Horse Muzzle

This muzzle is composed of a basket made of several pierced iron panels riveted together, with two kidney-shaped openings at the front for the horse’s nostrils. It hung on the horse’s head by means of a leather headstall. This example, dated 1567 at the front, is decorated overall with gilded vines of morning glory leaves.

Horse muzzles were used to preventing stallions from biting. Such pieces, however, seem to have above all been used as lavish equestrian ornaments, particularly in fashion in eastern Germany in the second half of the 16th and the early 17th century. This pierced decoration is typical of the work of the spur makers living in the southeast of Germany and Saxony in the 16th and 17th centuries. Despite their name, spur makers not only made spurs, but also small equestrian hardware like bits, stirrups, muzzles, cavessons or curry-combs, sometimes adorned with the same intricate decoration.