Definition of "headstall"

headstall

/ˈhɛdstɔːl/

noun
plural headstalls
1. The part of a bridle that fits over a horse's head and supports other elements.
  Quotations
  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 […]
  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, [Act III, scene ii]
  Another, that would seeme to have more wit, / Him by the bright embrodered hed-stall tooke […] .
  1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie
  He turned back, slipped the bit in Dox’s mouth, and laced the big flop ears into the headstall.
  1952, John Steinbeck, East of Eden‎, Penguin, published 2003, Chapter 15, Part 4, p. 172
  Then the smith Ilmarinen / the everlasting craftsman / out of steel formed a bridle / forged a headstall [translating päitset] of iron […].
  1989, Elias Lönnrot, translated by Keith Bosley, The Kalevala, section XIX
2. (obsolete) A phorbeia.