Paint Horse championship won by Hume High School graduate

By James R. Campbell

Nevada Daily Mail

A 22-year-old Hume High School graduate has won a world title at the American Paint Horse Association's Fall Open and Amateur World Championship Show at Will Rogers Memorial Center in Fort Worth, Texas.

Cody Franklin said Thursday that he was excited to win the classic amateur showmanship at halter award with his 7-year-old gelding.

Competing against the owners of 57 other horses from around the country, the Pittsburg State University student was confident that his horse, Better Get Ya Some, would do well because he had been encouraged by the animal's potential since buying him from a friend named "Cookie."

The Fort Worth exhibition began Nov. 7 and continued through Saturday. "We have been involved with Paint Horses for quite a while," Franklin said.

"My sister, Tiffany Ogle, had a Quarter Horse die one time and tried out a Paint. It worked out pretty well. Each one is so different. They're great-minded, with good dispositions; and they are easy to train."

The mathematics and geography major has two other Paints, a 2-year-old and a yearling. "Cookie told me about Better Get Ya Some and said she needed to sell him," he said.

"I put him on pasture for five months and thought he was a really cool horse, so I bought him."

Franklin explained that the amateur showmanship at halter contestants led their horses through a series of maneuvers, including pivoting and backing.

Having won a $1,500 scholarship from the Missouri Paint Horse Club in 2009, for the APHA world championship the former Hume High School valedictorian took home a belt buckle, trophy, chair, jacket, vest and gift certificate.

"I plan to graduate in the spring of 2014, go to graduate school at Pitt State and be a teacher," Franklin said, noting that his sister lives at St. Joseph and his brother Caleb will earn a degree in agricultural business in December at Missouri State University. Their mother Jimmie lives at Hume.

In a news release, the APHA said amateur showmanship at halter competition bases judging on the contestants' "ability to fit and present a horse by performing a pattern.

"Classic amateurs are competitors aged 19 to 45," a spokesman said. "They're required to show a self- or family-owned horse and cannot show, ride, judge or train horses for payment.

"APHA hosts two annual world class competitions to showcase the talents of American Paint Horses and their owners. The second in 2012 featured over 900 talented horses and more than 2,500 entries. Exhibitors competed for prizes and cash payouts totaling $500,000."

During its 50-year history, the association said, it has registered more than a million Paint Horses in 59 nations and territories.

According to references, Paint Horses combine the conformational characteristics of a western stock horse with a pinto spotting pattern of white and dark coat colors, developed from a base of spotted horses with Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred bloodlines.

The APHA says each Paint "has a particular combination of white and any color of the equine spectrum: black, bay, brown, roan, buckskin, dun, gray, grullo, perlino, smoky cream, chestnut, cremello, palomino, red dun, sorrel or champagne."