FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TEAM FLAIR Barrel Racer, Wins Reserve Junior World Champion at the 2011 WPRA World Finals Rodeo

Flair LLC, makers of FLAIR® Equine Nasal Strips, is pleased to announce TEAM FLAIR barrel racer Emily Efurd won the Reserve Junior World Champion title at the 2011 Women’s Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA) World Finals Rodeo, held in Lincoln, Nebraska., October 13-16, 2011.

Emily Efurd, from Pittsburg, Texas, traveled to the WPRA World Finals after a competitive season on the road and qualifying for the premier event. Ending her year in the Junior Division with impressive total earnings of $12,300.39 and a Reserve World Champion title, Emily went on to win the first go round at the WPRA World Finals as well.

Working hard all year traveling to rodeos and keeping her horses ready for competition, Efurd trains her own horses and has an extensive support group who has helped her compete. Emily definitely brought her A-game to the WPRA World Finals Junior Division in Lincoln, saying of the competition, “The WPRA finals were overall a well-organized, fun event.”

An 18-year-old high school student, Efurd has an impressive list of accomplishments in the rodeo arena, finishing her competitive year in the Junior Division with a successful finals and healthy horses.

“I won the first go of the Junior Division but hit a barrel to win it the second go,” Efurd said. “So glad to be a part of the team and have my FLAIR strips to keep my horses breathing and running well!”

About FLAIR Nasal Strips: FLAIR® Strips provide drug-free support and protection to the respiratory system of the hard-working equine athlete. FLAIR Strips are proven to:  reduce airway resistance, reduce lung stress and bleeding, reduce fatigue, and shorten post-exercise recovery time.

For more information about FLAIR Strips, please visit http://flairstrips.com

To read more about Emily Efurd, please visit http://www.flairstrips.com/team-flair/barrel-racing/

Media Contact:
The Western Integrity Agency
email: marketing@flairstrips.com

The day passed, albeit slowly, and then it was time to get ready for the test. Lucy had got rather in to the whole dressage at night, under lights, to music etc and had come up armed with some spray on glitter….Not quite sure how I felt about riding a horse that resembled a Christmas decoration but for an easy life I went with it. Although Lucy did admit that in day light it did look more like glittering bird poo but she assured me under lights it looked fabulous!! Hmmm… Anyway, sparkles aside, I was thrilled with Albert’s test – he coped really well with the intense atmosphere, rose to the occasion and proved to be a true performer, particularly after what had been a difficult warm up to say the least – not mentioning any names but there was some very un-sportsmanlike behaviour coming from one of the other competitors who obviously saw myself and Albert as their main threat to the title and at one point deliberately rode into Albert’s quarters giving him quite a fright and making an audible thud and a mark on Albert’s side. It is a shame that people who are supposed to be professional sportsmen feel the need to behave like this when there is some big prize money at stake. Anyway, there’s my rant over and I was pleased to be in the lead after the dressage and after all our hard work out in our field at home with the car cd player on full blast!!

Onto the cross country phase – we were given just 15 minutes to learn the course as they were running late, so just remembering where we had to go was a challenge enough, but also I would say it was a proper two star track – very technical and of course time was a real issue. Going last, I managed to watch a few go before getting on Albert. Having practiced a few tight turns and angles in the warm up, it was time to go. Albert went very green on me over the first few jumps, which is probably where I lost my time, but when he got going he was excellent – so genuine and brave. Despite, getting a couple of time faults, we held on to our lead so it was now all down to the show jumping….This is slightly Albert’s Achilles Heel but we had a good warm up and I had been working hard on this phase at home so I was really hoping that Albert could leave the poles up! However, it was not to be, Albert promptly had the first two jumps down so it was all over. Ironically, he then went on to jump a super round so I was not too disappointed with him as he showed he can jump well on the big occasions and we still ended up 5th. However, having been so close to victory, we are definitely keen to chase this title next year, so with a few tweaks to our music and some work on the jumping Albert could be pretty hard to beat next year….

