The American Eventing Championships is now in its third year of life, and for the first time there seems to be widespread interest, enthusiasm and “buzz.” The phrases “I’m trying to get qualified,” or, “We got our qualification!” mean just one thing in an event stable this year, and I hardly heard anyone talk about that concept in either 2005 or 2004.

Of course, whether this interest will translate into a giant-sized entry at the Carolina Horse Park on Sept. 20-24 is anybody’s guess.

There is really no such thing as a true “national championships” in any country as huge as the United States. It would be easy to have, perhaps, a “Lichtenstein National Champion-ships,” because it takes about 11 minutes of driving in any direction there before you enter some other country, but to expect Californians to truck horses 3,000-plus miles to North Carolina, or even 2,500 miles to Kentucky, except in rare cases, is misplaced optimism.

If we were trying to pinpoint the epicenter of American eventing–the one spot closest to where the majority of eventers actually live–it might well be somewhere in Virginia. If we put the AEC in the geographical center of the 48 contiguous states, it would be in some cornfield in Kansas, and we’d probably attract more John Deere tractors than Thoroughbreds. So we do the best we can, trying to find places that are semi-accessible to a fairly significant majority of the actual riders, knowing full well that any choice will please some people and displease others.

I’ve often heard the comment that the AEC is “the novice and training level Olympics.” Certainly there is no other venue that escalates the lower levels of our sport to center stage or that recognizes the winners with large color photographs in national magazines, the way we routinely expect to be the case for the upper-level horses and riders following the Radnor Hunt CCI** (Pa.) or the Rolex Kentucky CCI****.

So, if the AEC is America’s version of the Olympics for the lower levels, then what role does the AEC play for the upper levels?

Well, the upper levels have plenty of high-profile venues like the Gold Cup Series, Radnor, Rolex and the Fair Hill CCI*** (Md.), plus the Olympics, Pan Am Games, or World Equestrian Games, depending upon the year. So I suspect that the AEC’s advanced and intermediate levels aren’t as significant to the current small group of upper-level riders as the lower-level championships are to the broad rank and file, the 96 percent of American riders who ride below the advanced and intermediate levels.

This by no means implies that our top riders don’t want to win the AEC, nor should it imply that their participation isn’t critical to the success of the overall AEC concept.

But one of the magical features of the AEC is that a 12-year-old beginner novice hopeful or a 70-year-old novice grandmother might be stabled right next door to a rider who just came home from the World Championships at Aachen, Germany. This is something you would never experience in almost any other sport, particularly professional sports like baseball, basketball and football, where the line of demarcation between the elite and the masses is rigid and impenetrable.

Although competition at every level, from beginner novice to advanced, is the underlying basis for a national championship, the idea that the AEC can become a sort of national festival of eventing may be equally compelling. Just as the huge New England Morgan Show in Northampton, Mass., showcases the Morgan Horse, or the gigantic Quarter Horse Congress in Columbus, Ohio, showcases the Quarter Horse, the AEC has the potential to grow into the one single place to be every year if you’re an American eventing enthusiast.

I can certainly imagine that the Young Event Horse Championship Finals could be held there in the future. Where else, short of Rolex Kentucky (which is too early in the year), would that new venture attract so much interest and spectator attention?

I also think we need to examine the idea of holding in-hand event horse breeding classes at the AEC, just as they do at Dressage at Devon (Pa.). We don’t have a thriving breeding industry in the United States aimed at producing future eventers right now, but a public venue to allow breeders to bring stallions, mares, weanlings, yearlings, and 2- or 3-year-olds might give this almost forgotten but vital piece of the sport more credibility. It would certainly give it more visibility.

I can envision an AEC not too far in the future with at least 1,000 horses, a huge trade fair, and extensive crowds of spectators. Or I can imagine the whole idea fading away as just another good idea that didn’t work because riders didn’t support it.

That’s why I’m going to drive nearly 1,000 miles this month to ride in the preliminary championship. I want the AEC to become the national festival of eventing, because even though Rolex Kentucky is a magnificent spectacle, only the tiniest minority of our riders is capable of competing there. Watching Kentucky is great fun, but it’s more fun to ride in an event like the AEC and to be able to watch others too.

If you’re qualified, and you don’t live prohibitively far away, I hope you’ll crank up your horse trailer, polish your boots, and head for North Carolina this month. If you can’t bring a horse, come to watch or to help out. Then next year, get qualified again and head for the new AEC home in Wayne, Ill.

If enough of us really get involved, we can make the AEC grow into its enormous potential.