Until last month, I probably hadn’t seen a program for the 1973 Ledyard Farm International Three-Day Event since I got one in my competitor’s packet 32 years ago. Then, when Andrew Beale dropped off a mare, he loaned me his brother, Jeremy Beale’s, treasured copy of the 52-page program.

It’s an extraordinary little document, and it completely re-reminded me of something we’ve all forgotten. Neil Ayer, for whom the USEA Head-quarters in Leesburg, Va.,are named, almost single-handedly ushered in the golden era of American three-day eventing by gathering at one time, in one place, the very top riders, judges, horses, and eventing enthusiasts from around the world.

From Thursday, Oct. 18, through Sunday, Oct. 21, 1973, Neil and Helen Ayer’s Ledyard Farm, in Hamilton, Mass., became the focal point for eventing in the United States and around the world. The afterglow from that weekend has lasted all these intervening years.

The backdrop against which the Ledyard International was held would have seemed an unrecognizably alien place to today’s American eventers, used to a vibrant, thriving sport. There were 11 American riders in the advanced division, and that was about it for the country.

There was one Canadian, Peter Howard. There were three from Ireland and, three from France, but the country that came “loaded for bear” was England, with the current gold medalists from both the World Champion-ships and Olympics on their squad, plus winners and top finishers at both Bad-minton and Burghley among their 13 riders.

The entire USCTA membership was probably fewer than 2,000 then, and the few events around the country that offered an intermediate course struggled to fill the division.

But Neil, realizing that the focus of top-tier eventing was across the Atlantic, decided to not only create the biggest and best event ever held on American soil, but also to personally pay to fly over the top riders from Europe, and their horses, so that we Americans could experience a level of eventing we’d never seen before.

Now Neil’s legacy seems to be drawing to a close. Next season there won’t be an advanced three-day event anywhere that tests the kind of horses that Neil, the MFH of the Myopia Hunt, and his supporters cared about–great galloping stayers who could handle the one hour and 15 minutes it would take to negotiate Ledyard’s 45 jumping efforts during the nearly 15-mile second day. (The new short format lasts about 11 minutes).

William Steinkraus, who won the Olympic show jumping gold medal in 1968, told me once that he’d watched the three-day event go through three distinct phases during his lifetime–“military,” “foxhunting” and “specialist.”

The first phase, the “military phase,” saw uniformed officers competing at the Olympics. After World War II, as the world’s cavalries were being disbanded, eventing would probably have perished, said Steinkraus, had it not been “rescued” by foxhunting men and women, who recognized eventing as being a kindred spirit to their sport. The Duke of Beaufort, master of his own famous pack, founded Badminton in 1949, and Alexander Mackay-Smith, master of two different packs here, helped found the USEA in 1959. And in 1973 Neil and his foxhunting friends were building on that tradition.

Steinkraus’ third phase, the “event-horse specialist phase,” had not yet appeared in 1973. That much more narrow phase would come later, and its emphasis on dressage, show jumping and highly technical cross-country fences would lead to the current demise of the classic three-day event. In 1973 though, that phase was still at least 20 years in the future.

There was no lack of ardent American eventing enthusiasts in the ’60s and early ’70s to be sure, but none with Neil’s social and economic clout. Only Neil could transform a vision into such a “command performance” as Ledyard.

The Ledyard Committee was a “Who’s Who” of the equestrian world. Neil was chairman, Col. Francis Appleton was honorary chairman (he provided the steeplechase course), and the ground jury was Col. Donald Thackeray, Sheila Wilcox, Maj. Gen. Jonathon Burton and Col. Bengt H. Ljungquist. (Note the still powerful military influence 30 years ago).

The jury of appeal was Capt. Jack Fritz, Maj. A. Lawrence Rook and William Stein-kraus. Dressage judges were Judith Maxwell, Mrs. Igor Presnikoff, Mrs. Rosemarie Springer, Sheila Wilcox, Gen. Burton (some things never change), Col. Ljungquist, Hans Moeller, Hans Renz and Col. Thackeray.

The advanced division entries were a similar Who’s Who of riders from that era, especially the British, who sent World Champion Mary Gordon-Watson on World Champion Cornishman V; Bar Hammond on Eagle Rock, just second that year at Badminton; Chris Collins, fresh from winning the Swedish Grand National Steeplechase; Badminton winner Lorna Sutherland; Merlin Meakin on Lynette, just fourth at Badminton; Diana Thorne, just second at Burghley; Capt. Mark Phillips on Maid Marion; Olympic gold medalist Richard Meade on Minuet; Angela Tucker, Olympic Team gold medalist, riding Moon-coin; and finally the eventual winner, Sue Hatherly riding Harley.

That we would defeat this mighty powerhouse on its home turf 11 months later, and that I’d be part of the winning USET team, seemed as remote to me then as the outer reaches of a Grimm’s fairy tale.

Our U.S. home team had all those riders who, the following September, at Burghley, would bring our new coach, Jack Le Goff, the first of his many gold medals: Bruce Davidson on soon to be World Champion Irish Cap (Bruce also rode Plain Sailing), Mike Plumb on Johnny-O and West Country, Don Sachey on Good Mixture and Landmark, Beth Perkins on Furtive and Mills, and me riding Victor Dakin.

Dr. Bob Beck, Roger Haller, Carol Hannum, Mike Bowman, Charlotte Robson and Lee Thibodeau completed the American advanced contingent.

Many still familiar names were present 32 years ago in the intermediate and preliminary divisions. These included Tad Coffin on Bally Cor (three years before their Olympic gold medal), Andy Mouw, Caroline Treviranus on Cajun (about to be the sixth U.S. rider at next year’s World Cham-pionships), Lornie Forbes, Tim Ritchie on Corsair (now more famous as trainer of 2005 Preakness and Belmont winner Afleet Alex), Essie Perkins, Read Perkins, May Emerson riding House Guest, Stewart Treviranus, Lockie Richards, Becca Coffin, Rozo McLaughlin, Richard McWade (who would go on to steeplechase fame), Joanna Hall Glass, Jim Wofford, and the two veterans Denis Glaccum and Mary Alice Brown, who, along with Mike Plumb, are the only three people to have been continuously competing since before the founding of the USCTA in 1959.

In junior preliminary were such future stars as Mark Weissbecker, Wash Bishop, Robin Graburn, Brian Sabo, Bea Perkins, Cindy Irwin, Rob Robertson, Kim Whitehurst, and Ralph Hill on several horses (some things never change).

Without Ledyard, which repeated as an international three-day event in 1975 and 1977, there might never have been the impetus to create the 1978 World Champion-ships and the Rolex Kentucky CCI.

So much happened on that long ago weekend, of such future significance to American eventing. When I called John Strassburger, the Chronicle’s editor, to tell him about this discovery, he characterized that first Ledyard as being “nuclear fusion,” a coalescing of forces that exploded into the big, national sport we have today.

If Neil’s vision of what the sport should be–a searching test of the galloping horse–is fading, it won’t be the first sport to succumb to changing attitudes. It’s been said of several sports that sportsmen and visionary giants get superseded by businessmen and bureaucratic midgets.

It’s the sport’s enormous loss that Neil and so many of his like-minded friends are no longer here to defend the challenges of the classic format. At least they’re spared having to watch the demise of the three-day event that they so ardently cherished.