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NOVA

Milking a Horse is Harder than You Think

Anthropologist and filmmaker Niobe Thompson attempts to milk a horse, and discovers that the process is a lot more difficult than it sounds. Milking a mother horse, he explains, is all about tricking her. The process begins by having her foal suckle. Then, the foal is taken away and a human rushes in to take its place. But if the mother horse suspects anything is different, things can go awry.

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