'Running a Champion Hurdle horse twice in three days? They'd say you were mad'

Once upon a time, there were two special horses who symbolised the way things used to be. 

They raced year after year, through spring, summer, autumn and winter, over hurdles and on the Flat, always busy, never boring. They were old horses who to jumps fans became old friends. Now some of the folk they left behind are of a certain age, pleased and proud to tell the stories of those remarkable, durable and utterly wonderful animals.

From 1978 to 1981, the Champion Hurdle was won by either Monksfield or Sea Pigeon. For the first three of those years, the two fierce rivals, one Irish, the other British, jumped Cheltenham's final flight ahead of their opponents, almost inseparable. They were a double act whose fame and popularity were built not simply on iconic festival clashes but more widely because of everything else they did over such a long time.