Having not finished at HOYS until gone midnight, we then drove down to Albert’s owner’s house in Basingstoke, getting there at about 2am – completely exhausted! We grabbed a few hours sleep before heading to the airport the following morning to get out to Boekelo in time for trot up on Wednesday. All went smoothly and Brocks flew through the trot up. At this event, they incorporate a teams competition – the ‘Grolsch Nations Cup’. This certainly adds an extra dimension to it all and some good prize money is up for grabs. So that evening, all us Aussie riders sat down and decided on the team and who would go first, last etc. From the 6 Australian horses there, it was decided that myself, Lucinda Fredericks, Paul Tapner and Catherine Burrell would make up the team and Lucy would be Chef D’Equipe – a new role for Lucy but having been a bit apprehensive about it, I think she rather enjoyed it!

It was decided that Brocks and I would go last of the team as Brocks could handle main arena atmosphere on the Friday afternoon the best of all the horses there and has a fabulous xc record. So this was perfect for me as it meant I had a lot of time to work Brocks having missed a couple of days working her with HOYS etc. Although my dressage wasn’t until Friday, I did resist the temptation to get into the Boekelo spirit on that first night and hit the hay early, unlike the Chef D’Equipe who got stuck straight into the Dutch hospitality along with fellow ‘WAG’, George Tapner! They’re a bad influence on each other! The next morning, I rather smugly woke up hangover free, unlike someone else, and got straight to work on Brocks. She felt great and by the time Friday afternoon came along I was confident that she was going as well as she could. She did indeed go very well and was even scoring 9’s for some of her trot work, however, it slightly fell apart in the changes and her score went down but these are new to her and by next year, they’ll be good, solid changes. So I was pleased with her as she showed us great potential in this phase for the future. Cross country day dawned and, being so late in the draw, I had a long wait ahead of me until it was my turn. But with all my team mates going so well, they were able to report back on their rounds and I had been able to watch how everything was riding so off we set. Once again, Brocks excelled herself on the xc and just ate it up – she’s a definite 4 star horse, bold and scopey and incredibly brave. We pulled up a lot of places after that and the team was lying in second behind the Germans. All very exciting! Brocks is a very tough mare and trotted up as though she’d had a quiet stroll in the Dutch countryside the day before!

The show jumping track walked really big, square and technical so I was a little apprehensive but I had confidence in Brocks as she normally jumps beautifully and true to form she reeled off a perfect clear round for me – that round and the round I had on Happy Times at Badminton were definitely my SJ rounds of the season. We pulled up more placings again and all the rest of the team jumped brilliantly as well. But unfortunately, we couldn’t quite catch the Germans who had a huge lead. However, we were all thrilled with our horses and to come second as a team on such a green bunch of horses was very pleasing for us all. We then hit the road as soon as we could after the prize giving and drove like the wind (which isn’t very fast when we’re speed limited to 56mph!) to catch the 11.30pm Calais-Dover sailing. We did, by the skin of our teeth. That route is only an hour and a half so we were soon back in the UK but it is then another 4 hours back to Sympony Farm. Lucy and I shared the driving and we eventually got home at 4am that morning. As you can imagine, that Monday was a right off – we felt jet lagged. But by Tuesday we had to get back to work as we have Novices running this weekend at Larkhill.

After this weekend, we’re all done. It’s been a hectic year, but all in all a very good one. Happy Times is well in contention for London, Paulank Brockagh has gone from strength to strength and will be a very useful second string for London and I have some incredibly exciting horses coming up through the ranks. We’re off to Australia in November, where Lucy and I will be attending Equitana and Adelaide CCI**** , working alongside Horsequest and of course visiting my family. Then it’s back to it in December when everyone starts to come back into work and off we all go again!

I’d like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported me and the Griffiths Eventing Team this year. We have some amazing owners, sponsors and followers and we appreciate the support from everyone enormously. We couldn’t do it and get those results without all of you. Here’s to 2012 and beyond!

Go Team FLAIR!

Watch Sam an Happy’s Show Jumping Round here>>

Watch Sam’s Stadium Round here>>

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Passed the 2nd inspection!

