About Shawn Flarida

Shawn Flarida is continually raising the bar for NRHA competition. His most recent was to become the sport’s first and only Seven Million Dollar Rider, and he is also the NRHA’s Leading Money Earner. He has won an incredible six NRHA Futurity Level 4 Open Championships. He is a 5-time WEG Gold Medalist, and he has also won the All American Quarter Horse Congress Reining Futurity an astonishing eleven times. Shawn knew from childhood that he was meant to be a horse trainer. His father, Bill, and older brother, Mike, are both horse trainers, so it was definitely in the blood. He began his own program in 1989, after working for his brother for a little while. He had a humble beginning with only eight clients, but he quickly rose to success. He captured his first NRHA Futurity Open title in 2002 aboard Wimpys Little Step, and he became the third NRHA Million Dollar Rider shortly thereafter in 2003, joining Bill Horn and Tim McQuay. He had consecutive NRHA Futurity Open Championships in 2004 and 2005 with Smart Spook and KR Lil Conquistador, respectively. Shawn’s list of titles and awards is extensive, but perhaps one of the most notable came with a little mare called “Lexi”. In 2007, he and Lexi – more formally known as Wimpys Little Chic – were the NRHA Futurity Open Champions with a score of 231.5. But the pair slid into the history books in 2008 when they became the first and only team in NRHA history to win the NRHA Futurity, NRHA Derby, and NRBC consecutively. And, they did it with scores above 230 at each event. Shawn hit another milestone in 2008 becoming NRHA’s first Three Million Dollar Rider. He hit the Four Million Dollar Rider milestone in 2010 and was inducted into the NRHA Hall of Fame in 2011. He surpassed the Five Million Dollar mark in 2013, and NRHA announced he was a Six Million Dollar Rider during the 2017 NRHA Futurity finals. Shawn continues to compete and be a leader in the sport, and it is exciting to see what record he will break next.