something rodeo hasn’t seen, and it’s cool to see how far it’s come that we get a rope in these venues and a ton of people come out,” Lord said. “You wouldn’t think right here in San Diego they’d dang near sell this thing out, but they did, and it’s just an awesome atmosphere and we’re lucky to be here.”
Fun in the San Diego sun
The San Diego Rodeo invited 12 teams to play in Petco Park with Round 1 on Friday, Jan. 10. Egusquiza and Lord got off to a rocky start with a no-time in Round 1, but they were in the money in the second round with a 5.5 for $1,750 a man.
Egusquiza and Lord punched their tickets to Sunday’s round of eight, which was determined off of money won, and split the round win three ways with a 3.7 for $3,000 per man.
“The steers were good, kind of bigger, a little bit older steers,” Egusquiza said. “It’s a pretty friendly setup, and when you make it a little bit friendly like that, as good as everybody ropes now, you never know how fast you have to be. We were third out of four, so we had a little bit of an idea of what we needed to do, and that always helps. I’m just happy that it worked out.”
In the Shootout Round, featuring the top four money earners after the round of eight, Egusquiza and Lord sealed the deal with a 4.0-second run for $20,000 apiece. Their $24,000 weekend was also their first major win aboard a new team of horses. On the head side, Egusquiza rode a gelding he bought in November. After jackpotting on him in Arizona and taking him to Northside in Fort Worth, he got the call for the California sun.
“Northside was my first rodeo on him, and I rode him at Odessa and I brought him straight here,” Egusquiza said. “I was a nervous wreck about whether he was going to like this stadium or not, but he was cool about it. Nothing really bothered him too much. He worked great, and it was just a pretty cool feeling to have both of our new horses. They’re already paying themselves off.”
Lord’s horse might be new to him, but he’s been around the game. The 16-year-old came from Paul Eaves before the two-time world champ sold him to a young kid.
“He’s been around and seasoned, so I wasn’t quite as worried about him, but I rode him at the roping in Odessa and won that and then brought him here,” Lord said. “And obviously he did good here, so it’s a good start. It’s always nice to start off winning on a horse when you get them and you’re trying to get with them.”
To not only win on new horses but also come back after a less-than-ideal 2024 NFR gives Egusquiza and Lord a confidence boost for the new year.
“These rodeos that they’ve been starting to have, they pay a lot,” Egusquiza said. “It’s been a little bit frustrating; we seem like if the rodeo pays $3,000, our percentages are really good, but we’ve had heck winning at these. To get that going and starting the year off in January, it’s a great time to have a good, big win, especially coming off a pretty mediocre, at best, Finals. It’s just good to get the new year rolling and have some money and confidence going into these huge winter rodeos.”
