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Ben Kilburg Sets the Pace at Cody Stampede

It has been four years since the Cody (Wyo.) Stampede has seen a run faster than the 3.6-second run steer wrestler Ben Kilburg made during slack on Monday morning.

The 22-year-old cowboy has never won more than $9,000 in a season. Kilburg was eighth in the 2018 PRCA | Resistol Rookie Standings for steer wrestling with $8,329, and 2019 was similar.

If the next few days pan out like they have at Cody in recent years, his ProRodeo career could veer down a different path by winning a rodeo with nearly $300,000 in prize money.

Fans can catch the Cody Stampede action live on the PRCA on the Cowboy Channel Plus App, July 1-3 at 10 p.m. (ET) and July 4 at 7 p.m.

The last time the Cody Stampede had a steer wrestling run faster than Kilburg’s was in 2016 when Clayton Hass stopped the clock in 3.4 seconds and took home $9,091.

“I never really knew about it, but guys like that are the people you look up to,” Kilburg said. “It’s life-changing to know you can go anywhere and compete with them. It’s just surreal and gives you a confidence boost about being able to compete with anyone.”

Kilburg’s run came atop Kyle Eike’s 12-year-old American Quarter Horse, Goody, who lived up to his name.

“I ran one steer in the practice pen with Goody, so that 3.6-second one was the second steer I’d ever run on him,” Kilburg said.

As fast as his Cody run was, it wasn’t the first time Kilburg has stopped the clock in 3.6 seconds. The LaMotte, Iowa, cowboy placed second at the Pioneer City Rodeo in Palestine, Ill., Sept. 1 with a 3.6-second run.

“I don’t have video of either of them, so maybe not videoing is my lucky charm,” Kilburg laughed. “I would have loved it if there was one, but we just had the four of us there and did what we could do, and now we just have the memory.”

If Kilburg’s lead holds up through the end of the Cody Stampede, he and his travel partners Eike, Talon Roseland and Ty Stanley will have a memory that’ll last a lifetime.

“They are just as excited for you as you are for yourself, they are your biggest fans,” Kilburg said. “That’s what good travel partners are like.”

The timing for a big win would be perfect for Kilburg since he’s buying a house in Waterloo, Iowa, in a couple of weeks.

“That (winning) will be helpful with that, but anything left over I want to go toward more rodeos,” Kilburg said. “If it (the lead in Cody) holds, it will set me up for next year.”

Kilburg’s game plan for the 2020 season is to build up his qualifications for the 2021 season. Winning the Cody Stampede also would give him a boost in the ProRodeo Tour Standings. But for now, he’s focused on the Fourth of July run.

Kilburg and his friends competed at Cody on Monday and the Black Hills Roundup in Belle Fourche, S.D., Wednesday morning. Next, they compete at Mandan (N.D.) Rodeo Days, July 1, the Killdeer (N.D.) Mountain Roundup PRCA Rodeo, July 2 and the Sitting Bull Stampede in Mobridge, S.D., July 3.

“Luckily I have a good boss who understands goals and dreams,” Kilburg said about his job at the roofing company Triton Inc.

Courtesy of PRCA

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