obviously you need registration for the breed shows, but is there separate reining, cutting, team penning or gaming competitions that don’t require stock horse breed papers?
thanks from a English rider who may dabble in performance events (not interested in western pleasure or rail classes).
It depends what kind of shows you are looking at. Open shows do not require registration.
Reining - NRHA requires NRHA license
Cutting and Team penning I’m not sure but I believe it depends on the show.
NBHA - no registration papers
thanks - I have a quarter horse cross who is looking like she’ll be more quarterhorse than cross in body and mind (she likes to cut the dog 
so I may be channeling my inner cowgirl next year.
Around here team penning can be done on any breed (or combination of breeds).
Cowboy racing doesn’t require breed registration. Neither does NRCHA (grade horse competed this year in the Snaffle Bit Futurity). Most organizations putting on Ranch Horse Versatility shows don’t require breed registration. Nor do organizations doing Trail Trials, endurance, competetive trail, sorting & penning. Most open shows (even where run by a breed organization) usually have at least one reining class if they have western classes and are open to non-registered horses. Just have to read/find out the rules the shows are operating under.
To participate in many competitions you may need to get your horse, registered or not, a license number under any one association, if it has breed registration papers or not.
The reason is so there is a track of the horse and rider for classes, awards, points, etc.
Would be hard to know if a horse qualifies for anything or needs to move up a level if there is no way to track that horse individually.
Breed shows do the tracking thru the breed registration certificate.
Competitions open to all breeds, like NRHA, do that thru certificates you get from them for each individual horse, registered or not.
NRHA doesn’t require that the horse is any particular breed, but you do need to get an NRHA license for them. It’s pretty inexpensive.
