# Leave only Hoof-prints?



## SeeinSpotz (Jul 15, 2009)

No, I dont. Because we have alot of people around where I live and we all ride horses on the same trails and it dont bug us.


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## themacpack (Jul 16, 2009)

If it were an actual "trail"/path - and especially one frequented by foot/bike/etc traffic, I would at least move the poo off the pathway. Most of the trail riding in my life, though, has been making our own path through the woods, fields, etc.


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## Trails (Jan 28, 2009)

I don't either, although poop on the trail is a HUGE issue with hikers and mountain bikers. When ever I give a talk on trail etiquette to mutli user groups the poop thing always comes up.


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## redneckprincess70 (May 5, 2009)

****--Sorry! Picturing mountain/ trail bike rider, flying through air, landing face first is large pile of pooh!!!


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## masatisan (Jan 12, 2009)

I always just think horse poo is much better than dog poo or pretty much any sort of poo. A family friend was saying some horses had been by and pooped on "her" road, I asked her if it dried out and "disappeared" and she answered "come to think of it...it did! It dried out and there was just like a bit of dried grass!"


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## Painted Horse (Dec 29, 2006)

The city recently paved an old railroad right a way. For years we have ridden it and not worried about road apples left on the old gravel. now that's paved and in use by lots more bikers, roller bladers, walkers, mom's pushing strollers etc, I do get off the horse and kick the manure off to the side.

Dirt trails up in the mountain. Even ones frequented by mountain bikers, I don't worry about it. The road apples dry out pretty quickly around here ( Utah is a dry state) and turn into decomposed grass on the trail. I like to think that it helps keep the trails from washing away. But I know the mountain bikers grumble about their tires flipping it up in their faces ( most mountain bikes don't have fenders) But I just rarely every see gooey or juicy road apples. They dry out so fast. And unlike dog crap, Horse manure doesn't not contain pathogens. Thats why Horse and Cow manure is frequently used to fertilize fields and humana nd dog feces are not.

And as most horse owners know. Horse manure doesn't stick to the bottom of your shoe. Unlike dog crap, where I want to throw my shoe away when I step in a pile.


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## MyBoyPuck (Mar 27, 2009)

My horse is 16.2 If I got off to clean up his poop, I'd have to find a fallen tree or something to get back on, so no I don't clean it up. If I know he's pooping, I leg yeild him off to the side so it's not dead center in the path.


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Nope, I don't clean up their poop. Even when riding through town. I just make sure that they don't poop on anyones driveway or on a sidewalk anywhere and everything's cool. But then again, only 4 road in my whole hometown are paved. The rest are dirt so horse poo is not really an issue.


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## mom2pride (May 5, 2009)

Naw...never really have had to worry about it, as I've always ridden in not so populated areas. Trails and dirt roads are what I grew up on, so there was never a concern.


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## HorsePride (Aug 29, 2009)

Nope.


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

Trails said:


> I don't either, although poop on the trail is a HUGE issue with hikers and mountain bikers. When ever I give a talk on trail etiquette to mutli user groups the poop thing always comes up.


Thats what I worry about. If enough non-horse people complain, I worry that multi-use trails will start getting closed to us.


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## bubblegum (Oct 6, 2009)

redneckprincess70 said:


> ****--Sorry! Picturing mountain/ trail bike rider, flying through air, landing face first is large pile of pooh!!!


 
haha, me too, thats hilarious


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## themacpack (Jul 16, 2009)

Vidaloco said:


> Thats what I worry about. If enough non-horse people complain, I worry that multi-use trails will start getting closed to us.


That right there is a VERY real possibility and has actually happened in some places.


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## mls (Nov 28, 2006)

There is a program out there called "Leave no Trace"

http://www.bchcolorado.org/leaveNoTrace.PDF

Speaks mainly to not leaving trash, hurting the habitat, etc.

Horse manure starts to break down as soon as it leaves the body. After all - it is recycled hay and water! Kicking it off paved areas or the shoulder of your local road is a very nice thing though!


