No. 5 | $155,590
- Age: 32
- Hometown: Athens, Texas
- Career earnings: $515,917
- Major Rodeos: Snake River Stampede (Nampa, Idaho), Silver State Stampede (Elko, Nevada), Kitsap Stampede (Bremerton, Washington), Sandhills Stock Show & Rodeo (Odessa, Texas), Deadwood Days of ’76 Rodeo (Deadwood, South Dakota), St. Paul, Oregon, San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, Cassia County Fair & Rodeo (Burley, Idaho)
- NFR Qualifications: 3 (2022, 2025–26)
- Star Horsepower: Jess A Moose (Gray), Kickstand
- Rope Choice: Fast Back
For the second time in his ProRodeo career, Lightning Aguilera entered the final stretch of the 2025 regular season on the bubble—and once again, he finished it with a ticket to the NFR.
“It’s been a couple years since I made it, so it’s nice to be able to make it again,” Aguilera told The Score on his 2025 NFR qualification. “I’m excited to go back with a little experience and see if we can’t do better.”
The 31-year-old Florida native, who now calls Athens, Texas, home, made his first NFR appearance in 2022, where he ended the season No. 12 in the world with $152,886 won that year. He roped with Jonathan Torres at the Finals and collected $62,464 inside the Thomas & Mack.
Aguilera has rodeo in his blood. His grandfather was an all-around rodeo hand in Cuba, and now, the entire family enjoys the sport that Aguilera has found success in.
“My dad, Tico Aguilera, and my grandpa, Lao Aguilera, are both headers,” he told Kendra Santos in a 2021 TRJ interview. “My grandpa rodeoed in Cuba and worked all the events—steer wrestling, calf roping, bull riding, all of it—although team roping wasn’t that big when he was over there. Team roping is big in my family, though. I think they put me on a horse as soon as I came home from the hospital.”
Before he kicked off his years of spinning steers from three coils back, there was an accident when he was 3 that changed his life but didn’t slow him down.
“A cousin of mine was getting off of a tractor, and his foot slipped off the clutch,” Aguilera told Santos. “The tractor went forward, and the Bush Hog cut off my right foot. I have a prosthetic leg that goes up to my knee for support, but the only thing missing is from my ankle down. It doesn’t bother me. A lot of people have had a lot worse stuff happen to them.”
Over the years, Aguilera has added some big wins to his résumé. In his first full season on the ProRodeo road he won the Old Fort Days Rodeo in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and the Strawberry Days Rodeo in Pleasant Grove, Utah, with Shay Carroll. That same year he partnered with Coleby Payne and won the Cassia County Fair & Rodeo in Burley, Idaho.
In 2022, his journey to his first NFR included wins at Helotes, Texas, and Woodward, Oklahoma, with Payne, as well as a big win in San Antonio with Torres. Once in Las Vegas, Aguilera and Torres placed in four out of 10 rounds, grabbing the second-place check in Round 6 with a 4.1-second run.
That same year, Aguilera’s horse Jess A Moose—“Gray”—was voted the 2022 AQHA/PRCA Head Horse of the Year.
“I didn’t win that much before I had him,” he said of Gray on The Score. “I can trust him—he’s always on my team. He’s so fast and he doesn’t duck, so I don’t have to worry about that.”
This season, the now two-time NFR qualifier is heading to Las Vegas in the No. 15 position with $114,736 won. Aguilera will rope with fellow East Texas cowboy Kaden Profili at the Finals, as his regular-season partner Wyatt Cox just missed the Top 15.
Aguilera and Cox still collected some big checks this year. This winter they won the first round, placed in the second and claimed the average at the Sandhills Stock Show & Rodeo in Odessa, Texas. From there, they took wins at the American Royal Rodeo in Kansas City, Missouri; the Old Fort Days Rodeo; and the Kitsap Stampede in Bremerton, Washington.
In the dogfight that was the final stretch of the regular season, Aguilera and Cox kept themselves in contention with late-season wins in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Mona, Utah; and Pasadena, Texas.
Once he got to Las Vegas, Aguilera made it count. He and Kaden Profili came in as the No. 15 team and won Round 1 of the 2025 NFR with a 4.0, worth $36,667.95 a man. They split the Round 3 win in a three-way tie, then won Round 9 with a 3.4 on a steer nobody had caught yet. With three round wins and sixth in the average at 43.1 on seven head, Aguilera climbed from 15th to sixth in the world with $261,551.
“I figured I had to go at him before he got bad,” Aguilera said of the Round 9 steer. “He wanted to be low-headed, so I went at him offensively. It worked out. Not our favorite steer, but it worked.”
Aguilera was still roping with Wyatt Cox at Rodeo Austin in March 2026, but by summer he and Profili had teamed back up. Over two weeks in June they won $30,740 apiece, splitting the average win at the Snake River Stampede in Nampa and winning the Silver State Stampede in Elko, Nevada. Aguilera rode Gray on almost every run.
“We’re not where we want to be, but dang sure closer,” Aguilera said at the time. “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.”
They kept cashing through the fall, including second in the average at Ellensburg. Aguilera finished the 2026 regular season No. 5 in the world with $155,590, heading to his third NFR from the highest spot he’s ever held going in.