A Horse With No Name

It's a pretty trivial story but news that Thames Valley police were proposing to rename one of their trainee police horses 'from Brian to something more god-like' (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-31446635) does make you wonder. Horses, like any other beast including dogs, have no idea what their names mean but can learn to respond to a particular sound. It could be confusing for an animal undergoing training to suddenly be called 'Hercules' (an apparent contender name). I suspect that the name changes are more driven by a police desire to appear 'hard' as 'Brian' sounds a bit friendly. Why it should get no much media attention is beyond me.