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

I agree just kick it off the trail. I don't even want to think about having to curb my horse and carry poop scoops and bags like dog owners do. Could you imagine the size of the bag?! I'd have to take another horse along just to pack out the manure 









From the above "leave no trace" link: 
"Manure piles should be kicked apart and scattered, and any pawed ground should
be filled in."​* 
*


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## drafts4ever (Sep 1, 2009)

If I stopped and kicked it off to the side I wouldn't be getting back on unless a friendly pedestrian happened by to get me a leg back up. I try to back her up way off the side of the road.


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## Pidge (Sep 5, 2009)

We have equestrian trails around the lake near my house...they are open to bikers and walkers but they are labeled for the horses...we have a totally different set of trails for bikers and for walkers around the lake...so if they choose to walk or bike our horse trails they shall suffer the mannuer lol no complaints 

But if your not that lucky and you have to share trails...if you can get back on yours horse I would atleast kick the maure off the path... I totally understand not being able to get back on though... the lady I ride with rides a 16.1 hand TWH...she is short like me and shes older so she cant reach the sturrips without something to stand on...


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## back in the crosby again (Feb 4, 2009)

I have always said that horse poo is the least offensive of all the poos out there. Now if I was on a multipurpose trail and I was on my mare who is 14.1 then I might get of to kick it off to the side but if I was one anything 16 and up I would just let it lie. The trails I ride are on my own property and my neighbors so I don't worry about it. They leave 4 wheeler tracks on my property and I don't complain. I leave a bit of horse poo on theirs and they don't complain. It just kinda evens out.


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## QHDragon (Mar 6, 2009)

MyBoyPuck said:


> My horse is 16.2 If I got off to clean up his poop, I'd have to find a fallen tree or something to get back on, so no I don't clean it up. If I know he's pooping, I leg yeild him off to the side so it's not dead center in the path.


This is the same reason that I don't. Both of my horses are over 16 hands, and my mare still doesn't understand standing still to get mounted very well, so somebody else would have to get off to hold her while I got back on. Thankfully the trails that I go on are not frequented by non-horse riding people much either.


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## dashygirl (Nov 21, 2006)

I guess I'm lucky when I say I have a rather short QH that is easy to mount so I can get off IF I feel like it. 

I really don't clean up the poops unless it's in an area where I know people might complain. But I do have a story; I have to ride on local roads to get on any trails and sometimes the horses poop on the road. Big deal. Well one day my horse pooped on the road in front of a neighbors mailbox. We had just started riding so I wasn't about to get off and clean it up, and since it was on the road I figured I'd drive to clean it up after riding. Well, when we were heading back from our ride the neighbor was outside and she yelled at me! She said "when my husband comes home and sees this he is going to be VERY upset. You'd better clean this up! Right now!" I was like woah lady, take it easy, I have nothing to clean it up with as of now, when I'm done riding I'll come back and clean it up. Apparently the 30 minutes it took me to get home, unsaddle and turn my horse out wasn't quick enough, her ****ed off hubby had already done it. Oops. Whatever. Since then they've moved. Good riddance!


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## jamesqf (Oct 5, 2009)

dashygirl said:


> Apparently the 30 minutes it took me to get home, unsaddle and turn my horse out wasn't quick enough, her ****ed off hubby had already done it. Oops. Whatever. Since then they've moved. Good riddance!


Yeah, and that weekend they probably went down to the garden center, and paid $10 a bag for steer manure to put on their flowerbeds. 

Most of the places around here, at least eastwards, any piles are easily attributed to the wild horses.


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

^^ I was just thinking the same thing. About paying for manure when its right under their noses ;-)


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## iridehorses (Oct 22, 2007)

I like to think of mine as "custom blended" since, due to the ponies, I get to shovel it in various sizes. 

On the trails, I think of it as a speed bump for the bikers - really no worse then the mud, wet leaves, etc that they ride through.


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## dashygirl (Nov 21, 2006)

iridehorses said:


> On the trails, I think of it as a speed bump for the bikers - really no worse then the mud, wet leaves, etc that they ride through.


Yeah, if I was a biker I'd be way more wary of mud.


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## Appyt (Oct 14, 2007)

No, I don't. Mainly I ride down a gravel road, in a pasture and in my own arena. I guess I don't ride where it wold be an issue.


