Out of curiosity, has the price of an entry plus stabling (or grounds fee) caused anyone qualified to decide not to go?
ENTRY FEES: AEC Entry Fees:A-$670;I-$610;P/M-$560;T/N/BN-$525 STABLING:$300/stall GROUNDS FEE: $75/entry (for competing horse not stabled on grounds).
My goal this year was to qualify ( I did) so that way if I could figure out the cost associated with going I could maybe consider it. We went in 2021, and loved every minute of being there, felt it was completely worth it etc.
I really can’t swing it this year though. So I will cheer on my barn mates from homebase, and hope that things turn around financially that I can maybe get to go. Entry, plus cost of diesel, room/food etc … upwards of $3,500-$4,000. No can do right now.
SIGH. If money wasn’t tight I would go for sure.
I live in Kentucky. I’m having trouble deciding if the extra cost is worth it since I go to the horse park all the time.
Ah, gotcha. Well I will say it felt like a huge experience to go, the atmosphere, huge divisions, and competing against poeple from all over the country. I’m in area2, and I think even if AEC’s were held at one of our local venues I would try and go for sure, taking the huge travel part if it out of the equation.
Being there felt really special, yes was KHP part of that, probably, but I think we would feel that way if held at Fair Hill for example. There is something about a national championship IMO.
I had made it a goal to qualify and go, but once looking at the omnibus once it was posted & seeing the fees, I decided to forgo the recognized shows that I needed to qualify & attend schooling shows at the same venues (much less $$).
Between the cost to get qualified (since I always have to stable because we have nothing close enough for a day trip) & the high fees for AECs, I decided it wasn’t worth it this year.
At BN & N, I don’t see a great reason to pay for recognized shows when I can do the same facilities & courses for half the price.
To answer your question, yes. I qualified years ago and forewent. It was cost prohibitive even back then. I did the math and realized I could do 3-5 recognized events for the price of just the entry and stabling at AECs. I have not qualified recently, because I primarily only go to unrecognized shows.
To @leighbo009’s point about BN and N and the draw of unrecognized, count me in as another who has made the decision to do the same. The added benefit of going to unrecognized venues in my area is that at least for the lower levels (BN/N) the courses are much more in line with USEA’s vision of introductory levels and you are not competing a mini-Training course at BN.
I’ve qualified two horses this year, and it was definitely on my goals to not only qualify but attend with both horses. But I’m already on plan F from when I started on plan A in January ( horse and personal stuff all popped up this year).
I think the AECs are fantastic, and would have gone this year but its a hard weekend to attend. My overall goal is an FEI for one of the horses so I had to weigh what was more important to me the FEI or AECs.Ive attended twice in the past at different locations, had a great time, never regretted going or spending the money to go. I will definitely go again in the future too, when it makes sense to the schedule.
It is at the end of august ( which means it will be hot), and I’m not planning on running an event prior to the AEC because, it it hot this summer. This means I won’t feel 100% prepped for a championship course. Also, the AECs are the weekend before another great event (closer to home) that I want to go to- which would be a great run for the horse to prep for the FEI. it just didn’t make sense to go to the AECs, the $$$$ and the logistics.
My other horse qualified at novice and he is making the move up to training this summer/ fall, and it didn’t make sense to run him at a championships at a level lower than where he is training- granted, yes it would be a great challenging novice course, but for the $$$$$, not making sense in the scheme of things.
As many have said, with the younger horse, he has been focusing on the schooling ht for the experience, especially at novice/ training, because its half the price of registered shows, the same courses, and mostly local to me.
I agree with all of the others. I probably wouldn’t go unless I had a fair shot of winning or getting some prize money out of it. Otherwise it’s August. It’s hot, it’s a long trailer ride and it’s expensive.
If I could find a sponsor for this 53 year old re rider I would def go. There are no guarantees. I lost my horse in a pasture accident when I was 16 years old and just getting back to riding again.
We had such a great experience in 2021 when my son took his OTTb that he made up. Was 14 out of 48 in jr training div. Now I’m qualified in BN lol and would go if we could afford it.
If you have the means to go do so. There are no guarantees with horses.
I’m in the midst of the decision myself. My guy has just won his last two horse trials, so it’s probably the first time I’ve had to go and be competitive. But, as tight as things are I’d 1. feel more pressure for the sake of how tight it would be financially to go 2. I could go run a local 2** short for less, the same weekend, which feels prestigious to me. I’ve never regretted skipping out of an event, but I sure have going to one I couldn’t afford.
So, that’s the boat I’m in. $300/Stabling, $560 Entry fee… I think if they could have gotten stabling to $200, and gotten the entry down to $300, it would feel a bit more attainable for me. I have empathy for the organizers who have made a great event, but I’m part of a handful in my friend-group that’s made the same decision. I wish they could have secured larger sponsors to take on the cost of the event.
I’m local so I don’t have the added travel costs but I qualified and I’m going. I recognize how lucky I am to be close to the KHP and to be able to afford this show. Even so the $825 entry and stabling is hard to swallow.
