Background
Shawn Flarida
Shawn Flarida is from Springfield, Ohio. His father, Bill Flarida, was a horseman who passed a love of horses to his sons. His older brother Mike Flarida won two NRHA Open Futurity Championships — on Custom Crome in 1993 and Whizard Jac in 1996 — and was inducted into the NRHA Hall of Fame in 2010. Shawn showed as a non-pro throughout his school years and has been competing at NRHA-approved events since 1981. He traded in his non-pro card in the late 1980s, began his own program in 1989 after working briefly for his brother, and started with only eight clients. He is married to Michele Flarida and has been based in Ohio throughout his career. He has said of reaching the $7 million milestone: "Reaching this milestone, it means everything to me. It is an honor to be here. When I was coming up, we never knew we would be running at this much money. It's a great time to be a reining horse trainer."
Career
Competitive Record
Flarida won his first All American Quarter Horse Congress Reining Futurity in 1994 and went on to win that event 11 times. He won his first NRHA Futurity Championship in 2002 on Wimpys Little Step — a future NRHA Hall of Fame inductee and $12 Million Dollar Sire. Also in 2002 at the World Equestrian Games in Jerez, Spain, he won both the Team Gold and Individual Gold Medals on San Jo Freckles. He became the third NRHA Million Dollar Rider in 2003. He won the 2004 NRHA Futurity on Smart Spook and the 2005 NRHA Futurity on KR Lil Conquistador. He won the 2007 NRHA Futurity on Wimpys Little Chic with a score of 231.5. In 2008 he and Wimpys Little Chic became the first and only team in NRHA history to win the NRHA Futurity, NRHA Derby, and NRBC consecutively — all with scores above 230. He won a second Team Gold at the 2010 World Equestrian Games. He was inducted into the NRHA Hall of Fame in 2011. He later won the NRHA Futurity again on Gunnatrashya (2009), Shine N Spook (2014 co-champion), and Andiamoe (2022) — bringing his total to seven NRHA Level 4 Open Futurity Championships. He was NRHA's all-time leading money earner for 14 years, until Andrea Fappani passed him on the all-time list in 2020. He is a 5-time WEG Gold Medalist. Key horses include Wimpys Little Step, Smart Spook, KR Lil Conquistador, Wimpys Little Chic, San Jo Freckles, Walla Walla Whiz, Spooks Gotta Whiz, Quistador, RC Fancy Step, Gunnatrashya, and Andiamoe.
