Veteran steer wrestler Eli Lord captures Semifinal B win in Fort Worth
FORT WORTH, TEXAS – Eli Lord has been a standout in PRCA’s Badlands Circuit for years.
However, the talented steer wrestler has yet to qualify for the coveted Wrangler National Finals Rodeo presented by Teton Ridge.
Lord is trying to change that narrative in 2025.
The steer wrestler took a small step toward Las Vegas by winning Semifinal B with a 4.2-second run at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo Friday night at Dickies Arena.
“That run felt good,” said Lord, 31. “It always feels good when you win.”
The top four finishers in each event on Thursday (Semifinal A) and Friday night (Semifinal B) advanced to the 8-man championship round at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Dickies Arena.
“I actually ran that steer in my set earlier in the week, so I had a pretty good idea what he was going to do,” Lord said. “I just tried to stick with the plan I made originally, and it worked out well. In the finals (Saturday), I want to get as good of a start as I can and go as fast as I can.”
The semifinal win, which netted Lord $4,000, was extra special since his brother Levi Lord was hazing for him. Levi Lord and his partner header Dustin Egusquiza finished fifth in the semis Friday night with a 10.2-second run. Levi is four-time qualifier for the NFR in 2020, and 2022-24.
“Levi hazes for me quite a bit but we are just not at the same place a lot of times because he’s team roping and I’m bulldogging,” Eli said. “But when we are at the same rodeo, he does haze for me. It is great having him haze for me. Our family has always been close, and we grew up rodeoing at all the same places. My dad, J.B., has won about everything in the Badlands area.”
Eli has been a PRCA member since 2012. He just missed the NFR on two occasions in 2020 and 2021 finishing 20th in the world standings both times.
“I have been close to making the NFR a couple of times and that’s the goal this year,” Lord said. “I have had heck (with setbacks). My good horse was hurt the whole year two different times. Then, I had a haze horse die last year and it has just been rough.
“The horses I have now everything has been good and hopefully they will be the ones I have the rest of the year. I rode Bailey (Friday night). He is 18 and he’s starting to get up there. He has been hurt a couple of times buy he’s healthy now.”
With all the lucrative rodeos on the PRORODEO trail, Eli knows he has to just take care of business to put himself in position to make the Wrangler NFR
“The money in all the events at all the big rodeos now is getting so much better and I had a really good fall last year and I got qualified for all the big rodeos this winter,” Eli said. “I want to get some money won in the winter and build on that money won through the spring, summer and the fall and be able to be fortunate to make the NFR.”
Other Semifinal B winners were bareback rider Jacek Frost (89 points J Bar J’s Hyna); team ropers Clay Smith/Coleby Payne (3.8 seconds); saddle bronc riders Gus Gaillard (85 points on J Bar J’s Hell on Hooves) and Zac Dallas (85 points on Sankey Pro Rodeo and Phenom Genetics’ Pendleton Roundup’s Marquee); tie-down roper Kyle Lucas (7.8 seconds); breakaway roper Josie Conner (2.4 seconds); barrel racer Emily Beisel (16.23 seconds) and bull rider T. Parker (90 points on Sutton Rodeo’s One Chance).
–PRCA
