The 2010 World Equestrian Games — or, to use the official moniker, the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games — are coming to the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington next September and October. Public ticket sales kicked off Sept. 25 (get yours through ticketmaster.com), exactly one year prior to the opening ceremony. And so TheHorse.com wanted to start its own WEG countdown in blog form in the same time frame, to give us lots of time to discuss the preparations, planning, disciplines, and players.

I’m happy to be blogging for TheHorse.com again, my previous project having been the 2008 Olympic equestrian events in Hong Kong. But mano a mano, the WEG dwarfs the Olympic equestrian events as an undertaking. I’ll get into the details in future blog posts, but consider: the WEG will feature eight equestrian disciplines to the Olympic Games’ three (a fourth, para-equestrian dressage, was held separately, as part of the Paralympic Games).

If you don’t happen to be a fan of the International Equestrian Federation’s (FEI) eight English-leaning disciplines, you might be wondering what all the WEG fuss is about, or why you should follow the WEG preparations (or this blog, for that matter). To which I have a simple answer: The awarding of these equestrian world championships to the United States is a historic first, with the potential to do more for all horse sports and the U.S. horse industry than anything that’s come before. The Western-riding side of the equestrian fence is rooted here in the USA, no doubt about it. Thoroughbred racing: strong both here and abroad. But Europe is the powerhouse of much on the English side.

For decades American competitors have transported themselves and their horses to train and compete in Europe, where the Europeans have conveniently scheduled all preceding world championships. But the folks in Lexington evidently did a heckuva sales job and managed to convince the FEI powers that be to award the 2010 WEG to Kentucky