Residents can meet Brighton and Hove's new police horses when they start patrolling the streets next month.

Five horses and their riders will be on loan from the Avon and Somerset force for two weeks from June 11.

For the first week PC Ian West will ride Matthew, a ten-year-old draught cross thoroughbred gelding.

They will be joined by PC Helen Reynolds and Somerset, a nine-year-old bay gelding, and Sergeant Andrew Bishop riding Taunton Deane, an 18-year-old Hanoverian cross Irish bay gelding.

During the second week of the trial they will be replaced by PC Ian Hull and Imperial, an eight-year-old Irish draught thoroughbred bay gelding, and Windsor, an eight-year-old Shire cross thoroughbred bay gelding ridden by PC Tadeusz Grabowski.

They will patrol the streets of Brighton and Hove as part of a feasibility study on the reintroduction of police horses to the city after an absence of more than 20 years.

The command team at Hove police station want to bring them back as part of a "high-visibility policing" initiative.

Sergeant Steve Barry said: "People will have the chance to see them working on the streets.

"But we hope that they will also have the chance to meet the horses and speak to the riders.

"We are holding an open day at Hove police station on June 16 and we hope the horses will be able to take part."

Although the horses will use the police station in Holland Road, Hove, as their operational base, they will be kept overnight at stables just outside the city.