The summary of his analysis: “…cancelling Equestrian is going to end up costing the school money, rather than saving it money."
Internal emails, April 2025: "Do not include in budget meeting presentation. Not needed DUE TO ELIMINATION OF EQUESTRIAN PROGRAM MOVING FORWARD."
Yet they still recruited for the whole next year and then denied them admission.
Yet they still solicited donor money for the whole next year "for the future of the equestrian team".
They inflated the equestrian expenses by 120%. They said equestrian was the 2nd most expensive sport when the external economist revealed it is ranked 15th - well below the mean. They funnel millions of dollars into men's sports while women's sports don't have locker rooms or running water. They move to Mountain West (and the athletic director gets a big pay raise in the process) while pushing aside Olympic sports and cutting a 3-time championship winning equestrian team at our top agricultural school.
The football team costs the school 5 million annually (7 million expenses minus 2 million in revenue). We have donor money and they said "no amount of money will make us reinstate this team". WHY?
And students pay for it.
Please help us by emailing the administration!
Who to email:
chancellor@ucdavis.edu, president@ucop.edu, regentsoffice@ucop.edu, kmengelbach@ucdavis.edu
Subject line: Reinstate the Women's D1 Equestrian Team
Sample body text:
"We are aware that an external economic analysis has found that the equestrian expenses were inflated 120% by athletics, and that those numbers were used to eliminate this team. We respectfully request a reinstatement of the Championship-winning Division 1 Equestrian Team at our top agricultural and veterinary school and land-grant institution. We respectfully ask for PE credits to be reinstated and a full accounting of how our student funded athletic department is managing our money."
An external economic analysis performed by Andy Schwarz of OSKR (https://www.oskr.com/andyschwarz reveals that the Athletics Department at UC Davis inflated the equestrian expenses by 120% and used those numbers to justify cutting the team.
Internal UC Davis document: "Expenses for equestrian continue to increase rapidly and are far greater than other sports on a per student-athlete basis."
External economic analysis: "...the Equestrian per-athlete ranking is 15th."
The summary and embedded full report can be found here:
https://keepdavisriding.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/UCDEQ-Independent-Audit-Release-4.26.26.pdf
Please help us by emailing the administration!
Who to email:
chancellor@ucdavis.edu, president@ucop.edu, regentsoffice@ucop.edu, kmengelbach@ucdavis.edu
Subject line: Financial Inflation Found - Reinstate the Women's D1 Equestrian Team and Investigate Misuse of Student-Funded Fees
Sample body text:
"We are aware that an external economic analysis has found that the equestrian expenses were inflated 120% by athletics, and that those numbers were used to eliminate this team. We respectfully request a reinstatement of the Championship-winning Division 1 Equestrian Team at our top agricultural and veterinary school and land-grant institution. We respectfully ask for PE credits to be reinstated and a full accounting of how our student funded athletic department is managing our money."
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