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was bom to be a jumper. However, Sheppard does not habitually race fillies over fences. A half-sister to such prolific jumpers as Jilati, Dum Crambo and Royal Omerta, Silent Spiral left Sheppard’s West Grove, Pa., stable after winning over $30,000 on the flat. The chestnut eventually found her way to the Whiffletree training bams near Warrenton, said Collette.
“My trainer, Barbara [Wheeler] Frazier was working there at the same time,” Collette went cm. “She thought the horse looked like she needed a change, so we brought her here.”
“Silent Spiral was a very willing jumper, but she didn’t strike me as a natural right at first,” said Frazier, who lives in Bealeton with husband Ronnie. “As we schooled her, she just got better with the experience.”
Frazier’s method of training mostly from the field, (“Horses prefer to be free . . . they’re so much happier turned out,” said Collette) leaving horses out to pasture as much as possible, seemed to agree with the rangy mare. ' “We got Silent Spiral late in 1990, but she missed some of ’91 to tendon trouble,” Frazier related. “So, ’92 was the real test.”
The Pennsylvania-bred passed her test with flying colors, winning or placing in all but one start last season. She started the year winning at the Orange County
See Collette, Page 23
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