I am training my "first" colt. I have had several 3 yo, however I usually send them to a trainer where they will put the basics on and start trotting them through a pattern. This guy is in his 3 yo year and has more of a foundation than what I have bought in the past so I am looking to start him on the barrel pattern myself. I have restarted several blown up horses, and started "finished" horses on a pattern that were once doing something else. I have a general knowledge on what goes into it, but this colt is the best bred prospect ive owned, and I am so worried I will screw up! lol. What advice do you have? What easy and simple drills do you like for colts? When do you start them on a pattern? I want to soak up any information I can to help him (and me) succeed - so any advice is welcome. 

Really depends on what your goals are. If you plan to futurity them, those 3 year olds need to already be cruising through patterns and super broke. I personally don't like to pressure them like that so my 3 years olds are just lightely walking and trotting the pattern MAYBE........ I like to haul them everywhere, let them look. I really don't like to make running barrels a " Job" for them yet or do a lot of drills for MENTAL and PHYSICAL reasons. 

My background sounds a lot like yours, my parents and myself couldn't afford super nice horses so my entire life was re-working someone elses problem horses. When I got my first colt to start from the ground up I lucked out and he was one of those that was basicAlly born broke, but I spent a ton of time on the ground teaching him to move off pressure.  Once I got on him I decided that he was a horse that would be a lifer at our house so I went in search of a local trainer that I could work with on him and take lessons.  I traded cleaning stalls for lessons (thankfully worked for the school system at the time so had quite a bit of time available)  Best thing I ever did for myself or my horses. 

The goal was to futurity him. I just bought him a few days ago so honeslty havent spent much time messing with him to know where he is at. I have seen training videos of him, i know he is pretty broke off a pattern. I dont want to drill into him by any means, mainly meant as far as softening, bending, etc drills or excersises to help that. 

Yes!! I take lessons regularly. I have "trained" several of my own. i think my biggest worry is this one being the nicest prospect ive owned to date & worrying i will screw him up! lol

I went for a rein cow horse background trainer to take lessons from A) because they tend to deal with young horses getting them ready for futurities and B) I figured if I could circle a cow up I could cirlce a barrel.  And taking lessons while putting the training on them served 2 purposes, got supervised rides in and gave me a heads up to any holes I may have created quickly.  

The good ones deserve us to bend over backwards to make stuff happen for them.  My gelding is now 20, he is literally my Gold Standard.  He may not be a world beater, but for a few years he poked our heads into and placed in the 1D, my 80 year old dad could gather cows on him, my then boyfriend could hitch a trail ride on him and I showed him Ranch Versatility and Reined Cow Horse to boot.  You can do this, just think about what you had to do to fix the blown up messes you rode as a kid and think about how you fixed them, how to avoid getting there in the first place.  Again, Iucked out, mine had no buck to him at all, I think he has bucked 3 times his whole life with me on him, once as a 2 year old when the dog jumped off the bank behind him and startled him, another time when he had been off cows for awhile and was a little cow fresh, LOL, and the day I knew I had to figure out why he wasn't moving out like he used to and found that his saddle was bridging. 

Good for you!  I am sure you will get some great advice!

I would recommend starting your horse your own , but ride him with a trainer once a month or so and let them evaluate your progress. It's not to make sure you're on a time frame but to make sure there aren't any green horse bad habits creeping in. A second set of eyes is always helpful. 
There's also a really good website (no charge)  called WWW.TraningBarrelHorses.com that has many top trainers that have made videos for different problems and stages of the pattern that would be very useful to you. Good luck !