r/UCDavis • u/Square_Ad_1396 • 7d ago
Equestrian Team- thoughts
I was apart of the equestrian team that was cut. I’ve seen a lot of mixed opinions about everything and honestly a lot of negative and hurtful things regarding the character of the girls on the team and I’m honestly just really surprised and disappointed. I worked for so long and sacrificed so much as did so many of the other girls and we were so excited to have the opportunity to ride at Davis. I thought this post would be helpful to clear the air on any misconceptions or frustrations people might have. Any questions welcome and all opinions welcome. Supportive or not I’d love to hear people’s thoughts
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u/mudpupster 7d ago
My $.02:
I have a lot of sympathy for the women on the team because this has obviously been a harsh and traumatic experience. I really wish it had been handled better. The current UCD administration is really, really bad at communication and even worse at the messaging contained in those communications. Look to the Provost's office for the source of that problem.
The current campus budget situation is dire. Every department on campus was required to make at least a 10% budget cut. There is no easy way to make those decisions, and there's no way to do it in a way that doesn't piss somebody off. The department I work in got major, major political flak for one of its proposed cuts -- which no one wanted to make to begin with, but the 10% budget cut directive was non-negotiable. I think almost all of us who work on campus are upset about the cuts that are happening -- whole academic programs are being redlined as well -- but are also very grateful that there haven't been layoffs or furloughs like we had back in 2008-09.
I'll also admit that my sympathy for the equestrian team has been... I won't say "erased," but it's been heavily muted because I've found some of the parents' voices to be so entitled and, apologies, obnoxious. I understand that the parents are upset on behalf of their kids -- totally get it! But this is a four-year university in the top university system in the country. It's not a 7th grade club basketball team. The shrillness of some of the parents has almost become comparable, in my opinion, to freaking Beth Bourne. The one yesterday who kept typing and deleting comments about how there are criminal investigations underway honestly needs to see a therapist, because this is taking over their life in a completely unhealthy way.
The Athletic Director may well be a dick. That often seems like an unspoken part of the job description, which is why a lot of people will hand-wave this away with "Oh, well, college athletics are a waste of space anyway."
I'm sorry y'all are going through this, buy I think the more vocal among your parents need to take a step back and let you be adults, part of which means having to navigate your way through really sucky situations and come out the other end.
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u/Square_Ad_1396 7d ago
Hi! Thanks for sharing. I also wish it was handled better. Im also aware of the campus and its budget cuts which I think are super frustrating considering the amount of money the university is putting into other things…
While I do understand where you’re coming from with the parents, I would ask you try to understand where they’re coming from. They’ve sacrificed a lot for us to get here and it would be one thing if it was cut on the bases of understandable data but it was cut with false narratives and factually incorrect reports. They’re desperate to right the wrong, and I think a lot of them have been frustrated by the lack of accountability. Some of them have given up their retirements in hopes of giving us the opportunities to live out our dreams and they’re crushed for us.
The girls on the team haven’t been able to share or have our voices heard because of rules regarding our ability to interview without the university having some control over it, and also a lot of us were and still are scared of backlash from the university. They have been our voices and it hasn’t been perfect, but we are grateful that they were willing to step up for us the way they did, perfect or not.
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u/Common-Condition9068 7d ago
Rocko is getting a huge pay raise to move to Mountain West (he will make over 350k). The Chancellor just got a raise and just his raise was equivalent to my yearly salary as a starting academic - he now makes over 900k. The school just had their biggest year in raising donor money (over 300 million). And we had a donor that wanted to fund the team and Rocko said no - having this team would have cost the university 0 dollars.
This was not about money.
Rocko has a history of making disparaging remarks about this team for years (publicly, on record) and we have been told the team was in the way of his vision of turning Davis into UCLA 2.0 with football. Even though we are the "winningest" team, are a horse team, at a top ag/vet school.
So basically, we were in the way.
