Double gold for Ireland was the climax of an historic weekend at the world championships in Bulgaria where Sanita Puspure and the O’Donovan brothers finally reached the top of the podium.

Hunited for its meat on the steppes of Central Asia, the horse seems to have been domesticated by the Botai people of Kazakhstan five and a half millennia ago. The noble beast was revered even then; horse skulls were buried with their snouts facing the rising sun.