Equestrian ballet at Versailles

We just got home from an afternoon at Versailles. This was Anne's Christmas gift to us: Academie du spectacle equestre. It's a show put on by students of this school. It's dressage, choreographed to music. It's a good show that lasts a bit over an hour, made up of several tableaux in which you see the riders take the horses through their paces without boring you at all. The horses, mostly Lusitano, with some quarter-horses, are beautiful.
Most of the riders are young women. In fact, there were only two men! After the show, you get to go into the stables while the horses are being taken care of and put in their stalls. I asked one of the girls why there was such an unbalance and she said that boys usually go into obstacles, while girls like dressage. I then asked if she knew why there were no black or Asian riders and she said that there were a few riders from other countries, but she didn't know why there was no diversity. I have a hunch it's because there aren't too many stables in the "banlieues" and when you can find one, horse riding is an expensive sport.
They don't perform in summer after the beginning of July; they start again in mid-September. I recommend it if you are coming to Paris, want to go out to Versailles and see more than the chateau and gardens. The stables are very close to the train station, too.
Thank you, again, Anne!