ENGLISH TEXTS
REPOR- TAGE
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By Céline Gualde
THE SILICON VALLEY OF HORSES
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June 17, 2025 will be a milestone day for Normandie Équine Vallée: in Goustranville, in France near Caen, the new campus will be inaugurated with great fanfare. It marks the final phase of a large-scale project launched by local authorities as far back as 1986. The ambition is enormous: to establish Normandy as the world epicenter for veterinary training and equine research.
It’ s hard to keep up with Céline Mespoulhes-Rivière in the wide corridors of the veterinary university hospital in Goustranville, where she works. The head of the medicine-surgery division walks fast and talks even faster, endlessly enthusiastic about the equine hospital whose creation she closely followed. She leads visitors from room to room, explaining in detail the flow system designed for horses in this space, built to optimize sanitary safety, proudly showing off the cutting-edge equipment housed within. The hospital, which opened in early January, is still far from running at full capacity. The ultimate goal is to receive 2,500 horses per year at the Goustranville site, while also fulfilling an educational and training mission.“ If I had to write my wishlist to Santa, how would I phrase it?” That’ s the question Dr. Mespoulhes-Rivière, formerly based in Maisons-Alfort, asked herself before envisioning this new hospital.“ The project was launched at the end of 2015. For over two years, we worked on planning- compiling a list of all our needs. This specifications document was given to the architect, who spent two years designing the final plans. Then followed two years of construction.” No corners were cut during the building process: the spaces are expansive, and the stalls are equipped with hoists. All examination and surgical rooms are fitted with cameras and screens so students don’ t miss a single detail. Students from the Maisons-Alfort veterinary school who wish to specialize in horses will now complete their curriculum in Normandy. Some are already here, paving the way; the long-term goal is to host
500 students, interns, or residents per year. Housing has been built to accommodate them, along with a hightech, 150-seat lecture hall. Hervé Morin, President of the Normandy Region, is convinced that all French veterinary schools will soon follow Maisons-Alfort’ s lead and invest in the Normandy campus. The Goustranville site is already preparing to expand by purchasing an additional 30 hectares along the A13 highway- room to build more housing and make space for new projects...
Forty years in the making The progress made since the purchase of a simple farm property in 1986 is astonishing. The original building of that farm still stands at the heart of Équine Vallée, an outdated farmhouse now surrounded by brandnew modern structures. The Horse Pathology Institute, with its autopsy room, was the first to be established on site, followed by CIRALE in 1999, and then Kinesia, a physiotherapy and rehabilitation center, in 2020. Its equine pool, complete with an observation pit to study horse movement, is one of a kind in the world. Simultaneously with the construction of the veterinary university hospital, the Anses laboratories were expanded, just like those on the Saint-Contest site before them. For Guillaume Fortier, Director General of Labéo,“ Normandie Équine Vallée is the world’ s
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