Fort Worth, Texas — The 2024 APHA World Championship Show boasted growth in both APHA-event entries and participating horse numbers this year during its 17-day competition in the heart of Fort Worth, Texas. That growth helped fuel an energized world championship that featured talented exhibitors and Paint Horses vying for more than $1.5 million in cash and prizes.

A truly global event, the 2024 World Show featured exhibitors from 13 countries, thanks to the return of the Youth World Games competition. APHA exhibitors enjoyed expanded recognition opportunities, with championship titles awarded through third place, an expanded Intermediate division, more Junior horse recognition opportunities, and more. The premier Paint show also hosted the National Reining Horse Association-approved Cowtown Classic & All-Breed Slide reining event, the American Rope Horse Futurity Association’s Cowtown Classic roping futurity, an all-breed barrel race and a moving Heroes on Horses parade and competition in partnership with the National Snaffle Bit Association. The championship took place June 21-July 7 at Will Rogers Memorial Center in Fort Worth, Texas.

2024 APHA World Championship Show Facts & Figures

◆ 1,469 total horses (2% increase over 2023)
◆ 5,618 total entries (1% increase over 2023)
◆ Participants from 45 U.S. states, 4 Canadian provinces and 10 other countries: Belgium, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, Sweden & United Kingdom
◆ 372 total classes/events offered
◆ 247 APHA world championship classes
◆ 95 Intermediate classes with 186 Intermediate buckles awarded
◆ 108 added-money events (sweepstakes, challenges, stakes, futurities)
◆ $100,000 in Youth scholarships
◆ 250 Paints recognized as champions in APHA events
◆ 432 Paints recognized as champions or reserve champions in APHA events
◆ 551 Paints recognized as champions, reserve champions or bronze champions in APHA events

The 2024 APHA World Championship Show figures don’t yet include numbers and payouts from most halter events—those take place at the APHA/WCHA Halter Million September 21-29, 2024, in Fort Worth, Texas. Learn more about that event at apha.com/haltermillion.

Put the 2025 World Show dates on your calendar now, so you can get a piece of the action:

◆ World Show: June 20-July 6, 2025
◆ Halter Million: September 20-28, 2025

About APHA

The American Paint Horse Association is the world’s second-largest international equine breed association. Since it was founded in 1962, APHA has registered more than a million horses in 59 nations and territories. APHA promotes, preserves and provides meaningful experiences with Paint Horses. Learn more at apha.com.

— Edited Press Release | Source: American Paint Horse Association

Thanks to CareCredit for our spring and summer equestrian coverage.

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American Paint Horse History

In 1519, the explorer Hernando Cortes carried two horses described as having pinto markings on his voyage. This is the first known description of such horses in America. By the early 1800s, horses with Paint coloring were well-populated throughout the West.

A favorite among Native Americans, the loud-colored Paint Horses were particularly well-liked by the Comanche Indian tribe. Evidence of this is found in drawings painted on buffalo robes.

Throughout the 1800s and into the late 1900s these painted horses were called pinto, paint, skewbald and piebald. In the early 1960s, interest grew in preserving and promoting horses with paint coloring and stock horse builds. In 1965 the American Paint Horse Association (APHA) formed, and today, the breed is extremely popular in traditional western events as well as a variety of other riding disciplines.

Breed Characteristics

American Paint Horses sport a combination of white and any other color of the equine spectrum: black, bay, brown, chestnut, dun, grullo, sorrel, palomino, buckskin, gray or roan.

Markings come in any shape or size and can be located anywhere on the horse’s body. The variety of colors and markings appear in three specific coat patterns: overo, tobiano and tovero. These horses average 14.2 to 16.2 hands high.

For More Information

• The American Paint Horse Association, www.apha.com

Further Reading:

• Breed Portrait: Paint Horse
• Painted Heroes

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In an atmosphere that can only be described as electric, the top horsemen and equine athletes in the sports of cutting, reining and reined cow horse took to the diamond of Globe Life Field for the first-ever The American Performance Horseman on March 10, 2023. Before a crowd of 18,000, the horse and rider teams pursued a prize pool of $1 million.

A creation of Teton Ridge, The American Performance Horseman was held during The American Western Weekend—a multi-event western showcase known for its title event, The American Rodeo. With support from the American Quarter Horse Association, American Paint Horse Association, National Cutting Horse Association, National Reining Horse Association, and the National Reined Cow Horse Association, The American Performance Horseman was the first event of its kind to shine the spotlight on each of these three western performance disciplines in the same night at the same venue.

The top five horsemen from the NCHA, NRHA and NRCHA battled head to head, offering fans the chance to see the most elite of these unique disciplines compete. The team format sent one horse and rider pair into the ring per discipline, with five horses and horsemen facing off per event for a total of fifteen performances. 

