The F�d�ration Equestre Internationale (FEI) is headquartered in Switzerland. European nations provide the core of participants in the FEI’s eight disciplines. Small wonder, then, that every World Equestrian Games (WEG, the equestrian world championships held every four years) has been held in Europe.

Until now.

The 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games will be the first WEG held on American soil: at the Kentucky Horse Park (KHP) in Lexington. Park officials and WEG organizers are determined to show the world that the United States is not only up to the challenge but also a vast, colorful melting pot of equine activity.

"Horse sport in North America will be measured in terms of ‘before the Games’ and ‘after the Games,’" predicted KHP Executive Director John Nicholson during an October "meet the press" with the directors of the industry group American Horse Publications