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## NorthernMama (Mar 12, 2008)

I don't ride on multi-use trails, other than the occasional quad trail, but the quad-riders really don't care. They drive through much, much worse on purpose on a regular basis. But, I will push it off to the side at mailboxes or private driveways. If I am stopping in someone's yard, I offer to shovel it away for them if they have a shovel.

For all of you that won't move the poo (hey, I like that "mooove the pooo") because you won't be able to get back on your horse -- what the heck do you do if you fall off? Or your tack breaks? Or you have to get something out of a hoof? Or whatever? I'll never understand going out on a ride without the ability to get on and off the horse if and as needed. And if you need to find a log, or a slope to help you get back on, what's the big deal about that? Go find the log or slope or stump or whatever.


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## jamesqf (Oct 5, 2009)

iridehorses said:


> On the trails, I think of it as a speed bump for the bikers...


And badly needed, for some of them. (And I say this despite being both a street & mountain biker myself.) When I think of the minor inconvenience of horse piles, I also think of the number of times the dog & I have had to dive to the side of a hiking trail to avoid the sort of mountain biker who goes downhill at breakneck speed.


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## Macslady (Oct 23, 2009)

Never clean it up on the trails. So who cleans up the poo after the racoons, deer, turkeys and geese? Seen all of that on a trail.

The only one that bugs me is where you park the trailers. You are supposed to clean up after your horse there and many people don't, that's the one that makes me angry.


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## RoadRider / Rios Dad (Jul 2, 2009)

I carry a plastic dust pan on the back of the saddle and asses each pile. If it is on a public trail I get off and scoop it off the trail. If it is in the grass I leave it. On our bush trails I again leave it but if I am running pathes in the park I scoop.


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## Hali (Jun 17, 2009)

I always get off and kick it off the trail. IMO to do otherwise is disrespectful for non horsey people who may share the trail. If it's a horse-only trail, then leaving it won't be such a big issue.

Everybody is comparing their horse manure to dogs,raccoons, birds, ect. There IS no comparison. Horses leave a LOT more behind than other animals, due to their size. I know when I'm walking my dog on a narrow trail, I don't like navigating around some giant pile of horse manure because their rider was too lazy to get off their horse and push it off the trail. Common courtesy ftw.


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## Tazmanian Devil (Oct 11, 2008)

Hali said:


> Everybody is comparing their horse manure to dogs,raccoons, birds, ect. There IS no comparison. Horses leave a LOT more behind than other animals, due to their size. I know when I'm walking my dog on a narrow trail, I don't like navigating around some giant pile of horse manure because their rider was too lazy to get off their horse and push it off the trail. Common courtesy ftw.


True to a point. A horse leaves more than a goose, but geese around here travel in LARGE flocks. Some park (where we ride) are overrun with geese and the sum of their droppings is considerably more than the horses.

Volume is also not a factor when you step in it. Deer, bear, raccoon, whatever... when your foot goes in it, volume or location doesn't matter. Horse manure has a big advantage is being much easier to spot, and thus avoid.

I have never considered picking up after my horse on trail. It is the woods after all... "does a bear go in the woods," etc. Seems a natural place for this natural activity. As others pointed out it breaks down quickly and is good for the soil.


On a related note, does anyone know of something like a "dropping bag" that can be attached to the horse to catch manure before it hits the ground? I have seen them on carriage horses, but those attach to the harness gear. I was wondering about something that can be used on saddle horses. We have a bar and grill near the trails that we like to go to in the summer. The horse get hitched up outside and cleaning up the sidewalk is not always easy.

Such a device might also some people that need to keep their trails "un-naturally" clean.


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## MacabreMikolaj (May 9, 2009)

I would if we had any sort of multi-use trails, but we really don't. Where we live, we pretty much ride gravel roads (no biggie), or on the floodway which is so huge, you deserve to step in a pile of poop if you manage to find it. Not that anyone walks on the floodway, we see the occasional dirtbiker but that's it.

In the provincial park, we have strictly horse specific trails. One entire side of the park is dedicated to horseback riding, and if you don't stick to those trails, you better hope a park official doesn't see you. Not that they do much, they caught me on the beach and tried to act all tough and I just trotted over to grass as they sat in they're cars and yelled :lol: (For the record, I was riding on the beach in OCTOBER. Nobody is there, nobody is swimming, and any potential poops my horse causes will be LONG gone by next summer. I found it absolutely ridiculous that they had nothing better to do then harrass me for riding in some water.)

