Police horse's new name - that she chose herself

Lancashire Police's newest horse recruit has been officially welcomed to the ranks after choosing her working name herself - and has favoured central Lancashire with her new moniker.

The five-year-old, formerly known as Blossom, chose the name from a selection of three Lancashire villages written on buckets of food.

She skipped past Whalley and Langho and went straight to Cottam, stablehand Carly Henderson said.

"She knows what she wants and went straight to it," she added.

"Sometimes it's difficult to get the names to suit the horse, but I really think the one she's picked suits her," she said.

"Previously we've let the public choose names, but we thought we'd do something different."

Cottam is one of 16 horses at Lancashire Police's mounted branch in Hutton.

She has been there about six months, and is currently in training, including getting used to "nuisances" which include flags and walking over tarpaulin or in and out of street furniture.

Cottam will then move on to smoke and fire training and public order training.

Other big parts of the job are events and community reassurance.

"Because you don't see them all the time, people think they don't work day to day, but we utilise them throughout the county and they're always going out and about," Ms Henderson said.

"I think because the horse is there, it just makes people more confident to come up to the police, and the horse breaks that boundary.

"And it's good for the horses when people come and talk to her, because that's going to be what her working life will be."

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