Watch Sam and Happy’s Cross-Country round here>>

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TEAM FLAIR'S Sam Griffiths

The cocktail party was, as always, a very special occasion. It was a beautiful evening and this time we were out on the front lawn of the house in amongst ancient yew trees- it was stunning! Having done my dressage I could definitely have my fair quota of bubbly! We then headed to the Event Riders Association dinner which is always great fun and good food. After all that we needed a quiet day today! We walked the course again, this time working out all our minute markers etc. I gave Happy a little jump this afternoon- he was on fire! Really ready to take on those huge fences tomorrow. I’m very pleased to say that I’m lying 10th equal after all the dressage so that’s pretty good from number one to go yesterday so we’re well in contention. This evening we’ve had an Aussie team BBQ for all the Aussie riders, owners and connections- as you can imagine some are still going strong but I’m sneaking off to bed very soon….Big day tomorrow – wish me luck!   Sam.

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Audio File:  Listen in as Sam discusses his Dressage test and his thoughts about the competition

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Sam walks Burghley Cross-Country

Burghley| Well, trot up passed so it’s time for action! I had a walk around the course this morning and as I expected- it is HUGE!!! Centaur’s Leap is definitely the biggest Xc jump I’ve ever seen- see attached pic! And the rest of the course is equally big and bold- it will ride well but there’s no room for error when the jumps are that size! Gave happy a school this evening- he feels great so I’m looking forward to getting on with it now. No partying for me tonight though- early start for us being number one to go! Will let you know how we get on….Sam

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TEAM FLAIR'S Sam Griffiths

Burghley| As always, Burghley has crept up on us without us knowing and here we are packing the lorry ready to leave first thing tomorrow

morning. It’s been such a busy season with horses going in all directions at all levels, but Happy’s preparation has gone well and he is more than ready for this week. We’ve been building up his fitness over the last few weeks and I had a good preparation run at Hartpury CIC*** with him, where w

e finished 10th, despite running with ‘the handbrake on’ around the cross country. Over the last week, I’ve been working hard at his schooling, using a lot of video ana

lysis to help me get extra marks here and there. I find getting someone (usually my wife, Lucy!) to video me running through a test a very useful exercise, I then review it and try and see where I can improve things for the next time. We’ve got an excellent 20m by 60m grass arena set up at home so I can warm up in the sand arena and then go out and run through my test on grass. Lucy is also a very critical pair of eyes on the ground and is regularly ripping into me for my position! We were supposed to be at Highclere today but it was cancelled which was such a shame as I had planned to take Happy to this and just do the dressage and show jumping

as a ‘dress rehearsal’ for Burghley. But in the end it worked out quite well as Prue Barrett, our National Coach and Rod Brown, our show jumping coach came down to the yard instead of meeting us at Highclere and I’ve just had a really productive jumping session with Rod and Happy – he’s given me some excellent tips for the weekend and both Rod and Prue will be with us all week at Burghley to keep an eye on us all!

It’s been a fun build up to Burghley as we’ve had two other riders based with us – Chris Burton – who has brought over 6 horses, including Holstein Park Leilani who heads to Burghley, and then we have also had another Aussie rider, Hamish Cargill, with us for the last 6 weeks who is also heading to Burghley with his lovely horse, Sandhills Tiger. So it’s been a very exciting place with three different riders all out competing at the top events and aiming for Burghley – we’ve all been able to bounce ideas off each other and work together in a very productive way. Although having three Aussie blokes together may not be the best idea when it comes to trying to keep the pre-three day alcohol levels to a reasonable reading! And I think Lucy is probably in need of some female company – the Aussie lad sense of humour may be beginning to grate!

We’ve actually been drawn first to go at Burghley, which isn’t ideal when it comes to the dressage marking as for some reason, those drawn on that Thursday morning never quite get the makrs they deserve but, hey, someone has to go first and this year, it’s me and Happy. However, if the conditions are wet, we will be getting the top of the ground on Saturday morning. Then I can get ti all done early and watch everyone else get nervous!

All in all though, preparations have gone according to plan and I now can’t wait to get up there and get on with it!

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