05/20/2026
This is the written email sent to chancellor May by a recruit’s mom, asking to review the decision Rocko and Sean falsely justified to cut the equestrian team : 📝⬇️
I haven't emailed anyone or shared our story yet, but before a final decision is made about reinstating the equestrian team, please take the time to read this. I hope you can understand the real impact this decision has had on girls like my daughter and the futures they worked so hard to build.
My daughter was a 2026 horsemanship recruit for the equestrian team. She is a soft-spoken girl who always felt a little like an outcast because she was the only one at her high school who rode horses. She missed many days of school for horse shows, yet still maintained a 4.3 GPA throughout high school.
She competed against girls who had expensive horses, fancy clothes, high-profile trainers, etc. We did not have those things. We often made our own show clothes and did barn chores just to help reduce training and show fees. Being at the bottom financially meant my daughter had to work twice as hard just to be noticed.
I am also a single mother, and her father has not been in the picture. Everything my daughter achieved came from years of sacrifice, hard work, and struggle. There were many times I went without things myself just to make sure she could continue riding, continue training, and continue chasing her dream. We sacrificed family vacations, extra spending, and so many normal things because we believed all of the hard work would someday lead her to the future she earned.
Her dream was always to ride on a Division 1 equestrian team. Since we could not afford private recruiting consultants or constant travel to major competitions, she created her own riding videos and wrote her own introduction emails to coaches, hoping someone somewhere would finally see potential in her.
In late October 2024, she was contacted by the assistant coach at UC Davis. After phone calls and video reviews, she was offered an official visit. As an out-of-state girl, the idea of traveling all the way to California was huge and honestly terrifying, but there was no way we could pass up the opportunity to visit a Division 1 school.
In March of 2025, she took her official visit to UC Davis. Upon arrival, my daughter fell in love with everything. The engineering program, the campus, the barn, and the girls on the team. For the first time in her life, she felt like she truly belonged somewhere. After the visit, she was offered a spot on the team. She came home with tears in her eyes because after years of feeling overlooked, someone finally saw her worth. I saw the happiness in her soul when we were in Davis and despite the huge financial commitment to attend UC Davis, I was willing to accept that burden to allow my daughter to chase her dream.
In May 2025, she gave her verbal commitment to the UC Davis equestrian team, and from that moment on, everything became about UC Davis. She planned her entire future around becoming an Aggie. She took senior pictures with UC Davis apparel, picked out a roommate, talked constantly about moving to California, and spent months preparing for the next chapter of her life. UC Davis was no longer just a school to her. It became her dream, her home, and the future she worked years to build.
What hurts the most is knowing that the decision to cut the team had already been made in April 2025. At the time my daughter committed, she should have been told the team would no longer exist so she could have pursued other opportunities and protected her future.
Instead, the university worked with her to obtain professional riding photos and created a UC Davis equestrian commitment graphic that was shared on social media. How could they even do this knowing there wasn't going to be a team??? Since May, we have continued communication with the university staff regarding financial aid, housing, horse donation information, uniform sizing, and everything else needed for her future as a member of the equestrian team. We were told to just sit back and enjoy the remainder of her senior year and to plan for her arrival in the fall. So that is what we did... Again, how could all this happen knowing there was no team for her in 2026??
In December 2025, my daughter sat on a stage in front of her entire high school of 2,500 students on their D1 National Signing Day. She was the only equestrian rider signing that day...and in fact, in the history of her high school! She felt out of place sitting beside football and basketball players, but I reminded her how hard she worked to be sitting on that stage and how much she deserved that moment. Why was this allowed? Why let my daughter humiliate herself and sit there, as if she were really going to be a part of a team? A team that was already cut!
Then, only a month later, she received the devastating news that the team was being disbanded. That moment brought her to her knees and she genuinely lost her spirit.
My daughter had not applied anywhere else because UC Davis was where she committed her future. By January 9, it was far too late. Most college application deadlines had already passed, and the other Division 1 dual discipline equestrian teams had already filled their 2026 rosters.
This left my daughter right back at the starting line after years of sacrifice and hard work. Not just for riding, but academically as well. While everyone else was receiving acceptance letters, she was left trying to find out which college would even accept a late application.
This selfish decision to cut this team has completely broken her. She worked so hard for this opportunity. Years of riding, sacrifices, long drives, missed events, stress, hard work in school, and putting herself out there to be seen, only to have it all disappear overnight. No one thought of these consequences when they decided to eliminate the team. As a parent, I search for ways to make this all go away, but it's a wound that will never stop bleeding. I hope that any parent reading this will not have to face this struggle with their child in the future. I am trying my best to help my daughter move forward, but she is broken.
While the current riders are losing the sport they love, recruits like my daughter are also losing both the team and the college they planned their future around. For our family, paying out-of-state tuition to attend a school without the team she committed to simply is not realistic.
The decision to cut this team without considering the futures of these young women has had an irreplaceable impact on their lives. Opportunities like this do not simply come back. Dreams like this are not easily rebuilt. These girls trusted the university with their futures, and many of them now have to completely start over after dedicating years of their lives to this sport.
I know this is just our story, but despite only one story being told in this email, the level of devastation this decision has created reaches far more than just my daughter. I wanted you to understand the real human impact this decision has had. This was not just a sport to her. It was her future, her identity, and the dream she spent years fighting for.
She now realizes that riding on a Division 1 team is no longer something she will be able to pursue. We have sold her horse, sold her equipment, and stepped away from showing completely in order to afford college. Watching her give up the one thing she loved most has been heartbreaking as a parent.
Please do not let these girls’ futures and dreams be destroyed by this decision.
Thank you for taking the time to read our story.
