When organizer Denis Glaccum coined the name “Plantation Field” for his Chester County, Pa., competitions nearly a decade ago, he didn’t realize the shrubberies he was extolling, planted on the property by a troop of Boy Scouts in the mid-1900s, were an invasive species.

“We can’t kill them,” Glaccum said of the massive bushes lining the cross-country course. “If I cut one of those in February or March, they’ll be six feet high again in July.”

But the rapid growth rate isn’t reserved for Plantation’s greenery alone—the organization itself has also been flourishing against the odds.

After lobbying for several years to host a CIC, Glaccum was finally granted permission last year, but his inaugural event went almost $40,000 into the red; the global economic downturn soon followed. Heavy rains then caused the cancellation of one of this spring’s profitable horse trials, making the already grim fall financial outlook even more questionable. And then there was the matter of Glaccum’s emergency open-heart surgery in August.

“If it’d happened even three years ago, the event would’ve had to have been canceled,” Glaccum admitted. “But because we started two years ago forming a committee, I wasn’t nervous about it at all. My co-organizer Sarah Connell and everybody else stepped up.”

Plantation’s series of horse trials helped build up some capital, and committee members fundraised all year for the CIC. Glaccum was out of commission for three weeks but was back to business in time for his second annual FEI competition.

In 2008, Plantation Field Equestrian Events (formerly known as Fair Hill Equestrian Events) had managed to pay the bills after their CIC, “but we knew this year that if we wanted this thing to go, it would have to be financially viable,” Glaccum said.

“We wanted to have a high-quality CIC event that was fun and to start getting the community more involved,” he added.

Glaccum said that if CICs can grow into destination events, it’ll benefit not only the spectators but also the horses and riders. He hopes to create a more electric atmosphere at his FEI qualifiers so that U.S. horses are more prepared when they contest the top CCIs.

“I’m not criticizing the people who run CICs and horse trials, because that’s where the revenue is,” Glaccum said. “But we need to develop CICs that stand by themselves, because that’s where the horses get the experience. You go to Rolex [Kentucky CCI****], and most of the horses are tense because they’re not used to the atmosphere. So we’re trying to create that. I think it’s important.”