Abstract: A milking machine retractor includes a pair of rails affixed to a stall, the rails defining a path along which a carriage rides. The carriage has an arm extending away from the path, and a rod mounted on the arm is tethered to the milkers so that as the carriage moves away from the udder, the milkers are removed from the teats.The rails twist about the path so that the arm swings from a substantially vertical orientation at the lower end of the path to a substantially horizontal orientation at the upper end of the path. As a result of the resultant twisting carriage motion, the milkers are initially pulled down, off the teats, and then are withdrawn from the stall without touching the floor.