Ive been eventing for maybe 7 years. My horse is a freebie I got off the track and I’ve developed him myself with professional help. It’s been a long, slow process and I’ve wanted to throw in the towel more than once. It took us almost 5 years to make it to BN and I managed to qualify on a mercy run this year (1st place ammie in an open division in 40s and torrential downpours which he didn’t care about) but I’ll take it. We’ve never won, we have mediocre dressage and rails in stadium, so maybe I have no real business going but that’s okay-don’t know if I will ever get the chance again so I’m doing it. This horse is very special to me and helped me truly feel like myself again after really struggling with PPA/PPD after my second child. I have no expectations-I just want to say I did it with him.
Thought this was worth quoting because it’s not the first time I’ve seen “sponsors” thrown around in the same sentence as the AECs. Apparently that is what it’s come to in order to go, unless your purse strings are deep.
Go and have the best time! And buy the polo shirt 
edited- I go on a little tangent. And, in now way do I want to discredit the hard and thankless work the organizers have put in. I think I come from a place of curiosity, not ill-will towards anyone.
I don’t think “sponsors” are a negative thing at all. About 15% of my own income comes from doing social media ads; the remaining as a full-time accountant. So I’ve worked with brands,securing -“sponsors,” doing social media ads and have an in-depth understanding of a financial statement.
I also don’t disbelieve that this is a very, very expensive horse show to pull off. The number of judges you’re paying, security, licenses, insurance is going to be substantially more than a two-day show. There also is prize money, etc. Though, I believe the prize money is probably a tiny portion of the outgoing cash-flows .
From a cost-accounting perspective, however, my initial presumption would be that IF a 2-day HT can at minimum break-even at the KHP at say $200/stall, $250/ entry fee with 400 riders. What is it that costs so much more to expand this to 4/5 days, with 1,000 riders. My initial presumption is that the increased revenue from the larger draw would cover the additional judges, TDs, etc.
Obviously it doesn’t, because here we are with a $600 entry fee and $300 stall. (Does income from this event go towards paying USEA’s bills at a larger % than other events? I don’t know, I think this is public)
Again, not discrediting the organizers. They are normally volunteers or already have a huge amount on their plate, so doing some in-depth revenue analysis might not be their forte. The easiest way to break-even would be to increase entry fees, because you are just about guaranteed a certain # of entries on an event has historically over-filled at the same venue.
It just makes me, the accounting-rider, a little ill seeing thousands in advertising money going to X-Local T-ball team Playoff’s, the amount of advertising revenue that goes into social-media marketing, we’re not going to touch the number of $25K+ Grand Prix’s that are sponsored by "ABC Life Insurance " that are not live-streamed, have less than 200 audience watching… where here as the U.S. Championship event, thousands of people in attendance (include parents of riders), it is live-streamed, and 10x the number of views because every young rider (and adult) is posting their ride and horsey-adenture on their phone. And we can’t get a PR team to send a media package to Shane’s Rib Shack and Mr. Joe’s Auto Shop and Healthy Water Co. to pull in some six-figure revenue?
I’m a little heated and my explanation probably does a disservice to the organizers who have worked tirelessly to make it work. I also understand for every $10K in advertising raised, it really only decreases an entry fee $10 if you have a 1,000 entries.
So, then is it worth hiring a PR firm, pulling together the kind of people to get those sponsorships, for that return? I don’t know.
In my little pea-brain, I would love to revolutionize the sport and change the revenue stream which has been done in other (actually male-dominated) western horse sports so that we could reduce entry fees.
No, it’s not negative at all. There were several posts here and on FB about how riders said they could only go because they were sponsored, or riders commenting they couldn’t go because lack of sponsorship - I misread your reply to be among those but now I realize, d’oh, you were referring to the AEC’s organizational committee.
You probably know this already, but I wonder if the AECs have seen these comments about sponsorship. Once you[g] pull in sponsors as a rider you are no longer an Amateur in the eyes of the sport. If the American Eventing Championships, which is supposed to be for all eventers that qualify can’t draw in competitors without them resorting to being sponsored, then there is something not truly inclusive about the picture, and the Average Amateur, once again, is left in the reeds.
I don’t believe AECs are turning a massive profit – their audit reports are public AFAIK. There is money to be spent to make this sport more affordable and accessible to a broader base, but currently very little impetus on TPTB to do so.
The entry fee is nothing compared to the cost of shipping there from the west coast. It’s basically the East Coast Eventing Championships at this stage. Major turn off…
It would be nice if this was an option in more places.
I do have to travel 3+ hours in order to have this option - but I have no local options anyways with the closest being the same facilities, so that’s what we go with.
My horse is qualified at BN, but decided for me that we aren’t going and got injured. Even being local in Kentucky I was going to struggle over the idea of running BN at KHP when I can do that almost any other time for 1/3 the cost (which I realize I’m lucking it’s in my backyard). I’m torn generally over BN-N and the fees as I can do a mini trial, get a good education for horse and rider, and be home the same day. One day events just aren’t the norm here sadly.
42 Fleur de Lis has a nice series of one day events with mini trials through BN and CTs with higher levels in the Louisville area. Champagne Run Farm also has mini trials and CTs in Lexington.
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