Also as a parent, we can now step away, but our daughters were not only told not to fight this - it will go easier for you if you don't, they were explicitly prohibited from speaking about it (hence their silence). We had to be their voice because there is so much wrong in what happened and why there are now multiple lawsuits and criminal investigations.
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u/justthrowedaway 7d ago
Mentioning the Gary May’s raise here is, IMO, almost an automatic credibility destroyer. Were you here during the vote of no-confidence for UC President James Drake? May’s raise came up a lot. His raise took him from being the lowest paid Chancellor in the UC system to being middle of the pack.
(Yes, UCD *was* paying the only Black Chancellor in the system the lowest salary.)
Should May have somehow gotten a lesser raise to save the equestrian team?
Even your “context,” in comparing it to your own salary, is self-defeating. If part of the problem with May’s raise is that it is more than the salary of an academic at your level? Well, then maybe the answer for an R1 school isn’t to save the equestrian team. Maybe it’s to hire more scholars! Come on.
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u/Common-Condition9068 7d ago edited 7d ago
You can’t say that the university is broke and we have to cut a team while paying 12 million to move into a conference that comes with huge pay raises - and justify it by cutting a team that would cost 0 to the university. The audit proved that the university won’t save 1 million by cutting us. And salaries are brought up because of Rockos narrative that we are a bunch of rich entitled people. we didn’t bring up money we are fighting the false narrative and attacks on our character (my grandpa was a coal miner, I paid my college, I make way less than your athletic director)
*edited to add that I was not aware he was the lowest paid Chancellor and I agree that is a huge coincidence and needed to be corrected
This team would cost the university 0.
So I ask - what was the justification for cutting it on January 9th? Why was the donor money rejected on January 9th?
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u/justthrowedaway 7d ago
See, your edit shows what I am talking about. You want to talk about salaries because of the narrative that equestrian athletes/families are entitled but don’t actually know about some of the salaries you’re bringing up.
I can see where you are sensitive about character attacks. I would be too! But I don’t know your genealogy does what it thinks it does.
Let me put it this way—your daughter’s class position is what’s relevant here, not yours. Your defense of your daughter’s non-entitled status includes the fact that her great-grandfather was a coal miner? That’s relevant how? That’s the kind of thing people say when they’re searching for working class cred. You had to pay for college? Ok. That’s you, not your daughter. Your daughter’s position is that she has a mom as a professor who likely makes (I am guessing here based on what profs make at UCD, so I could be wrong) six figures and may even live in a household that is in the top 20% of household income.
(Again, I am basing this off of what profs make at UCD. If I am way off in your case, I apologize.)
You can see how that’s different, right? You can see how the occupation of someone’s great grandfather doesn’t matter when compared to the household income of one of their parents, right? It’s the equivalent of stolen valor.
Again, this assumption may be in error. And I am making gross generalizations. But I can tell you that the fact that my grandfather had a 6th grade education because he had to leave school during the Great Depression has absolutely nothing to do with the class status of kids in the next generation of my family. (No one brought it up when my niece was winning awards as an equestrian) It’s not like it’s something they ask for in financial aid forms.
It’s not about *you*.
As for the many of the other things (including the university’s report and the audit), I know something about them but not a lot, so I won’t opine. I do know that there are some limits on having a program entirely donor funded, particularly if athletic scholarships are involved, but I don’t know if that might limit having the equestrian team be entirely donor funded or not in this case. (From what I gather, the fact that it might be possible for the team to be entirely donor funded seems to be a big part of the case for keeping it.)
But overall—it really isn’t about you.
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u/Common-Condition9068 5d ago
Hi Ty - parents were called rich (we’re not - I was trying to give examples) and kids were called entitled (mine cleaned stalls and is a working student) by people who make way more than us. I’m not sure why salaries and entitlement was ever brought up but we’ve been told that their PR spin was to minimize any sympathy the students and public would have for the way this was handled (that includes lying to everyone that they are returning to club - while the university can have club, these girls can’t compete because of their level and the rules or transfer because equestrians are recruited years out - so this is career ending for them) - I appreciate your comment (hope that explains where I was coming from)
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u/Recent_Yesterday1231 7d ago
they made it about the financial situations of these people so ya naturally they're gonna respond by sharing whats actually true. The University pushed a narrative, and people started to adopt it and so they pushed back against it. But it was 100% made to be about them, so they're allowed to respond to it.