The teams were as follows:

Burnt Orange Team

1. Austin Shepherd – Cutting
2. Matt Mills – Reining
3. Lee Deacon – Reined Cow Horse

Racing Green Team

1. Lindy Thorn – Cutting
2. Casey Deary – Reining
3. Chris Dawson – Reined Cow Horse

Royal Blue Team

1. Adan Banuelos – Cutting
2. Fernando Salgado – Reining
3. Sarah Dawson – Reined Cow Horse

Imperial Purple Team

1. Wesley Galyean – Cutting
2. Andrea Fappani – Reining
3. Corey Cushing – Reined Cow Horse

Regal Red Team

1. Lloyd Cox – Cutting
2. Shawn Flarida – Reining
3. Justin Wright – Reined Cow Horse

Cutting was the first on deck and after the herd of cattle had been settled, the cutting team members were up to bat as ‘80s rock medleys set the tone. The crowd delighted in the athleticism of the cutting horses, erupting with cheers as the cutters dug deep in the dirt while working their selected cattle.

The Royal Blue Team’s Adan Banuelos, aboard Teton Ridge’s mare All Spice, lit up the scoreboard with a 229. This clenched a win in the cutting, and following the event, Banuelos admitted to the crowd that the only love letter he has ever written in life was for the talented red roan mare. He had won the 2020 National Cutting Horse Futurity Open with All Spice, but soon had to say goodbye to her when Teton Ridge made the decision to retire her. However, he had the chance to be reunited with her for this groundbreaking event and the two did not disappoint.

“Whenever I won the Futurity, I didn’t know what was next,” said Banuelos. “And Teton Ridge came out with something that created a bunch of energy and nerves, and it was fresh ground per se. I can’t tell you how blessed and lucky we are. This was an arena full of talent.”

Once the cutting was over, Sheryl Crow took to the stage as the arena crew worked to prepare the ring for reining. The crowd delighted in the Grammy Award-winning artist’s performance before turning their attention to the prowess of the reining athletes.

Whistling and howling as the reiners performed their exciting maneuvers of sliding stops, rapid spins, speedy circles and powerful rollbacks, the audience was enthralled by all five reining performances. 

Ultimately, it was Casey Deary aboard Down Right Amazing, a stallion double-registered with the AQHA and APHA, that most impressed the judges. With a score of 231.5, Deary and the bald-faced sorrel stallion took the reining title for the Racing Green Team.

“The reason that I do what I do is because I love that horse,” said Deary after his big win. “Everything that we do daily is about preparing that horse to handle any situation that we put him in—down to the daily care that he gets. Those horses are treated better than I am.”

The last event of the night displayed the fence work of the reined cow horse, a nail-biting performance in which horse and rider prove their ability to control a cow at a fast pace. Having already completed the rein work stage of the reined cow horse discipline earlier in the day, the teams saved this exciting portion of the event for the crowd—and they certainly did not disappoint. From the edges of their seats, spectators watched as horse and rider teams boxed their cow before running it down the side of the arena and then circling it each way—all performed at a quick pace. 

The final rider of the night was also the only female rider in the competition, Sarah Dawson aboard Shine Smarter. Dawson saved the best for last, guiding the sorrel mare through an eye-catching run. Together, Dawson and Shine Smarter marked a 226.5 for their fence work, with their 226-point rein work score from earlier in the day giving them a composite score of 452.5. With Sarah Dawson’s win in the reined cow horse discipline, her score pushed “Team Blue” to victory. 

One by one, each individual discipline winner entered the arena to accept their awards, including a $100,000 check and a Rolex watch. Then, Team Blue—consisting of Adan Banuelos, Fernando Salgado and Sarah Dawson—gathered before the crowd to celebrate their victory as a team and accept their awards: Lesley Rand Bennett hand-crafted rings and individual $25,000 checks. Every rider was outwardly emotional about their achievements and expressed gratitude toward their equine athletes.

Following the awards ceremony, it was clear the energy of the night and the significance of their accomplishments still had not sunk in.

“Honestly, I haven’t even wrapped my mind around the money yet,” said Dawson. “I just can’t get over the feeling that I have that this mare has accomplished what she accomplished tonight.”

At the conclusion of the night, it was evident something special had been born. Each horseman seemed to feel the momentum that the atmosphere the first-ever The American Performance Horseman had produced and was eager to see where it could take these western performance disciplines.

“We’ve always kind of talked amongst ourselves, knowing that our sports are so cool but that the biggest problem that we’ve had is that they haven’t been spectator sports,” said Dawson. “We kind of get the same people seeing them again and again, and I think Teton Ridge has just come in and proved that we can turn this into a spectator sport. I’m just excited to see what it’s gonna turn into from here, because I think they’ve just opened a door that we didn’t know we could open.”

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American Paint Horse exhibitors pocketed a record $1 million-plus in cash and prizes at the 2019 American Paint Horse Association World Championship Show (APHA World Show), which was held September 16-29 at Will Rogers Memorial Center in Fort Worth, Texas.

More than 1,030 horses were on display with more than 15,600 entries. The American Paint Horse Association (APHA) named 211 world champions over the course of 14 days and held a total of 268 classes. Fifty U.S. states were represented as well as Brazil, Belgium, Canada, Mexico, Paraguay and Sweden.

