Hard economic and logistical facts say there will never be a National Championship on the West Coast. Having lived and worked and competed in both east and west cost states, people east of Kansas cannot comprehend the reality of eventing in the west - prepping as well as competing.
Best case would be a Western Regional Championship, with a regular event along side - held in California, we are all used to driving 14 to 23 hours one way with a trucks and trailers over the highest mountains in the lower 48. And an Eastern Championship. Then maybe a National in Kentucky someday.
As it is, a west coast ammie can barely earn enough PTO to compete at local events - most take up a 4/5 day weekend just to drive, much less another 10 days to drive and compete back east.
Last I knew, at least the last couple of times AECs has been at KHP there has been a wait list, so they have no problem getting the numbers there.
I will add that I do not consider Kentucky Horse Park to be on the East Coast.
Our experience with AECās was in 2021 KHP. This had always been a goal of ours (ours meaning several teens and adults from our barn). We are based in southeastern, PA and felt like KHP is a doable drive vs trying to attend MT, ever.
2021 AECās had 50 entries in each division, the girl who won my sonās division came from CA.
We had the BEST time there and would do it again if we can financially. Iām now riding my sonās horse and my goal this year was to qualify. I donāt think we will attend, but I wanted to at least have the option by qualifying, and am having a ball as a re-rider 
Kentucky is east coast to those out west.
It is the gateway events that do not require a 10 hour 1 way drive to get to.
The west coast riders will travel east to run at some of these amazing venues. The east coast riders will not travel west. Thatās just the truth of the matter and the event has to be economically viable - not necessarily making gobs of money but it canāt lose money.
From California, to travel a thousand miles to run at Rebecca Farm or 2400 miles to run at KHP, itās a huge undertaking, sure, but then youāre at Rebecca Farm or KHP - eventing nirvanas.
I love and appreciate Woodside and Galway but I canāt imagine hauling a horse 2400 miles for them. Or more, really, when you realize youād be hoping for competitors from the true east coast, so pushing 3000 miles.
I live in CO and considered going to Rebecca last year for AECās, however I knew the entry numbers would be really small (which they were, only 11 starters in my division), plus it was a 2 day drive one-way for a weekās worth of time there.
If Iām going to invest to compete in a National Championship I want it to be against the best horses and riders in the country, which I end up doing at the events in Florida for ~4 months in the winter and it only requires one round trip. I realize I am extremely lucky to have a remote job which allows this, just wanted to share my perspective on the AECās in general.
Pony Club follows an interesting model which I think could work for AECās with some tweaking. From the USPC website: Championships are held across the country in a yearly rotation ā East and West one year, East and Central the next, followed by a Festival year. Festival is typically held at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY while Championships East, Central, and West move around the country within their respective locations.
This is the same argument we started when the first AECs were proposed. Iām sure itās archived on COTH somewhere. I am pretty sure I am rehashing my thoughts from 20 years ago now. Everything new was once old.
In the end, there is a reason that certain groups west of KY threatened the USEF with mutiny back when the qualification kerfuffle happened. The concept of an equitable AEC is at best a dream.
It implies the opposite to me. If more people are actually able to come it means that more members are being served. However, I do recognize that if there was a broader rotation of locations it would be more fair to the west coast competitors. And maybe more people would be able to have a more convenient venue at least once every 4 or 5 years (assuming they could qualified every year for 4 or 5 years).
Just chiming in that while this sounds great in theory, it doesnāt look to me like itās working out too well in Pony Club. East Coast Champs seem to do fine, but West Coast Champs donāt tend to draw many competitors outside the host region. Central Champs planned for this year were cancelled due to lack of entries although an extremely poor date selection seemed to be a factor too.
In this discussion as in others (horse shopping threads come to mind), you really canāt get around the fact that the US is an enormous country with distinct regions and geographical impediments that are not conducive to quick or easy travel by horse trailer.
Just throwing this out there, but Iām qualified for the AECs this year, if any CA people want to carpool 
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Area VI has offered to reimburse stabling and entry fees if we compete. Just saying.
I can tell you that Arabian Sport Horse Nationals used to rotate East Coast West coast.
It is VERY difficult to find a facility willing to book a every other year contract, the facilities on the west coast (and for west coasters this ONLY meant CA period) were not nearly large enough (with 800 to 1,000 horses), and entries were at least %30 percent lower every year. Even the officials actively asking members to suggest a suitable west coast facility that was large enough and accepted a every other year contract failed. I remember the year the show was in a certain state with an active railroad track. Your dressage score depended on the timing of the freight train.
In the end they moved the show to WEC Ohio and no longer rotate. People complained (and because it was FB the loudest complainers didnāt even have horses qualified for Nationals but felt that just in case they ever did the show needed to be in CA 
but reality was the entries have been high, the facilities and employees at that facility are great.
Maybe not East COAST, but definitely east. It is (albeit barely) in the Eastern Time Zone. And clearly closer to the Atlantic than to the Pacific.
If I qualify Iāll let ya know!
Ah, thatās too bad. You are correct, the sheer size of the US really makes it impossible to hold a true championship where competitors from each area can fairly attend.
Do away with travel. The hunter breeding has and East Coast and West Coast HB show that may goes on different weekends and is judged by the same judges. for AECS is could be Highest dressage score wins or whatever.
An interesting idea, however, 66% of the score is over fences across terrain and in a stadium in a variety of weather. I am not sure how to equalize that.
Trying to get anyone to travel west from the east coast is like pulling teeth. They are constantly complaining that they couldnāt possibly drive that far! Most of us west coasters that have driven across the country can probably tell them the best stops to stay over, the best truck stops, all the things. My experience this winter in Florida was that no one wants to travel any further than 2 hours, even driving 5 hours to Georgia, there was some major complaining. It was crazy!
Last year at Rebecca there was a pretty poor showing from both California and the east coast. It was weird that a lot of the stabling that was used for the normal July show was empty for the AECās, that was with the regular national levels going too. Needless to say, Rebecca Farms had a pretty significant loss of revenue from the AECās. I know that the organizers were really bummed that there wasnāt more initiative to travel to Montana. I doubt that Sarah will do the AECās again. I guess us āwestiesā will just keep what we are doing and enjoy eventing west coast style!
That sounds positively hideous. Add in having it late enough in the year and the heat is a factor. You want to haul horses across the USA in August? I know I know a contingent of Californiansā do but the masses are not going to do that.
I live in Maryland and wouldnāt even go to KY unless I thought I might realistically win. Itās just hard to justify at the lower levels when thereās an event within two hours almost every weekend.
Diesel was also at $5+ a gallon. For us is wasnāt a matter of not wanting to drive, it was the $10-15k trip we couldnāt swing.
