Wimpys Little Step and Shawn Flarida slid to a 233 to win the 2002 NRHA Futurity Open Championship. Photo by John BrasseauxThis reining shot by itself has a load of Wow Factor! But when you add the story behind the photo, it is indeed a special one. The horse with the golden coat and solid-gold show career is 1999 stallion Wimpys Little Step, and he is being ridden by Shawn Flarida. In this particular shot, this team slid to a white-hot 233 to win the 2002 National Reining Horse Association Futurity Open Championship. But that was just the beginning.
Wimpys Little Step earned an amazing $203,865 in just three shows, capturing the All-American Quarter Horse Congress Futurity Championship and the NRHA Futurity Championship. He became the highest money-earning 3-year-old in NRHA history.
After that phenomenal 3-year-old season, Wimpys Little Step entered the breeding barn and had the Midas touch there, as well, siring his first foal crop in 2004. He experienced another meteoric rise to the top of the reining stallion ranks, reaching NRHA $2-million-sire status faster than any other horse in history. Currently, he has offspring earnings of more than $6,700,000.
As a sire, Wimpys Little Step outdid himself with his very first foal crop, which produced his leading money-earner, Wimpys Little Chic. With Flarida and his familiar green shirt aboard, the 2004 mare became the first horse in history to claim reining’s “Triple Crown,” winning the Open Championships at the 2007 NRHA Futurity, 2008 National Reining Breeder’s Classic and 2008 NRHA Derby. The mare, owned by Arcese Quarter Horses, posted six-figure earnings every season from 2007 through 2010.