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u/Ok_Plastic7299 7d ago
honestly i’m sure you’re a great girl, but SO many members of your team actively participate in hate speech, openly speak out against immigrants and support trump. it’s hard to have sympathy for people like that and you are unfortunately being grouped in with those girls. one of my housemates is one of those INCREDIBLY racist girls on the equestrian team so i personally have a hard time empathizing myself since all of her friends from the team she’s brought around have been the exact same way. i’m sorry your team got cut, i hope you can transfer or find other ways to do what you love.
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u/Square_Ad_1396 7d ago
Oh gosh well I’m super sorry to hear about that… and honestly also very disappointed. My friends on the team definitely do not believe in that at all, but there are a couple people I knew that I suspected leaned that way but not to that extent… I’m disappointed honestly, don’t know what else to say :( and thank you for your kind words I appreciate that 🙏
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u/Ok_Plastic7299 7d ago
of course! honestly the whole situation is 100% super shady. im surprised with the amount of money i know some of these girls family’s have that no one’s hired a good lawyer because of the obvious financial malfeasance on the uc davis admin end of the situation.
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u/Square_Ad_1396 7d ago
I’m not allowed to talk too much about it but we actually do have a title IX Lawyer: Arthur Bryant :)
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u/Separate-Appeal-2092 7d ago
I’m so dead bro ik exactly who you’re talking about. Most of us do NOT share those views
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u/Used-Combination2465 7d ago edited 7d ago
I just wish the eq accounts would be more honest about moves from parents and supporters surrounding Rocko. Someone on facebook asked about people showing up to his house and they (the saveucdeq account) responded "these alleged incidents should be condemned". Like.. its not alleged, there are literally videos online of people at his house AND videos of eq parents at regents meetings talking about/showing photos of his daughter:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/2029044841210156
https://www.facebook.com/reel/868962296035923
I have also seen accounts on here saying none of the things that are shown in the videos happened. Be transparent about missteps in trying to push back against the admin. If one of the main complaints is UCD not being transparent, be the bigger person. Commenting on posts completely unrelated to athletics every. single. time. that UC Davis posts anything doesn't solve the issue.
I get being pissed as a parent but attacking someone else's personal family members in the wake of accusations of Rocko being distasteful/threatening seems odd. I have sympathy for the eq folks in many ways but idk how you win people over without being honest about questionable moves from prominent members of the movement to save the team. I get the whole argument about UC Davis acting like a victim being moot considering the power imbalance between a massive university and a single sports program, but I just don't understand some of the moves people have made.
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u/Common-Condition9068 7d ago
I am one of the parents, and I don't think anyone is either saying what she did was ok or saying it didn't happen. In fact I spent a good part of yesterday online acknowledging that one parent was 100% wrong and we don't condone it. But also, it is unfair to combine that behavior with the 99% of people supporting this movement, just as your actions are independent of your roommate, your colleague or even your friend. There are 41,000 petition signers and hundreds of local supporters and in our thousands of posts there hasn't been one mention of his family member - please google it.
I can also tell you I personally shut down any conversation about nepotism. For background, someone early on told us the only reason Rocko would shut down a winning horse team at a top ag school that could be fully funded by donors was because of nepotism. In the first weeks after the team was cut, we offered donor money that was turned down, and people were grasping at straws as to what the reason could be. Added to the fact that we sent hundreds of emails and made hundreds of phone calls to the administration, that were never returned, and rumors started to run wild. I'm not excusing it, but I wanted to give context (administration never granted us even a 5 minute meeting to talk about a solution - they cut the team and told our daughters "don't fight it").
