PHILIP McManus received a special gift recently when Galway artist and keen equestrian Rachel Parry presented the renowned ‘supervet’ with a portrait.

“During lockdown, my aunt and I decided we would take up a hobby, I took up painting and she took up drawing. Having not gone to art college, it was all trial and error. I just kept practising, trying new things and I would love to become a full-time artist one day,” said Rachel, who had a stand at Dublin Horse Show last year.

“Last summer, Philip treated my horse Darla, after we took a tumble at a show, he was brilliant. She healed up perfectly. He also treated my dog Jack recently late at night, no hesitation when I called. ‘Bring him straight here,’ he said. For all these reasons, I said to myself I would try to paint Silver Shadow. I trawled the internet for a photo and came across this one,” she said about Susan Finnerty’s photo of the pair, taken during the Connemara pony stallion parade at Dublin in 2019.

“So I began to paint and I was so pleased and excited with it, I tried to give it to Philip as soon as possible, but this actually proved more difficult than painting. Every time I tried to find him, he was away on a call! He does so much for us and all my friends’ animals, I was happy to give the painting to him.”