Raelin Jurgens has climbed from No. 30 to No. 23 in the WPRA world standings in three weeks, banking $20,016 on a gray gelding named Ima Epic Burr Bug in the middle of a season she says she never intended to rodeo this hard.

The biggest of those three weeks was the first week of August, and she did not win a rodeo in it. She cashed at four ProRodeos in three states for $9,609, the second-biggest week in the country behind Sydney Graham’s, and moved up six spots on it.

None of it was the plan. Jurgens did not enter a rodeo until the middle of June this year, and what she wanted out of the summer was to build a team of horses, not rocket up the list.

“My plan was to get another horse before the finals, but Bubba doesn’t like to share, obviously,” Jurgens said.

She’s along for the ride as far as strategy goes when it comes to entering, too. The relatively green pro competitor lets LJ Yeahquo, her boyfriend and traveling partner, handle the logistics.

“I don’t enter,” Jurgens said. “LJ enters for me and he’s like, ‘You’re going here, here and here.’ So I just show up where I’m told.”

He does all the driving, too.

Jurgens, 25, of Parker, South Dakota, did not grow up running barrels. She showed pleasure horses, did 4-H, team penned and sorted, and the family bred cutting horses. She played three sports year round in high school and two seasons of college basketball at Wayne State College in Nebraska before transferring to South Dakota State University.

“About a semester in, I was really jealous of the rodeo team,” Jurgens said, laughing.

So she took a little cutting horse to a couple of college rodeos. “Her name was Carter,” Jurgens said. “Literally just Carter. Super creative.” It did not last long.

“About two rodeos in, I got sick of losing,” Jurgens said. “So I called my dad and was like, ‘We need to upgrade our horses here.’”

She bought the black horse she calls her first barrel horse and still runs every once in a while. He filled her permit. Then she went looking for a backup.

Ima Epic Burr Bug (Epic Leader x Ima Famous Ladybug x Famous Bugs) is a gray gelding foaled in 2020 and bred by Chris McIlwain of Wilmer, Alabama, and he was a 4-year-old in training with Scamper Cole, who went by Scamper Hill then, when Jurgens went to try him in July of 2024. He had been to the Ruby Buckle. His owners were not running him much and had decided to sell, and he had just come off the trailer from Cole’s when Jurgens got there.

“They watched me try him and they’re like, ‘If you don’t buy him, we’re going to keep him because he’s looking pretty cool,’” Jurgens said.

She bought him. “I think I maybe put two runs on him before I ran him at his first ProRodeo,” Jurgens said. That was Nebraska’s Big Rodeo at Burwell, in July of 2024, where they placed fifth.

He ran the 4-year-old futurity at the BFA, but Jorgens hasn’t pursued many derbies or incentive races since. “He’s been a rodeo boy,” Jurgens said.

They went back to Burwell this July and were second.

He is an easy one to be around on the road or at home.

“He’s just a big dog,” Jurgens said. “You have to scratch his ears and give him at least four treats before you rub him, or he just is upset with you.”

He is in no hurry about the alley, either. “He could probably just walk down the alley half asleep,” Jurgens said. “If he was able to, he would do that. So it’s always like, okay, are we going to run today? Honestly, the less you do with him during the run, the better he is.”

Bubba does not live alone.

“I’m a goat farmer,” Jurgens said.

She did not set out to be one. Jurgens and Yeahquo were driving back from a jackpot when they came off the interstate and found three goats loose in the ditch by the exit ramp, and she decided on the spot that she wanted them.

“I’m like, LJ, you need to rope these goats for me,” Jurgens said. “I want these goats.”

They chased them up the ramp for about two hours and went home with one.

“And you know how that works,” Jurgens said. “He needs a friend. And then his friend needs a friend. So we go to the sale barn every Thursday.”

The count is up to goats, donkeys and a pony now, most of them bought on those Thursdays. She is still hunting for one that looks like Bubba.

She might be knew to the industry, but horses pay the bills. Jurgens was a vet tech for a couple of years and has young ones coming that she hopes to run in the maturity pen.

“Bubba pays the bills, so there’s really no worrying,” Jurgens said.