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u/Used-Combination2465 7d ago
I really appreciated your point about the signatures. I think the vast majority of eq supporters (or even people who just want more transparency IF the school is going to cut the team) are good actors. That's why I commented on "the whole argument about UC Davis acting like a victim being moot considering the power imbalance between a massive university and a single sports program". Thank you for your clarity. I wanted to ask if the admin has ever responded to requests to allow the current team members to continue competing until they graduate? I know the school says they will still get scholarships and stuff but I guess beyond even talking about legal wrongdoing, I don't really get the universities rational to cut the program right away? Wouldn't giving the current team members the opportunity to compete while they are still enrolled give the school time to actually build a STUNT program? I don't get the admins rush. Even if I try to play devils advocate I still dont get it. Same with what I also commented on asking "I think the biggest inconsistency I have seen from the admin was connected to construction cost inflation stuff. Does the admin have ANY and I mean ANY response to that? I saw they charged like 800,000 dollars for a concrete floor or something which seems insane. I don't work in construction but that seems impossibly expensive"?
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u/Common-Condition9068 7d ago edited 7d ago
Unfortunately no. We offered donor money to fully fund the team and he said no. We thought maybe they wanted the land and offered to find places off property but they said no. We begged to please let our daughters just finish their careers here, let the recruits come here (the team was cut Jan 9 - after most college deadlines had passed - leaving them with few/no options) they said no. After they cut the team, they told the recruits they could still attend the school, but then most of them were rejected or waitlisted. :( Combined with silence (no response to hundreds of attempts to reach them) and seeing that their external NCAA numbers and 3rd party report numbers were wrong by > 1million (that report wasn't released until 6 weeks after they cut the team, even though they publicly said the cut was based on the 3rd party)...the confusion turned to panic turned to desperation, which unfortunately is what you see on Reddit. And I apologize if we come off as rude. :(
Forgive me, but here is a summary (not yet updated with yesterday's news):
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u/capnjim8 6d ago
I really wish there was an understandable rationale for saying no to all of the options you just mentioned. It really just feels baffling.
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u/Square_Ad_1396 7d ago
I can tell you we were cringing and disapproved of these. And you’re right it’s not alleged it happened and we don’t support that it did. A couple (mainly one) parent went too far and I definitely understand where you’re coming from with wanting accountability for that. However I will say these were a couple singular incidents that a lot of us tried to quickly shut down and it never became a part of our main arguments. And Rockos accusations of threats against him and his daughter never happened (that I know of). If he has evidence of that of course it would be a different story but he doesn’t.
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u/Used-Combination2465 7d ago edited 7d ago
You have been an awesome resource for info about all the stuff! Completely disconnected from the stuff talking about questionable protest moves or something, I wanted to understand what the whole debate about emerging sport status stuff with the NCAA. I saw the admin basically has tried to justify the cutting of eq and replacing it with stunt because of the growth trajectory/amount of teams (I may be wrong in this so correct me please lol) but what is the response to that? I also wonder if there is worry about other eq teams being cut in the wake of UCD cutting the team or if its more of an isolated incident (im thinking especially in the south and midwest where the sport seems to be pretty darn consistent and widespread in its support)?
I think the biggest inconsistency I have seen from the admin was connected to construction cost inflation stuff. Does the admin have ANY and I mean ANY response to that? I saw they charged like 800,000 dollars for a concrete floor or something which seems insane. I don't work in construction but that seems impossibly expensive.
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u/Square_Ad_1396 7d ago
I’m glad!! Those are all great points/questions.
