Thanks to their Pendleton Round-Up win in 2024, Dustin Egusquiza and Levi Lord lead the PRCA Playoff Series standings on the way to the $288,888 Governor’s Cup—a rodeo they had to watch from home in 2023.
Having missed Sioux Falls—a rodeo with now $144,444 on both ends—by one point last year, they decided to put more focus on the average race at the 2024 PRCA Playoff Series rodeos without losing sight of their run.
“The average definitely kicked our butt a little bit last year, so it’s been more on our mind,” said six-time NFR header Egusquiza. “I can’t say that we just completely changed the way we rope, though—we’re still pretty aggressive, it just seems like more things have went in our favor this year. Things just fell into place, and we got in better situations. It’s just been a really nice year as far as winning and catching a lot of steers in a row and not getting in too bad of slumps.”
Both Egusquiza, 29, and Lord, 28, are also No. 1 in the world standings with $187,771.70 won on the year. Saturday, Sept. 14, they added the Pendleton Round-Up title and $12,223 a man to their names after roping three steers in 17.9 seconds, a cherry on top of their season.
“Those are just moments you think you’ll know what they feel like, but you don’t really until it happens,” said three-time NFR heeler Lord. “I just rode to the side and watched Coleman (Proctor) rope, then I saw the steer beat him out of there and, at that point, I knew we got it done. Then you just start running around: you go get on the horse, run across the field and then all the pictures and victory lap. It’s one of a kind over there.”
Conquering the grass
Make no mistake—Egusquiza and Lord still know money is important in this game. While they recognize the importance of staying in the average for tour points, they also know Pendleton pays too good in the rounds to not give it their best shot each time.
“Even though it’s a different setup, a totally different rodeo and everything kind of goes out the window, we still treat it like any other three-header,” Lord said. “We’d like to win something in the first round, so we definitely kind of go at the first one since the rounds pay so good there.”
Egusquiza and Lord’s steers were no day off in Pendleton, though. They had seen their first-round steer at Ellensburg, but he was faster at Pendleton and slipped on the corner, making Lord’s job a little harder. Still, they were 5.9 seconds to tie for eighth and ninth in Round 1 for $286 a man. They did it again in Round 2—literally—with another 5.9, again for eighth and $286 a man on a steer that was on the stronger side.
“We were really happy with a 5.9 on that steer,” Egusquiza said. “I didn’t really see it going that good; I thought any kind of mid 6 would be really good on that steer and told Levi we should just do the best we could do, I guess, and hope it was fast enough. It didn’t really feel like a 5.9, but the clock said 5.9.”
Egusquiza and Lord came back second high call on Saturday with an 11.8 on two head. In a pen of steers consisting of both lopers and medium runners, Egusquiza and Lord didn’t exactly draw what they hoped for. Regardless, they maxed him out—which they knew they had to do with Proctor and Junior Nogueira at high call—with a 6.1-second run, also consistent with their first two rounds.
They pocketed $1,783 a piece for the win in the short round and $9,868 each for the average with a 17.9 on three steers. They rode out of Pendleton with $12,223 a piece.
Egusquiza and Lord’s battle-tested horsepower
Egusquiza called on JE Shining Rowdy, better known as his long-score gelding “Mohawk.” Primarily Egusquiza’s jackpot horse, the 14-year-old has only been ridden at maybe three rodeos this year, including Cheyenne, and is a must on the Pendleton grass.
“He scores and he can really Run,” Egusquiza said. “He doesn’t have the flashy butt drag or face really good. He’s just kind of free running, but he’s really good at Pendleton. I don’t even know if I would enter if I didn’t have him just because the scare factor of it. You need to have confidence in your horse there and, on him, I’m not worried in the least bit. He’s very surefooted no matter how fast he’s running that the slipping never crossed my mind as I was riding him.”
Lord switched things up and chose his 11-year-old grade gelding “Pauly” for the Green Mile.
“I’ve kind of had both my horses at all of the rodeos because we haven’t done much flying or anything like that, so if Birdie’s staying there, I’ve just kind of rode him,” Lord said. “But for a setup like that and just trying to save Birdie, I’ve rode Pauly there three or four times, and he’s been really good there. He jumps that big score line every time, but other than that, once I got him out of the box, it was pretty good.”
Egusquiza and Lord’s push for the regular season title
The Florida and South Dakota cowboys have had a near fairytale year, kicking off 2024 with wins in Odessa, Denver and Austin.
“I think we left the house with maybe $60,000 or $70,000 won, and it never really slowed down too much for us,” Lord said. “We’ve been able to keep our horses together and we seem to both be roping pretty well all the time. If one of us is struggling a little bit, the other one seems to pick up the slack.”
Adding the Pendleton Round-Up to their resumes is a dream both Egusquiza and Lord have wanted for a long time.
“You talk about winning a rodeo, you’d like to win a rodeo when you get to it or whatever, but Pendleton’s one that kind of stays on the mind year-round,” Egusquiza said. “That’s one of the coolest wins that I have ever had, and I think that there was a part of me that didn’t know if I’d ever get it done. I like that rodeo so much, but it’s kind of nerve wracking and it seems really hard to win. So, to actually get it done was pretty awesome.”
With just two weeks remaining on the 2024 season, Egusquiza and Lord are entered till the whistle blows. The team will rope next at the North Dakota Roughrider Cup in Mandan Sept. 21, followed by the Governor’s Cup in Sioux Falls and Cowboy Capital Of The World PRCA Rodeo in Stephenville, Texas, the following week to give them a shot at winning the regular season.
“We obviously have a goal to win the regular season; that would be awesome,” Lord said. “But there’s a couple teams, especially Kaleb and Junior, every time you look up, they’re winning something, too. They’re pretty tough to stay ahead of. We’re just trying to do our best to win what we can win and, whenever they draw us a good one, to have a chance to try to capitalize.”
