When Shawn Flarida (pictured) rode Wimpys Little Chic to a 231.5-point score as the final contestant in the National Reining Horse Association Futurity on December 1, Arcese Quarter Horses USA claimed their second major title in a month. Interestingly, the big wins came in two different disciplines. Four weeks earlier, Phil Rapp had ridden Arcese’s Arc Catty Dual to win the Pacific Coast Cutting Horse Association Futurity. Owner Eleuterio Arcese, of Verona, Italy is the only European inductee to the NRHA Hall of Fame.

Wimpys Little Chic is from the first crop of 2002 NRHA Futurity champion Wimpys Little Step, another Flarida pupil, who set an NRHA earnings record for 3-year-olds of $185,000. He was only the second horse to win both the All American Quarter Horse Congress and NRHRA Futurity titles. Wimpys Little Chic’s dam is Collena Chic Olena, by Smart Chic Olena.

The mare went through the NRHA go-rounds with scores of 227.5 and 226.5 for a composite of 454. In the finals, she knocked out Gunners Special Nite, ridden by Marcy Van Meer, who had set the bar at 230.

Flarida said he saw Wimpys Little Chic’s talent early in her training regimen. “This is the very first horse I’ve ever given four weeks off in the middle of the summer,” he said. “My help thought I might be losing it! My assistant trainer, Robin, asked me a couple of times, ‘Are you going to ride her this week?'”