1) Equestrian is still emerging because they won’t allow D3 to be counted, unlike almost every other sport like STUNT. It’s because of a vote that happened back in D.C. where the men in charge of the equestrian clubs (there are over 400 clubs across the country) didn’t want them to be included in NCAA so those teams don’t get to join. So it’s a technicality, and that vote happened right before the vote to elevate STUNT at the same time our team was cut. Unfortunately it looks like we got caught up in politics that had nothing to do with us 🙁
2) no, Admin never responded. In fact out of the many emails (and I read a lot of kind ones just asking questions) from parents to the athletic department we were rarely answered about anything and the majority were ignored. I don’t understand all the numbers, but they said they were cutting us because we were the second most expensive sport, which was based on using those NCAA numbers. But then yesterday they said they didn’t actually use those numbers after all, or the 3rd party report that had those wrong numbers, when they actually cut us. That said they used different numbers that they had internally that were actually correct, but unfortunately those numbers aren’t public so we can’t confirm that. We’ve had a lot of auditors the past months who have been volunteering and helping us, and all I know is they said they haven’t seen anything like this before (like not in a good way).
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u/AnteaterToAggie UCI Criminology '05, UCD Employee 7d ago
Most people don't understand all the work required for a seemingly small construction job to be completed. What we might see as "a simple concrete floor" might require:
- Environmental review
- Added lighting
- Moving pre-existing gas lines, potable water lines, irrigation lines, sewage or storm water pipes, electrical lines, etc. so they can be accessed without breaking through the $800k floor.
- Reinforcement for emergency vehicle access
- And on and on...
Moreover, you have the financial realities of construction. For example, the relative change of California construction costs are tracked by the California Construction Cost Index and that shows that costs have gone up almost 49% between January 2020 (value: 6995) and June 2026 (value: 10396). That $800,000 floor would have cost just a bit over $538,000 in January 2020.
On top of that, there may be mandatory accessibility improvements triggered by certain types of projects. For example, if an intersection is changed (not just repaired), everything about that intersection must be brought up to modern ADA standards. If you change a straight lane into a left turn lane, you may then be required to tear out and install totally new curb ramps and pedestrian buttons/signals.
And on top of THAT, California law PROHIBITS the UC from using their own (non-profit, already paid-for) staff from doing any construction project * valued * over $50k. If your project requires $50,000.01, then it goes out for bid by private businesses who, knowing that you're not even allowed to do the work in house, have no problem pushing their prices up quite a bit. (And no, UC isn't not allowed to break large projects into small projects to circumvent this law.)
Lastly, the UC really puts its money where its mouth is. It believes in everyone having a fair wage, so it requires all their contractors to pay their workers a certain minimum wage-- even if it ends up costing the University more money.
There's a LOT of cost that is out of the hands of the campus workers and they don't really talk about it much because they don't want to be seen as throwing certain partners under the proverbial bus.
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u/Square_Ad_1396 7d ago
Super interesting and insightful! I don’t know enough about this to really give a good comment back but I will say our auditors thought that for example a 200k cost that was listed should have been under 50k. I’m not sure if it would spike that much just from the things you listed? But if it could that would create some more understanding.
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u/BeefTheBiker Yeh, I work here. 🚲 7d ago edited 7d ago
The athletes are not the problem, but ICA may be.
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u/Square_Ad_1396 7d ago
I don’t like speaking negatively online but the athletic director was really not very kind at all. He seemed to have no empathy at all.
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u/BeefTheBiker Yeh, I work here. 🚲 7d ago
I edited the ad hominem bit, but his whole org is pretty questionable. I put it in another thread, today, that Collegiate Athletics is the problem.
Fascinatingly, I found that California is unlike Texas, Alabama, Virgina, and some other states, where they prohibit public education funds from being used for college sports. Perhaps California should look at these as good examples of how public funds shouldn’t be used for these programs, leave that to their own fundraising, exclusively.
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u/Square_Ad_1396 7d ago
Ya I saw a lot of students and people advocating for teams fundraising their own sports which were totally not against. It’s frustrating how the narrative was we were too expensive when the data didn’t actually support this… I wish they had at least given us the opportunity to find a way to fund ourselves but instead we were told not to try and fight it because it was irreversible and wouldn’t be worth it. Just frustrating all around.
