A SPECIAL gift for a very special 50th birthday occasion went down a real treat recently.

Gillian Kyle asked East Meath-based artist and photographer Nadina Ironia to do a very special painting of her son Mark’s most successful eventers from his three Olympic Games and two World Equestrian Games Championships for his 50th birthday.

A close circle of family and friends travelled from near and far to the Kyle family home at Ballyvolan House Stud, Co Wicklow, where the painting was presented to a speechless Mark, officially unveiled by that well known equestrian commentator, his brother John Kyle, in the company of their proud parents Johnny and Gillian.