On June 15, 2026, the French postal service, La Poste, issued a block of stamps commemorating trotting races on their 190th anniversary.
In the Calendar of Horse Races, edited by the Englishman Thomas Bryon, the entry for the Manche races held in Cherbourg on September 25, 1836, is a record.
As early as 1830, the young stud farm inspector, Éphrem Houël, had to wage a real battle to bring his project to fruition: establishing competitions exclusively for trotting in Normandy. His initiative finally came to fruition thanks to the support of a wine merchant, Mr. Le Magnen, eager to attract English customers. Thus, the first races took place on Collignon beach.
In 1837, the city of Caen followed suit and contributed to the growth of trotting races in Normandy. This momentum led, on October 21, 1864, to the creation of the Society for the Improvement of the French Half-Blood Horse, a foundational institution in the history of French trotting.
The adventure then truly took off. The French trotter gradually gained its place and, as early as 1879, earned its rightful place in Paris, at the Vincennes racecourse, which has since become the world's leading trotting track.