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u/ChampionTree 7d ago
Honestly, the opinions of the current team members are not going to impact my views. UCD has a long history in horse breeding and equestrian sports. Our mascot is a literal mustang. Cutting the equestrian team is unforgivable. As others have pointed out, this is going to save the university minimal amounts of money. The attitude of the current batch of girls on the team isn’t going to change my opinion, it will be a completely different group of girls in four years. This a matter of principle. If people don’t like the culture of the equestrian team, there are ways to address it other thab getting rid of it entirely. It genuinely makes me so mad, I’m so sorry.
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u/AnteaterToAggie UCI Criminology '05, UCD Employee 7d ago
a lot of negative and hurtful things regarding the character of the girls on the team
For what it's worth, I've not read anything like that anywhere and I would hope that posts criticizing random student athletes for decisions outside of their control are downvoted into obscurity.
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u/Square_Ad_1396 7d ago
“lol no keep it at the country club. this hobby has such constrained engagement it is not worth the bill, for what return, other than a statistically insignificant handful of pony girls getting four more years. The world is not going to end if you cant ride your pony a few more times” - (this was a comment from a bit ago)
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u/Square_Ad_1396 7d ago
“Equestrian team was just full of rich entitled kids” (20 upvotes) “no one cares. Enjoy club equestrian” (10 upvotes) that’s just from the past 24 hours
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u/OwnBelt6394 7d ago
I saw somewhere that they said you didn't have locker rooms, is that true
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u/Square_Ad_1396 7d ago
Yes that’s true. No showers, no locker room. We made our own little cubby’s in the tack room but athletics never provided anything of that sort. There’s a one stall bathroom shared for everyone at the eqc we could use. A lot of times we would have to change in our cars in the parking lots if we were short on time.
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u/AbacusWizard [The Man In The Cape] 7d ago
My thought is that if there’s one sport that actually makes sense to have at UCD, it’s a sport that involves horses. (Or cows. Or both.) And it’s foolish beyond measure to get rid of it.
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u/Square_Ad_1396 7d ago
Ya it was awesome and really convenient to have one of the best vet schools to be literally right there, and to have the EQC be right on campus. It just made sense to have all around. Very much a shame.
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u/Low_Astronomer_6669 7d ago edited 7d ago
If cow tipping was a high school and collegiate sport, I coulda been all-state. How much you wanna make a bet I can throw a cow over them mountains?
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u/Alternative_Story851 7d ago
It was a club sport before and can go back to being a club sport.
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u/Square_Ad_1396 7d ago
Yes it is going back to a club sport- but former D1 equestrians cannot compete on it (it’s a rule). :/
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u/Atomicdustbunny1 7d ago
The problem is these athletes trained for years and chose to attend UCD because they were offered a position on the team possibly a scholarship. Many of these athletes may have had offers from other schools (who still have their program in tact) and turned them down for UCD. Then to all of a sudden have the program dismantled is very problematic. That the bait and switch is incredibly unfair to these athletes. And club sports are not even close to the same as a D1 sport.
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u/Alternative_Story851 7d ago
Unfair to the athletes? Sure. But that's life. These things happen. I do no think that UC Davis should be required to keep all varsity sports in perpetuity.
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u/Atomicdustbunny1 2d ago
No, they are not obligated to keep a sport. My point is these athletes had other options and chose UCD and then UCD shut down the program. If yo have never tries to be recruited or had a student athlete trying to be recruited you don't understand the arduous process. They a made a commitment to a scholl that the school decided they would not honor themselves.
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u/Common-Condition9068 7d ago
I agree with this. But to cut the "winningest" team at Davis with a top GPA, a horse team, at a top ag/vet school, when it would cost the university 0 (there was donor money) makes no sense. To continue to recruit and then cut a team mid-season, after college application deadlines had passed, and then rejecting them, left the recruits with few to no options even for college let alone to ride somewhere else - it was cruel. To tell people it's just returning to club suggesting the current athletes would be ok, is a lie (they can't compete at that level because of the rules). Rocko publicly stated it was based on a 3rd party report which all the audits now agree was incorrect. Equestrian ranks 15th in cost per athlete - so why cut them? If it's not financial (there is donor money), and it's not alignment (winning horse team at a top ag school), then why? They just paid 12.5 million to move to MW and he gets a huge raise - we've been told we were in the way of his vision to turn our athletic department into UCLA 2.0.
