Black all the way, let the horse’s coloring and flash show off.
Maybe a shirt like this, with minimal accents?
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He is a sweet, young horse. He’s still in Colorado right now. He’s coming to the big Scottsdale show right after Christmas and I’m picking him up there.
Yes, I have my eye on both black and a charcoal gray shirt. Both, I’ve been adamantly told, must be “blinged out” with crystals and doo-dads, which will require some kicking and screaming on my part. (Too many decades doing USEF hunters and equitation).
I thought about a pretty navy, but since I spent about 40 years wearing navy hunt coats I was hoping for something… more adventurous. You wouldn’t believe some of the custom hunt coats people wear on the Paint circuit: no sparklies, but all kinds of colors, plaids and velvet collars/pocket flaps. So maybe a rich green would look nice and be a good change from navy.
These are such beautiful pictures! 
I did just see a pretty mustard gold pad on… Dover?
I like green on my palomino, or pink… but she looks like Barbie’s Dream Horse, so pink suits her.
For showing, I used cream pads and very dark brown tack. She does not have a pure white mane and tail, so white pads made her mane and tail seem “dirty.” I got a wonderful navy jacket just before I stopped showing her, sigh…
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Most of my saddle pads are hunter green, white or black, but I also had a dull gold saddle pad that looked great on my mares (one liver chestnut, the other one mahogany bay. White or black brushing boots when needed, and dark brown leather bridle and saddle.
My sister’s chestnut mare looked good in red, on her or me 
For a dark grey, anything goes, really. For a true black, or a white, same thing as long as there is some contrast!
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Omg those Lemieux pads are gorgeous for a chestnut.
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Not sure what is legal for that circuit, but the medium blue color that some of the hunt coats come in would work well with his very interesting coloration. I think the HorseWare AA line calls it Aviation blue.
For western, I’m envisioning a deep teal. Congratulations, he is gorgeous!
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I know right? Oak looks stunning on a palomino or buckskin too 
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This make me laugh out loud. Yeah, I don’t think I could “do” the bling thing, either on my horse or myself!
My true black mare looks great in red - my favorite color 
I have always been very conservative (for an eventer), and since this mare’s dam is chestnut I was never able to use that color scheme in competition for fear of clashing! (Red and orange: just no! Though some people do it.)
I was hoping the filly would be black (the sire was black and not homozygous, so I had a 25% chance of getting black, 25% chance of bay, 50% chance of chestnut – which I would’ve been fine with!), but since I lucked out and got my desired color, I was finally able to use the red, and it flatters her. 
(Forgive the four beating in the photo, this was at the end of a cross country course at a VERY warm HT, and she was a bit on the forehand…)
The Pic of the pony in a zebra costume somehow accompanied the photo I pasted into this post, lol! Not intentional, but I’m leaving it in for shits and grins. 
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You don’t see boots because all the horses are shod! For the types of terrain I ride in, true barefoot is tough as the wear generally overtakes the growth. I also don’t think the wet and dry cycling is very helpful for promoting the type of foot a truly barefoot horse needs for the trail either. Personally, I find boots to be tedious and frustrating so all of my competition horses are shod once they are in serious training. For distance riding in general, I find what is on feet can be very regional as both the terrain and the state of horse’s feet varies dramatically. Here in the NE, booted is more rare than shod for distance events.
I love being able to play with color on tack and myself. I have heard more than once we distance riders go for the bold colors so that they can find our bodies in the ditch and the horse in the next county when we get separated on trail. 
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I think blues and greens look great against a bay coat. Your horse is a head-turner already, so don’t think it needs to be crazy. A nice royal blue would be my pick.
My friend has a bay roan, and he is going with black/turquoise/purple. His horse is a more “vibrant” bay roan than yours though.
Are you sure your guy isn’t actually going grey? Roan slows greying, and his face isn’t as solid as I’m used to seeing (same with his tail, looks strange).
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My mare is the queen of NOT matching. We dork around on our own…mostly dressage work. She is white so anything (color wise) goes.
Here is a distressing picture .
Lime green front boots, jade green back boots. ‘Flame’ orange/yellow pad and although you can’t see it, her browband has purple crystals. Who knows what colors I had on that day.
Way back when when I was showing, I preferred white pad and navy jacket.
Susan
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here are some color palettes you could try - the first two colors are the predominant colors in the horse’s coat, and any variations on those colors will work too.
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I’ve got a rose grey and a very dark brown/sometimes appears more black. They both go in navy, partly because it’s easy to find, partly because I like them to match and partly because I think it’s classic, elegant and looks good on most horses.
If I had unlimited funds…I’d likely have a collection of pads etc in all different colours as they both would look great in a teal, royal blue, red etc too. My riding clothes tend to come in grey, black and shades of blue so the navy on the horses mean we usually look quite put together which is nice.
Orange terror’s trot is so pretty!!
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Uh, I don’t think so. But what do I know? 
He’ll be 4 and on his registration papers, the pic of him as a weanling, he’s the same color as now. But I suppose we’ll find out!
Legal colors? On the Paint circuit? I’ll have to find a link to one of the “custom hunt coat” sites for breed shows and we can all gaze in wonder at their grand peacock-ness. But I have seen the Aviation blue and am definitely lusting after it.
Thanks, @Xanthoria for your color palette!
And I’m grateful for all the other suggestions. Since I didn’t spend all of the money I’d set aside for purchasing a horse, I have more than I expected to buy “stuff.” And getting advice on purchases for stuff is, after all, the supreme purpose of COTH!
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Well now, you know this is just a good excuse to share pictures, right?
I did a rust red superflare jean with a turquoise shirt on my Red, with turquoise colors for him. I do say it looked quite smashing! Looked even better in video. 
I’m also a sucker for putting some good ol’ white on him, with a crisp shirt.
My grey Lilly looks fantastic in just about anything, since she’s a white blank canvas! I especially love the red.
Navy is always a classy color.
My old Shotgun looked great in Red too.
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