headstall

From head +‎ stall.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈhɛdstɔːl/

headstall (plural headstalls)

1. The part of a bridle that fits over a horse's head and supports other elements. [from 14th c.]
   • c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

     Why, Petruchio is coming […] his horse hipp’d […] with a half-cheek’d bit, and a head-stall of sheep’s leather which, being restrained to keep him from stumbling, hath been often burst, and now repaired with knots […]

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Another, that would seeme to have more wit, / Him by the bright embrodered hed-stall tooke […] .

   • 1952, John Steinbeck, East of Eden‎^[1], Penguin, published 2003, Chapter 15, Part 4, p. 172:

     He turned back, slipped the bit in Dox’s mouth, and laced the big flop ears into the headstall.

   • 1989, Elias Lönnrot, translated by Keith Bosley, The Kalevala, section XIX:

     Then the smith Ilmarinen / the everlasting craftsman / out of steel formed a bridle / forged a headstall [translating päitset] of iron […].

2. (obsolete) A phorbeia. [18th–19th c.]

• headpiece
• headcollar

• Baranowski, Zdzislaw, "The International Horseman's Dictionary", Pitman Publishing, New York, 1955
• Stratton, Charles, "The International Horseman's Dictionary", Hamlyn Publishing, Melbourne, 1975
• Summerhayes, R.S., "Encyclopedia for Horsemen", Frederick Warne & Co., London and New York, 1966