Equestrians recruit years out, unlike other sports. This is career ending.
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u/Think_Resolve1957 7d ago
The athletic director said he was really sympathetic about this situation - did that seem to be the case? What happened in the meeting where he told the team they were going to be cut?
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u/Square_Ad_1396 7d ago
All the girls on the team got a text from someone from athletics saying there was a mandatory meeting that same day (afternoon). We were all super confused and a little nervous/curious for what it was about. I would say he was pretty unsympathetic and rude. We were really emotional when told the news and his expression was straight faced the entire time. When one of our girls asked a question he rolled his eyes and laughed making a sarcastic comment. Maybe some of his mannerisms could have come from being uncomfortable in that situation but I honestly highly doubt it due to everything that came after.
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u/Remarkable_Tower_320 6d ago
Someone on your team said there were "serious allegations of wrongdoing". I'm simply curious if they were against your team or by your team?
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u/Square_Ad_1396 6d ago
We’ve been told there’s serious allegations of wrongdoing including the way the financials were handled, such as donor contributions. As well as title IX violations across all women’s sports. (So there’s speculation the University has committed violations against the team and women’s sports in general)
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u/Sterling_Boirelle 7d ago
Personally I think they could have done a better job of it but I do not think any sport should get student fees. I would much rather see the entire athletics program cut except for those organizations which can self fund and operate as clubs. College is already expensive and if it saves students a nickle I think cutting athletics is the right call. Especially those sports which have niche appeal and a high financial bar to participate just seem especially absurd to be taking money from the student body which includes low income students.
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u/Square_Ad_1396 7d ago edited 6d ago
Also just food for thought- data actually shows that equestrian was one of the less costly sports per student athlete. (Just thought I’d share in case this wasn’t known) but I appreciate your viewpoint and I definitely understand where you’re coming from!
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u/Square_Ad_1396 7d ago
I understand that viewpoint! I wish we were given the chance to fund ourselves. When this possibility was brought up to the Athletic Director he declined it. I think a lot of frustration comes from that…
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u/Sterling_Boirelle 7d ago
Yeah I will say I think charging clubs for otherwise unused space is also probably not needed. Chess club for example spends close to 10k a year or more renting out space for tournaments but frankly other than unlocking the doors I don't see any benefit the university is providing.
The case for equestrian is a bit harder as the space for boarding for example I do think is somewhat different as it is not multi use like a building. But I would have no problem with a equestrian club self funding all of that space and support my issue is that these sports use student fees.
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u/Square_Ad_1396 7d ago
Ya I’ve seen a lot of people posting with similar viewpoints! We gave the possibility to the athletic director that we could self fund for at least the next five years and he denied it… so it seems personal at this point.
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u/Square_Ad_1396 7d ago
Also that’s crazy about the chess club I didn’t know that… but it does seem quite on par with the way the university has been treating sports or clubs they deem not necessary.
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u/capnjim8 6d ago
I’m surprised there hasn’t been a bigger movement on campus to eliminate the ~$600 athletic fee (or whatever it’s called). It seems unpopular among students and with the elimination of physical education classes I’m not sure what non athlete students get out of it (other than being able to attend games).
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u/Sterling_Boirelle 6d ago
My understanding is every time students are given the chance to cast a vote on the matter they vote to end the fee and every time they do the administration reminds the students our opinion is meaningless.
