New Paint owner in need of showing tips

Hello, I just bought a registered Paint stud and my friend and I want to show him. He is a good looking horse and he is 100% color producer with 11 foals on the ground. The previous owner never showed him and he is 10 years old. He has a VERY quiet disposition and we are sure enough of him to take him to a show in December. Our issue is we have not shown since our 4-H days and so have NO idea what we are going to need to make Jack look good. Can anyone tell us what the best classes are to get him known and to earn points that are going to matter to him and his babies. Also, any tips that could help in any way would be great. We are both knowledgeable about horses and have trained our own horses for years but know nothing of the show aspect outside of county 4-H. Thanks to all for you help

Well, alot of it depends not only on what he's bred for (what his lineage is) but also what he is good at. What does he know? Can he w-t-c, stop, back up and stay collected? Does he rein? Does he game? If he has no show experience, I would stick to just showing in halter for the first show, until you get your feet back into the showing scene. Plus, it will ease your stallion into showing as well.

Go watch a local show so that you can get an idea of what is expected, then go from there. There is a lot of helpful information in the showmanship area of the forum as well.

Thanks. I do plan on going to a show in September without him. I pick him up this weekend and as of right now his only riding experience is that he was broke at 3, then never rode again. When I went to see him, I got on his back in the field. No halter or lead. He has also lived in a pen without hotline and have a mare in the next pen without issues. He stood by us and ignored the mare and foal. If I show him under saddle in December, I plan on just doing walk trot as I am sure he will not have a collected lope AND be sound.

One thing I am really interested in finding out is if I will have to cut his mane for english. If you look at my picture of him he has a great mane and I do not want to cut it. Is there a way to braid it that will look nice?

You could do the diamond braid if its long. Or one of the ones like you see on many friesians. Its all one big braid that flows in one idk what its called. Idk if its acceptable in the paint horse assoc. Or not

I know Heartland asked already but what do you plan on showing him in? HUS? Jumper? Pleasure? Eq? Competetive Trail? It will all depend on what you want to show him in.

At this point we plan on showing him as an all around horse until he starts doing really well in certain areas. He is going to be great as a halter and Western pleasure horse and I think he will be good at some jumping. He also has reining Champions in his background so I will be looking into reining for him next year sometime and we will see if he picks it up.

Thanks TurnNburn, I have done that before, I just hope it is approved. He has a very long mane and it has some natural wave to it and if we have to cut it for english then we are all in agreement that we will not show him in those classes. We want to show as natural as possible and still place well.

Your welcome. There is a braiding book you can buy. I have one. It has helped me alot. It even comes with holes so you can hang it by a nail. I thought was cool. There are alot of different braids to do. Comes with instructions for each one.

I will look some books up. Thanks again.

If I do go on to show him english, is there a best style of seat to use? I like hunt and all purpose but I know there can be times that it matters. I do want to teach him to jump so I am thinking a hunter saddle but I want to make sure that will be ok for the pleasure classes.

Here is a running braid. Can anyone tell me if this braid is ok for APHA shows? This is the best one I have found that will look good on Jack