MARIANNE AND RICHARD HATFIELD

Often when persons embark on a lifetime career, we hear of their “baptism by fire,” a thorough testing of their fitness for the new venture. Not so with Marianne and Dick Hatfield as they became Arabian breeders. They had a “baptism by mud” — a whole ditch of mud. Both thoroughly covered by same, both scrambling to get a third occupant of the stream into a drier place. Marianne tells the story well.

“Dick and I eagerly counted the days as our first Arabian mare Bint Treyf was due with her first, and our first, foal. We had just moved into our new home, and we were fighting time and the elements to finish building a barn before either the foal or