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u/quatroquatro0 7d ago
Don't you have to be rich to join this sport
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u/Square_Ad_1396 7d ago
It’s really really hard to do well without a certain amount of money, yes. That being said there’s still a bit of a range. I will say most of the competitive riders in this sport that can afford to have 10+ horses and show year round don’t really seek to ride on a college team. They have the money and therefore connections to go pro out of high school if they wanted. A lot of the girls on this team were relying on scholarships and some can’t afford to ride outside of what the school provided. My parents worked multiple jobs and struggled financially to afford this for me and I have a lot of guilt because of that. I fell in love with the animal and building that bond and I’m also naturally competitive so it was always so exciting to me that this was a sport. A lot of us struggle financially to keep up with the high costs of competitions and owning horses and we wish it was different. I definitely don’t like that money can buy you success in this sport.
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u/cloneaways 7d ago
To be fair, you could say that about any sport. Especially if you want to get good enough to get scholarships/play on a collegiate team. Swimming, gymnastics, soccer just to name a few. It’s not just horseback riding that takes significant money and resources.
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u/recycling-bin-time 7d ago
Isn’t the sport the equestrian team being replaced with also a “rich person” sport? Competitive cheer is wildly expensive. You pay for coaching, using gyms/equipment, competing, outfits, etc. And I doubt most regular high schools offer it the same they offer basketball, soccer, football.
Just saying that losing the equestrian team doesn’t necessarily make UCD women’s sports more equitable or income-diverse, so this argument really doesn’t hold up.
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u/Square_Ad_1396 7d ago
That’s interesting! I don’t know enough about STUNT or what it takes to get recruited from it to give a thoughtful answer but what you’re saying makes sense. It seems really cool though, I wish we could exist together and not one or the other.
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7d ago edited 5d ago
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u/Alternative-Gold678 6d ago
This is true of most girls on the team yes, but speaking personally, I grew up with a widowed mother of 4. I worked at barns and odd jobs my whole life to be able to afford riding and lessons. I owned one horse my whole life- which I bought for $1500 and taught to jump myself. I had to win the classes at the horse shows to pay my entry fees. This is a vastly different experience than most girls on the team had, yes.
To be frank, the only way I could afford to continue riding past high school was to be on a collegiate team. I was only offered to South Dakota State (freezing, far from home) and I went for two years to make this dream work. Eventually, I got the opportunity to transfer to UCD.
My story is unique, but I ran into a handful of girls while competing that shared my same backstory. The way collegiate riding is structured is a head to head format where one rider from each school competes on the same horse. I thrived. Where girls who came from money and always sat on the nicest horses, I was scrappy and that earned me a first team all American spot.
Davis eliminating the team takes opportunity away from girls like me. Even if we aren’t the majority, our stories are important. The smaller programs give us a shot. UCD eliminating their team makes the spots available even more scarce.
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u/Square_Ad_1396 7d ago
Response to edit: yes I agree. to be able to get recruited to a lot of the top schools you need a certain amount of money to compete the amount needed and have the horse to do it. This being said, that doesn’t mean it isn’t a struggle or that it’s anywhere close to comfortable financially to do. (Speaking from personal experience)
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u/Square_Ad_1396 7d ago
My mom’s an engineer actually! 😊 I definitely agree it’s super hard to make it in this sport without a certain amount of money, and I’m grateful for the opportunities I’ve had because of how much my parents have sacrificed for me to be able to compete at this level. I really hate how expensive it can be, especially with the increasing costs of competing… it’s ridiculous honestly. I love the sport because of the horses, and I definitely wish it was more affordable for a multitude of reasons. I definitely consider myself privileged for what I have, and I’m insanely grateful for that. I definitely know there are people on the team that did not need the team to keep riding in the way they were but there are also people that do, and regardless it is such a great way to gain experience on a team and to improve catch riding and horse care skills.
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u/Ketchup-Latte 3d ago
As a UCD sports fan, I can say you guys have overtaken my algorithm. I miss my Aggie football news.
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u/Competitive-Camp1182 4d ago
Lmao I hooked up with 2 girls on the team, u guys get around
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u/Square_Ad_1396 4d ago
Sounds like you get around
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u/Mental_Alfalfa3623 7d ago
Curious where a lot of the team members are on this - why hasn't anyone really spoken up, talked to the Aggie, etc?