WEST CHESTER — About 15,000 horse lovers lined borough streets to catch a glimpse of the Budweiser Clydesdales, Thursday afternoon. Much to the delight of more than 500 people who gathered at Borough Hall, eight huge horses, a Dalmatian, an old fashioned beer wagon and several handlers arrived in three Budweiser-red tractor trailers. Three and a half year old Hudson Coffin enjoyed the massive horses.

“Can I ride them?” he asked. “Can I pet them?” Jennifer Strame motored in from West Goshen Township. “They are huge and beautiful,” she said.

“We need to see them in our town.” Marie Levins said that the spectacle made her thirsty and that everybody loves Budweiser. Emma Strame, of West Goshen, agreed that the horses are “big salesmen.

” To mark the end of Prohibition in April of 1933, August A. Busch Jr. and Adolphus Busch III surprised their father with the gift of a six horse Clydesdale hitch, according to a Budweiser website.

Since then, the Clydesdales and the turn-of-the century red, white and gold beer wagons have appeared in countless Super Bowl commercials and draw large crowds wherever they appear. Like they did on Thursday, for West Chester businesses, teams have delivered beer to former New York governor Alfred E. Smith and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Since 1950, a proud Dalmatian rides perched high on the wagon and 10 horses that weigh 12 tons. Each hitch horse consumes as much as 20 to 25 quarts of whole grains, minerals and vitamins, 5.