UCD Equestrian Center

In the arena

Location

Off Garrod Drive, across from the Vet School

Phone

(530)752-2372

Website

link

The UCD Equestrian Center is experiencing some wonderful new changes and upgrades!(fall 2007-2008). They have new gravel throughout the property, proper grading and drainage have been installed. The enormous indoor arena is finally up and running. The 3 barns (Cypress, Sycamore and Poplar) have all been renovated and include individual tack lockers.

They are set up for boarding as well as lessons. The UCD Equestrian center is directly across the street from the School Of Veterinary Medicine Large Animal Clinic, and UCD VMTH Farrier Shop. If your horse requires frequent vet care or specialized horseshoeing this may be a factor in your choice of where to board a horse.

The fencing is a bit run-down (metal pipes and some plastic fencing with electric wire) and it's right in that space between 113 and I-80 as they meet. You can train your horse to get used to the traffic noise but it can be scary for some horses, especially when very large loud trucks go by on the freeway just 30 feet from the arena. There is a waiting list to board your horse at this time. Due to a very recent policy change only registered students, not staff, faculty or alumni (unless they are current registered students) are allowed to board a horse at the equestrian center. Several veterinarians, faculty and staff have been forced to remove their horses recently (summer, fall 2007).

There are two outdoor fenced arenas (one with good newer painted jumps and one with two run-down, unpainted leftover jumps), a huge new 4.4 million dollar indoor arena with lights (good footing, painted newer jumps) opened fall 2007, a dressage arena (new footing Nov 2006, drains well, too much highway traffic noise), two small round turn-outs (with rock hard, bad footing), and some grass riding area on what used to be the full size "polo" field (now home to indoor arena). There are cross country fences set up on the polo field such as a water jump and a ditch. The lights in the main arena and the new indoor arena both take 20-30 minutes to turn on, and both sometimes turn off unexpectedly leaving you suddenly, unsafely riding in the dark. There is one restroom. Heated water in wash racks.

There are limited hours of access to the property, hours are 7 am to 8:00pm and the gates are LOCKED otherwise. Emergency access via campus police. The hours change. Call for information.

Sassi, one of the lesson horses, in the Main Barn

These prices are for Fall 2008

• "Pasture" boarding — $195/month, feed and cleaning included.
  

• Barn Stall —$325/month, feed and cleaning included.
  

• The monthly fee to "hold" a stall is $150 a month.

The Equestrian Center also offers riding lessons. The horses are all donated, so their abilities vary. (the center began accepting donations of horse again in Dec 2007). The instructors are all UC Davis students, but they're always very experienced. Really, it's a great deal for the beginning rider. Lessons typically meet once a week for eight weeks. The UCD Equestrian Center is always looking for new donations of horses that can jump or are otherwise useful for the lesson program. Many donated lesson horses are kept for years, given excellent veterinary care and then either die from breaking down, old age or are adopted out if unrideable. Please consider donating a horse, tack, left over unopened bagged feed or funding to the lesson program.

The Equestrian Center operates an affordable, extensive year-round program in English and Western riding, beginning through advanced levels. Offers successive, week-long summer camps for kids that include riding and swimming. Specialized classes are offered in Eventing, Hunter/Jumper, Dressage, Western, and team competition. Trail rides are available. Call to request a catalog of Equestrian Center activities.

Group Lessons:

• UCD Student: $190 with own horse, $220 with Center horse
  

• General Public: $250 with own horse, $280 with Center horse

They also offer semi-private and private lessons, please call for information.

The facility offers the unique service of a barn supervisor on site several hours per day who is usually an undergraduate student majoring in Animal Studies or Equine Health (pre-vet). The Barn Supervisors turn horses out daily, blanket and otherwise perform services for the horses. There are set daily fees (roughly close to $5-15) for each of these services. Monthly blanketing is $60.00 and monthly turnouts are $60.00 (3 X week).

Please add more information beyond what's on their website!

Random Noting-

Every single one of the lesson horses are donated. (And also McNugget, the unofficial mascot.)

Here's a list of current & past lesson horses, which is hopefully accurate: UCD Equestrian Center Horses

Read a story and see photos about the UCD Equestrian Center in the June 09 issue of Davis Life Magazine.

