I have several on different jobs and I trim them from underneath. I grip toward the tips of the branch that you would like gone or shortened and then raise it to see where it divides or branches from a main branch closer to the interior. I make a cut as you would on any other pruning cut and remove medium to large sections at a time. By doing this from the underside of the plant any cuts are hidden by surrounding foliage.
Transplanting is a different question...I seem to have pretty poor luck transplanting any prostrate evergreen that has gotten some age on it. I find it difficult to- 1.get access to the ground to begin with, and 2.excavate a proper root ball since the roots seem to be long and stringy like the top growth.
Good luck.

Transplanting it would be very risky indeed.
If you do decide to give it a shot, it would be best if you do it in late fall, however.

It would likely be a disaster if attempted now, during spring.

-Sam

Here's one I used to crawl under in the early 50s.
It's been trimmed from underneath.
Mike

Wow - beautiful specimen! I had no idea they could eventually grow partially upright like that! I'll have to start training mine with selective pruning!

hi beanie.. how's cecil ....

you said: My original purchases need a judicious pruning. How should that be done?

===>>>> at ground level with malice and aforethought.. [the legal definition of murder] .. plus a little roundup ...

moving a 7 footer.. what.. are you nuts ... kill it.. and go buy a $20 replacement .. crikey woman.. focus .. lol ...

ken

ps: might be rootable.. if you want to try ..... before redrum .....

Here is a link that might be useful: for years i wondered where in the heck i learned this song ... lol.. who knew ....

Ken, if I kill it I'm not buying a new one unless it is one that can keep its promise to stay 6 feet! That's my focus. My other focus is less work, not more in the garden.
Botan, That picture is terrifying and beautiful. It must be a West Coast frame of mind thing that helped it get that big. When you say "fifty years ago" do you mean that it 50 years plus years old? And I infer that you were 50 years younger when you crawled under it. Were you an infant whose mother unwisely let you hold a pruning saw or a young nimble guy... which would make that plant at least 70?
Doesn't it remind you a bit of the Monterey Cypresses?

Thank, all, for the helpful advice.
Marie
In 50 years I'll be buried under mine, literally and figuratively.

Idabean, I went to my 50th high school reunion last year. I'm an old guy. That picture was taken where I went to grade school in the early 50s.
It reminds me of a prostrate Lawson cypress more than anything.
When I took a trip to visit it I was surprised it was still there. The school building isn't. It's a new library there now.
Mike

My other focus is less work, not more in the garden.

===>>> so why did you say you are thinking about moving it??

take care

ken