I'd clean up my poop if it was an area I shouldn't really be in, but to be honest, we really don't have many of those. We're so sparcely populated to begin with, and the entire area is a farming community, the only place I could ever see someone getting mad is the city and I'm obviously not going to take my horse within five miles of that chaos. Twenty minutes out of the city, and it's nothing to see wranglers herding cows down the middle of the road!


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## skittle1120 (Oct 24, 2009)

I always figured when the freakin amish around here start cleaning up after their horses on the roads, I'll clean up after mine, until then, she's not hurting anyone... 

I do try to keep my horse on the shoulder though, unlike the morons in the buggies that run in the middle of the road on blind hills.... I'm gettin sick of playin dodgem buggies lol...


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

skittle1120 said:


> I always figured when the freakin amish around here start cleaning up after their horses on the roads, I'll clean up after mine, until then, she's not hurting anyone...
> 
> I do try to keep my horse on the shoulder though, unlike the morons in the buggies that run in the middle of the road on blind hills.... I'm gettin sick of playin dodgem buggies lol...


:lol: Ha ha I can't even imagine what its like where you are as far as poop on the road. Our Amish communitys are few and far between here. 
Its probably more of a problem of having it splashed up on your car


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## dashygirl (Nov 21, 2006)

skittle1120 said:


> I always figured when the freakin amish around here start cleaning up after their horses on the roads, I'll clean up after mine, until then, she's not hurting anyone...
> 
> I do try to keep my horse on the shoulder though, unlike the morons in the buggies that run in the middle of the road on blind hills.... I'm gettin sick of playin dodgem buggies lol...


This is interesting to me. I've never lived near an Amish community, but I would assume there would be laws as far as cleaning up the manure on a public road where cars drive! I'm kind of shocked. I would think that driving over poop would **** a whole lot of people off!


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## skittle1120 (Oct 24, 2009)

Nope, they're not required to do anything as far as cleaning up, but i think that stems from the fact that there are no major cities anywere close to us, its all small rural towns... 

They don't pay taxes either, which ****es me off to no end, especially when you can tell where they've been on the roads because their buggy wheels leave tracks on the pavement... As far as I'm concerned, their buggies shouldn't be allowed on the roads until they pay for the upkeep of the roads...

There was just a pretty nasty accident not far from my moms because a couple teenagers decided they wanted to race their buggies on a well traveled roadway and the one ran his horse into a car that was stopped at an intersection... By the end of it, 3 of them were hospitalized, the poor horse had to be put down, and the car they hit was totaled... But they're not a road hazard, not at all.... 

I could rant for months about the Amish....


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## Tack Collector (Nov 10, 2009)

No, Amish do not have to pull over, stop, and clean up the roadway, lol. Not even in town, here. A stopped buggy, especially if it's partially blocking the road, would create a worse traffic hazard than a 15 MPH horse and buggy.


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## PaintHorseMares (Apr 19, 2008)

dashygirl said:


> I really don't clean up the poops unless it's in an area where I know people might complain. But I do have a story; I have to ride on local roads to get on any trails and sometimes the horses poop on the road. Big deal. Well one day my horse pooped on the road in front of a neighbors mailbox. We had just started riding so I wasn't about to get off and clean it up, and since it was on the road I figured I'd drive to clean it up after riding. Well, when we were heading back from our ride the neighbor was outside and she yelled at me! She said "when my husband comes home and sees this he is going to be VERY upset. You'd better clean this up! Right now!" I was like woah lady, take it easy, I have nothing to clean it up with as of now, when I'm done riding I'll come back and clean it up. Apparently the 30 minutes it took me to get home, unsaddle and turn my horse out wasn't quick enough, her ****ed off hubby had already done it. Oops. Whatever. Since then they've moved. Good riddance!


