Former UC Davis Equestrian team members sue university for $1.4 million in sex-based discrimination lawsuit
The lawsuit alleges federal funds that should have gone to female athletes went to their male counterparts
By KIMBERLY AYSON— campus@theaggie.org
19 former UC Davis Equestrian team members have filed a formal complaint against UC Davis for violations of Title IX, the federal civil rights law, over alleged unfair distribution of federal aid funds.
The lawsuit was filed on Sept. 29 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California arguing that UC Davis deprived its female athletes of financial aid, and that the funds were used to give additional aid to their male counterparts. It also calls on UC Davis to pay approximately $1.4 million in financial damages for alleged misappropriation of funds in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years. The damages estimate is based on the proportional share of aid that Title IX requires.
The lawsuit was filed just months after the school transitioned the NCAA Division I Women’s Equestrian program to a campus club sport.
“What the complaint says is that, ‘Look, it's not just that you didn’t give the money to the women. You actually gave it to the men,’” Arthur Bryant, legal counsel for the team at Arthur Bryant Law, said in an interview. “If women are supposed to have their proportional share of the total amount, [UC Davis] needs to give them damages that make up for the fact that you not only took it from them but gave it to the men. [$1.4 million] is what you have to pay them each year to compensate them fairly.”
Title IX of the 1972 Education Act is a federal policy applicable to any educational institution or program that receives federal funds and prohibits discrimination based on an individual's sex, gender expression and gender identity when being evaluated to receive financial assistance.
The lawsuit alleges that UC Davis has not paid its women athletes equal athletic financial aid since the 2017-18 school year, based on the law firm's independent investigation of Davis’ Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act data.
A UC Davis spokesperson denied any wrongdoing in a statement.
“We strongly believe we are in compliance with Title IX,” the spokesperson said.
The decision for UC Davis to cut the Equestrian team was announced on Jan. 9 and cited financial concerns; it took effect on July 1. The news was devastating to the Equestrian program, especially considering that the team was on a historic run, winning every single conference meet of their 2025-26 season and securing their third Eastern College Athletic Conference Championship title of 2026.
Mylea Trimble, former UC Davis Equestrian team member and one of the 19 plaintiffs on the case, remembered the day the athletic director broke the news to the team.
“We were all very shocked and unsure as to why, because this was the most successful season that our program had ever had, and we didn't know what to do,” Trimble said. “It's hard to support a decision like that when you don't really understand where the decision's coming from, and we never really got that clarity. They claimed it was financial, but then when we would try to compromise with them and try to offer solutions for the financial side of it, they just told us that that wasn't an option.”
The claim about financial realities was questioned, and prompted the team to ask for financial documentation and audits to explain the cut. These documents were released months later in April as part of a statement responding to concerns about the team's downgrade. UC Davis Athletics contracted a private consulting group, Collegiate Consulting, and cited an independent external assessment to back their decision.
“An important consideration in making this decision is that Varsity Equestrian is among the most resource-intensive sports to sponsor, due to the specialized care, housing, veterinary services, and training required for horses,” the statement reads.
A Title IX analysis of the consulting report, showing a discrepancy in financial aid between men and women, caught the eye of parents and team members and prompted the filing of the lawsuit.
Trimble, now a UC Davis graduate student in the school’s Master of Management Program, said being a named plaintiff against the school was important to her.
“If something like this could happen to our team, it could happen to anybody's team here at Davis,” Trimble said. “For us to believe that we were being treated fairly and that we were [receiving] support from Athletics and then it turned out that that's not accurate. I feel like it was very important for me to be able to speak up for the other women athletes here at Davis.”
The case remains underway, and Bryant hopes to get justice for the university’s inequity.
“The case itself is straight mathematics,” Bryant said. “The numbers are their numbers. They show that UC Davis is discriminating against the women athletes, and we intend to hold them accountable.”
Written by: Kimberly Ayson — campus@theaggie.org