{"id":2980,"date":"2016-03-14T13:32:13","date_gmt":"2016-03-14T21:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pre-production.taftcollege.edu\/tcwp\/cougaronline\/?p=2980"},"modified":"2016-03-14T13:32:13","modified_gmt":"2016-03-14T21:32:13","slug":"where-the-horses-come-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.taftcollege.edu\/echo-online\/blog\/2016\/03\/14\/where-the-horses-come-first\/","title":{"rendered":"Where the Horses Come First"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bit-O-Heaven Ranch: Where the Horses Come First<\/p>\n<p>By: Ellie Hilliard<\/p>\n<p>Since 1997 Tracy Totton-Martin has made it her life\u2019s mission to provide a safe, loving, and forever home for over one hundred rescue horses throughout the San Joaquin Valley. As an equestrian with over fifty years of experience, Totton-Martin has put her heart, soul, and living into the development and upkeep of Bit-O-Heaven Ranch. It is because of her commitment and passion that Bit-O-Heaven has been able to continuously function as a successful, non-profit equine rescue.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2991\" style=\"width: 417px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2991\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2991\" src=\"http:\/\/oldweb.taftcollege.edu\/tcwp\/cougaronline\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/bhr1.jpg\" alt=\"Tracy Totton-Martin and rescue horse Chief\" width=\"407\" height=\"326\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-2991\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tracy Totton-Martin and rescue horse Chief<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Over the past twenty years of the ranch\u2019s operation, countless numbers of abandoned, abused, starved, and neglected horses have been brought to Bit-O-Heaven to receive a last chance at a\u00a0contented life. The horses are saved, loved, and given a purpose for the remainder of their existences. Irish Rose is just one example of how Tracy Totton-Martin, Bit-O-Heaven, and its numerous volunteers are able to make a difference in the lives of rescue horses. Found abandoned and nearly starved to death, former racehorse, Irish Rose, was taken in by Bit-O-Heaven and completely rehabilitated. She currently resides at Bit-O-Heaven along with thirty-three other rescue horses.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2990\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2990\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2990\" src=\"http:\/\/oldweb.taftcollege.edu\/tcwp\/cougaronline\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/bhr2.jpg\" alt=\"Irish Rose before\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-2990\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Irish Rose before<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_2989\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2989\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2989\" src=\"http:\/\/oldweb.taftcollege.edu\/tcwp\/cougaronline\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/bhr3.jpg\" alt=\"Irish Rose after\" width=\"800\" height=\"598\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-2989\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Irish Rose after<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunatley Irish Rose is just one of the many horses, needing rescuing and rehabilitation, that happened to be found and taken in by Bit-O-Heaven Ranch. Without the admirable actions of Tracy-Totton Martin and the countless volunteers at Bit-O-Heaven Ranch over a hundred horses would never have been rescued from abandonment, neglect, and abuse. As a non-profit, Bit-O-Heaven relies on contributions through donations and volunteerism. For more information regarding Bit-O-Heaven Ranch, check out their website at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bit-o-heavenranchinc.org\/\">www.bit-o-heavenranchinc.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bit-O-Heaven Ranch: Where the Horses Come First  By: Ellie Hilliard  Since 1997 Tracy Totton-Martin has made it her life\u2019s mission to provide a safe, loving, and forever home for over one hundred rescue horses throughout the San Joaquin Valley. As an equestrian with over fifty years of experience, Totton-Martin has put her heart,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.taftcollege.edu\/echo-online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.taftcollege.edu\/echo-online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.taftcollege.edu\/echo-online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.taftcollege.edu\/echo-online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.taftcollege.edu\/echo-online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.taftcollege.edu\/echo-online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2980\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.taftcollege.edu\/echo-online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.taftcollege.edu\/echo-online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.taftcollege.edu\/echo-online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}