The show saw an increase in several key areas over the 2018 Open/Amateur World Show including Amateur Solid Paint-Bred Halter (up 16%), Solid Paint-Bred Halter (up 16%), Solid Paint-Bred Performance (up 9%), Breeders’ Futurity classes (up 15%) and added-money classes (up 2%).

The Breeders’ Trust Pleasure Stakes classes saw an impressive total payout of $84,250. The Breeders’ Trust 2-Year-Old Hunter Under Saddle Stakes alone paid over $39,000, with the winner taking home more than $10,000. The Breeders’ Trust Pleasure Stakes consist of western pleasure and hunter under saddle classes in two age categories each: 2-year-olds and non-pro 3- and 4-year-olds.

APHA welcomed ranch work competitors of all breeds to the Ranch Work Championships. The event drew 80 entries, and exhibitors competed in three classes—ranch course, ranch penning and ranch roping—for $6,900 in prize money.

This marked the first year mounted shooting world championships took place at the APHA World Show (previously held at external competitions), and it proved to be a good move. Entries more than tripled over last year. Exhibitors took home a combined $7,300 in this exciting competition.

Halter competition took a surge at the 2019 World Show. APHA once again partnered with the World Conformation Horse Association (WCHA) to offer big money to halter enthusiasts through two premier halter events: the APHA World Championship Show and the (all-breed) WCHA Breeder’s Championship and Big Money Futurities. All in all, more than $640,000 was up for grabs for halter horses—that included more than $165,000 in APHA Platinum Breeders’ Futurity classes (29% increase over 2018), over $47,000 in Gold Breeders’ Futurity payouts (34% increase over 2018), $20,000 in the Breeders Halter Futurity bonus payouts, $10,500 from the Lynn Simons Memorial Halter Futurity, and $400,377 in the WCHA Breeder’s Championship and Big Money Futurities (22% increase over 2018). The WCHA events alone drew 862 entries.

All in all, APHA show entries totaled 14,660 (2,932 x five judges) bringing the total entries for all combined events to 15,602.

APHA World Show Youth Competition

In addition, the knowledge and skills of young judges were put to the test September 19, during the APHA Horse IQ World Championship Judging Contest, held in conjunction with the APHA World Show. Featuring both collegiate and youth (18 & under) divisions, the contest presented both team and individual awards in halter, performance, reasons and overall. Kansas State University took home the top spot in collegiate teams overall while Chouteau FFA captured the overall top youth team victory. The collegiate overall high-point individual was Ariana Horton of Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College; the youth overall high-point individual went to J’Cee Petty of Team COA.

APHA World Show Amateur Competition

With the help of some dedicated APHA partners, two lucky amateur competitors walked away with incredible prizes at the 2019 APHA World Championship Show, just by entering amateur classes at the event. Through a random drawing of entrants in all amateur classes, Tammy Burch of Craig, Colo., won a John Deere Gator courtesy of APHA Xtras partner John Deere. In addition, every entry into all amateur classes qualified exhibitors for a random drawing for a custom Platinum Trailer. The trailer was provided by Platinum Trailers in conjunction with APHA corporate partner Cowboy Trailer Sales. Wendy Hull of Corvallis, Ore., was the lucky winner.

Marked for Greatness

The American Paint Horse Foundation (APHF) also held the Marked For Greatness Celebration on September 23 in conjunction with the World Show. The event—held at Whiskey Ranch just 15 minutes from the show grounds—drew over 100 attendees ranging from World Show exhibitors to business partners, and offered food, fun and spirits while educating guests on the association’s upcoming move to the world-famous Fort Worth Stockyards. Silent and live auctions featured unique, one-of-a-kind items. Proceeds, which totaled nearly $60,000, will benefit APHF’s youth scholarship program, as well as APHA’s upcoming move.

“This year’s show was one for the books,” said APHA Executive Director Billy Smith. “Being able to award over $1 million in cash and prizes to our hard-working exhibitors is a great feeling. A huge thanks goes out to all our exhibitors, staff and sponsors for making this year’s event such a success.”

Watch for more World Show wrap-up information in the November/December 2019 issue of APHA’s official publication, the Paint Horse Journal.

About APHA and the Open/Amateur World Championship Show

The American Paint Horse Association is the world’s second-largest equine breed association, registering more than a million horses in 59 nations and territories since it was founded in 1962. Its mission is to promote, preserve and provide meaningful experiences with Paint Horses. For more information about the American Paint Horse Association, visit www.apha.com or connect with Paint Horse fans globally at facebook.com/americanpainthorse or on Twitter @APHANews.

The World Championship Paint Horse Show features the finest gathering of Paint Horses from around the globe. APHA hosts two annual world-class competitions to showcase the talents of American Paint Horses and their owners. The second in the series, the Open/Amateur World Championship Show takes place at the Will Rogers Memorial Center in Fort Worth’s cultural district.

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