THWAITES brewery has a thoroughbred new recruit: a horse with no name.

The specially-selected pedigree Shire will be trained up over the coming year to complete a team of four to represent the company at festivals, events and pub openings

Company bosses are now looking for suggestions for a name for the black and white heavy horse to match his three dray-pulling colleagues Wainwright (13), Gunner (five) and Ribble (three).

The two-year-old gelding arrived at Thwaites Star Brewery stables in Blackburn town centre last week after travelling from his previous home in Shropshire.

Next month he will move with the other three established Shire Horses to a new purpose-built yard at the companies new brewery at Sykes Holt near Mellor Brook in the Ribble Valley.

Head horseman Richard Green, said: “We have been looking for a new addition since the beginning of the year but it takes a while because we have some quite specific requirements.

"Anyone who has seen our Shire Horses will know they are black with four white feet and a white flash on their nose and believe it or not, that’s quite difficult to find.

“We looked at quite a few but this one really fitted the bill and we are looking forward to him settling in to the team. It’s a great time for him to join us too, as we are preparing to move to our fantastic new stables in Mellor Brook.

" “We used to attend shows regularly and our tack room is filled with the rosettes that have been won over those years but in the last five years we haven’t entered any competitions.

“Gunner and Ribble are now a solid team, they look good and we want to show them off a bit more, so they will be at Westmorland Show later this month – their first competition together.

“It’ll be great to have all four horses out there raising the profile of Thwaites – all we need now is a name, and we’re open to suggestions if anyone has a good one.”

Once upon a time the Shire Horses were famous for delivering Thwaites beer to pubs but now they are the company’s mascots to celebrate new openings, investment, charity events, and fun days.

The horses are fed on the spent grain produced through the beer brewing process and travel around 10,000 miles a year.

To find out what the horses are up to, you can check out their Facebook page www.facebook.com/ThwaitesShireHorses