Love it! We ride in suburban areas a lot and 3 years ago a man actually got in his car and chased me after our mare pooped in the road in front of his new suburban house. He was yelling so much that any thought of 'keeping the peace' and going back to clean it up quickly left my mind, and I just told him to go home, put it in his garden, and there was no charge for the fertilizer ;-) A number of other riders go through this development (which used to be 350+ acres of beautiful forest riding) and over the years, the 'city folk' have chilled out a bit and just come to accept it (or moved).

The only place I ever clean up is if our mares poop in front of the grocery store (and I just get it into the nearby shrubs).


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## PaintHorseMares (Apr 19, 2008)

dashygirl said:


> This is interesting to me. I've never lived near an Amish community, but I would assume there would be laws as far as cleaning up the manure on a public road where cars drive! I'm kind of shocked. I would think that driving over poop would **** a whole lot of people off!


No Amish here, but in NC, per the Department of Transportation, there is absolutely no requirement or reason to clean up horse poop on a public, state maintained road.


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## Rissa (Feb 10, 2009)

I can't imagine cleaning up poop 15 miles out into a national forest.


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## Rissa (Feb 10, 2009)

skittle1120 said:


> Nope, they're not required to do anything as far as cleaning up, but i think that stems from the fact that there are no major cities anywere close to us, its all small rural towns...
> 
> _*They don't pay taxes either, which ****es me off to no end, especially when you can tell where they've been on the roads because their buggy wheels leave tracks on the pavement... As far as I'm concerned, their buggies shouldn't be allowed on the roads until they pay for the upkeep of the roads...*_
> 
> ...



I think you and me are twins or long lost cousins. Haha, I could have typed that entire post along with the Buggie Dogem. They are insane in this area.


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## skittle1120 (Oct 24, 2009)

lol... My farrier sounded like he was a little worried about me replacing him with an Amish trimmer, and I told him he didn't have to worry, I'd pay him anyday if it meant that I didn't need to bring an abusive Amsih crook anywere near my animals...


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## SmoothTrails (Oct 1, 2009)

I've never thought of cleaning up poop in my area. I rarely ride on the roads, but when I do there is more mud all over the road than there would be if we rode every single one of our horses out there to poop...lol. 

I've never really had a problem because people are pretty laid back, although one of my friends did get in trouble for taking his horse to Sonic in town. He was being a smart aleck, so they gave him a ticket for not having reflective gear on at night. 

I can understand scooping it off if its is on a shared path, but I know if I were riding my brother's 16.2 hand horse that woudl be a lot of trouble for nothing. He would stand all day long for me to crawl back on or get next to a log or something, but I wouldn't really see the point.


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## Rissa (Feb 10, 2009)

skittle1120 said:


> lol... My farrier sounded like he was a little worried about me replacing him with an Amish trimmer, and I told him he didn't have to worry, I'd pay him anyday if it meant that I didn't need to bring an abusive Amsih crook anywere near my animals...



A "friend" of mine years ago took her horses one of them I currently own after hunting him for years and finally finding him in a sad state, to an Amish farrier.

All he did was pull a shoe out of a box, slap it on the hoof and hammer it on.

It made me cringe.


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## dashygirl (Nov 21, 2006)

PaintHorseMares said:


> No Amish here, but in NC, per the Department of Transportation, there is absolutely no requirement or reason to clean up horse poop on a public, state maintained road.


INTERESTING! i should look this up in my area.  I won't feel as guilty then when my horse's poop graces the road.


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## skittle1120 (Oct 24, 2009)

Rissa said:


> A "friend" of mine years ago took her horses one of them I currently own after hunting him for years and finally finding him in a sad state, to an Amish farrier.
> 
> All he did was pull a shoe out of a box, slap it on the hoof and hammer it on.
> 
> It made me cringe.


 

Its sad the things that people will do with horses...


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## ChingazMyBoy (Apr 16, 2009)

On the main trail I do, because people walk down it. On the little trails, no because they are eaither inside the property or no one goes down them. It also depends if all the kids are in school, then yes. Because they walk down it on there way home and its kind of obvious who it belongs to -- Chinga's paddock is beside the trail.


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## spence (Nov 8, 2009)

nope, but i live miles from the nearest town, and namely ride on a dirt road or my own place.


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## Tasia (Aug 17, 2009)

No I don't its free fertilizer. =)


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