Slider AceDilday

Ace’s Slider

Slider AceDildayAce Dilday & Topsails Rien Maker • Courtesy of Dilday RanchIn the days following Topsails Rien Maker’s May 22 death, social media forums were flooded with people adding their personal experiences and feelings about the legendary stallion. Among the many great anecdotes trainer Russell Dilday shared with Quarter Horse News (QHN) was one of his autistic son, Ace Dilday, and “Slider” at their home in Wynnewood, Oklahoma.

“Not only did that horse let me ride him bareback, but my boy Ace would get on that horse in the pasture with nothing. He’d just get on him bareback, turned out in the pasture, and ride him all over his pen,” Dilday told QHN Managing Editor Kelsey Pecsek. “Then he’d lay on him for a while, then sit up and kick him around the pen again. When Slider got tired of him, he’d just go sit by the fence until Ace got off.

“I mean, for a show stud that’s been all over and bred all the mares, that’s just the kind of stuff that made him special. My boy’s going to miss that one.”

Read more about Topsails Rien Maker in the latest issue of the QHN Insider.