He places. He has cashed at all but five or six of the rodeos she has run him at, by her count, and Jurgens keeps her own spreadsheet of his earnings because Equistat does not catch the small jackpots that are not recorded. Equistat has him over $80,000. Her spreadsheet has him at $132,000.

“He’s just Mr. Consistent,” Jurgens said.

She had been on the phone with a friend from back home not long ago, trying to explain what he is.

“He won Greeley. But if you go and look, he’s around top five, but he’s never just out winning consistently,” Jurgens said. “He’s always there.”

He has been in the money since June. Jurgens was third at the Silver State Stampede in Elko, Nevada, in 15.79, then third in the first round at Reno in 17.02 for $3,735 and tied for fourth in the average on 51.11 for $4,296. At the Greeley Stampede she tied for sixth in the first round in 17.57 for $1,021, won the second round in 17.10 and won the average on 51.93 for $4,597. She won Laramie Jubilee Days in 16.91 for $3,237. In the first week of August she was fourth at Lea County in Lovington, New Mexico (17.43, $3,683), second at Lawton (17.10, $3,145), seventh at Sikeston, Missouri (16.40, $2,014) and sixth at the Will Rogers Stampede in Vinita, Oklahoma (16.66, $767).

Reno was her second or third rodeo of the year. “It was really good for my confidence,” Jurgens said. “I honestly wasn’t expecting it. But I was kind of like, well, it’s time to get after it now because it looks like we can kind of get something done here.”

At Vinita they missed the exit. “I pulled up probably 10 minutes before the stock was supposed to snort and I was second out,” Jurgens said. “So I pulled into the middle of the road and the guys got Bubba saddled for me. I got changed. He made me trot two circles and I had to go run. So I wasn’t expecting much from that run, but he did really well, of course.”

They got paid.

From Sikeston they drove through the night to Lovington. “For some reason, I just had a feeling we were going to win the perf,” Jurgens said. “We were in a stacked perf with a lot of good girls. And sure enough, he goes in there and does what he does.”

He led the performance. Graham won the rodeo in 17.13.

The August week was the biggest of her year. Greeley, five weeks earlier, is one that’s going to stick for a long time, however. Jurgens took that victory lap on a different kind of horsepower.

“I was trying not to fall off the back of the truck, but it was so cool,” Jurgens said. “I think I was shaking the whole time because I was like, did it really just happen? This has never happened before. How did we get here?”

The rodeo queens held Bubba while she got down and took selfies with him. “He’s a very photogenic dude,” Jurgens said.

She cannot account for how fast it happened.

“Honestly, I don’t know. I ask myself that every day,” Jurgens said. “I think just with Bubba being as easy as he is, and the people I’ve met along the way have been so nice and helpful.”

“Lisa Lockhart’s been nothing but nice to me since I’ve met her, and I circuit rodeoed with her the last about two years,” Jurgens said. “So she’s been great.”

The rest of it she puts on the horse. “It’s just Bubba going in there and doing what he does,” Jurgens said. “I know he’s going to take care of me as long as I take care of him.”

She never set the finals as the target. “I didn’t tell myself, ‘Hey, we need to go make the finals this year,’” Jurgens said. “If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, God’s got a different plan and I’m just enjoying the ride while I’m here.”

The goals moved anyway. After Elko the target was the top 50. Then it was the top 30. She is No. 23 at $62,052 in the WPRA’s posted standings through August 9, eight spots outside the top 15 that make the National Finals Rodeo. “People are saying, ‘Oh, you can make the finals,’” Jurgens said. “I’m just going to ride and not make my horse look terrible. That’s the goal.”

She could not name the rodeos she is entered at this week. “All I know is I’m in Oregon and Washington and Idaho, and I just need to go keep winning,” Jurgens said.

She has an answer for anyone thinking about starting.

“Honestly, if you want to do it, just go do it,” Jurgens said. “I always tell myself, yes, set your goals and stay where you want to be, but don’t be mad if you don’t achieve them. If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen. And just sit back and always count your blessings, because you’re sure lucky to be doing this stuff. And even if you lose, you got to go out and run. So just enjoy every one, even if they’re small ones. That’s what I’m doing. I’m along for the ride. This is Bubba’s journey. I just get to sit up here.”