Comments:

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2008-09-22 22:21:24   The EQC should not lure you in with its convenience if you are a new student coming to Davis. It might be convenient if you don't have a car, but ultimately a bad choice. For boarding: Only registered students are allowed to board. You are only allowed to board one horse. The waiting list to get into the facility is quite long, and they don't really keep it updated. THEY NO LONGER HAVE PIPE PENS, and rates have gone up. Pastures are now $190 (and ALWAYS full) and stalls are $300+. There are no other options. When I was looking in to boarding my horse here, they did not offer discounts for mucking your own stall. Also, the tack storage situation is horrible. Plan on keeping your stuff in your car, because you will have almost no space to keep anything at the barn, and being the nature of the high traffic stable, stuff WILL get stolen. IF YOU ARE THINKING OF TAKING LESSONS: Don't. The "instructors" are 18 year old freshman college students who barely know how to ride themselves. It is not hard at all to get hired as an instructor, and the turnover rate is so high that there is no consistent teaching style or quality. The lessons are crowded and you will barely learn anything. The horses are jaded lesson pony that you will learn very little from. Instead of taking lessons here, see about getting a cheap lease on a horse and finding a private, QUALIFIED instructor. —quarabaloosa

2009-01-10 18:52:21   First of all, boarding is limited to registered students because they are the ones that pay tuition money (which in part goes to campus rec programs i.e. the EQC and helps maintains the facility). It is also limited to 1 horse per boarder because there is such a long wait list already. We would rather have as many people here as possible. The waiting list is so long because it is a very convinient location for students. The waitlist is kept as updated as possible. Pipe pens and self-clean stall are no longer available because a lot of students do not have the time to clean their stall everyday and the stall gets disgusting! Are you really going to out there mucking in the wind, rain, and cold when you have a 12-page paper due the next day anyway? Pastures are always full because they are priced so much lower than the stalls, duh. The tack lockers aren't that bad. There are two racks for saddles and lots of places to hang stuff in it. The traffic does not bother the horses. I have never had one spook on me due to the freeway. Things will get stolen pretty much everywhere you go so just be sensible and keep your stuff locked up in your locker, not out and about and all over the place. The instructors do well for what they are. Students teaching other students. They aren't high level trainers that did Rolex so don't expect them to be. We have a lot of great little ponies. Yes, some of them get a little jaded since they have to put up with a lot of beginner riders but they do their job well. All of the ponies are donated. We are not allowed to buy any so we work with what we can get. They go through an intensive 90-day trail period where they are evaluated many times. We never accept horses that are not safe (for a horse anyway). There are lots of upgrades still in the works like more drainage grading, new fences going up, etc. Of course we have to wait on the university to give us money and that tends to take some time. All in all, the ECQ is a great place to board your horse! —Desire

2009-04-27 11:45:22   The EQC is a nice facility. they have several horses in varying abilities (some are jaded and others are very high strung). their outdoor arenas dont have the best footing (sand) but overall they're great. the cross cuntry course is nice and they have newer show jumps. the traffic noise is not tht bad. however, some of the stalls seem kind of dirty and i did not see any place to store tack and su[[lies. the staff is very nice and i would highly reccomend the EQC to riders. —pompomcakes

2009-07-12 02:00:11   I recently took a lesson at EQC and had a WONDERFUL time. I would highly reccomend EQC for many types of riding —pompomcakes

2009-07-24 22:38:26   The Equestrian Center is a great resource for UCD! Okay, it isn't the flashiest or fanciest barn I've been to but the horses are well fed, well cared for, and not overworked. The students who work for the EQC are (for the most part) wonderful and caring individuals who love horses in general and love the quirky ponies who get donated. They work in extreme (for Nor Cal) weather conditions to teach lessons (and make bad pay, I assume, as student workers) and the barn supervisors give up their weekends, mornings and evenings to be there to ensure the safety of the riders and horses. Three cheers for them! I've had some mediocre student instructors but I've also had some outstanding instructors who helped me grow as a rider and helped me achieve goals in the saddle I never thought I could do and who show great commitment to being good instructors even with sometimes less than ideal circumstances. The center is making some slow but good renovations re-doing pens, barns and planting trees. The horses provide good hands-on practice for the vet students, too, who also work really hard to keep the ponies healthy and happy. Because they are donated horses many do have some bad habits or odd issues but thankfully this program exists because the alternative for many of these horses who are no longer useful or wanted by their owners could have been much worse. This is a nice gig for them, their work hours are tightly monitored and they are limited to working in courses that won't exacerbate any issues they might have. The guardian angel program where you can adopt a horse is a great way to spend extra time with the horses and give them extra love and attention. All in all, the EQC is one of the best things about UCD and has a great group of workers who really seem to give their all to the center. —dandysgirl

2009-08-12 18:55:56   Please correct the photo caption of the black horse if it's not Sassafras. I'm making a guess based on markings & what looks to be 'Sassi' on her white board, however it's possible that that's one of the private horses, or a horse that was on trial. Sorry if there's a mistake! —KokoSorensen