in the menage, a contrivance made of straps or thongs of leather and pieces of iron, in order to keep a horse in subjection and obedience.

The several parts of a bridle are the bit, or snaffle; the head-stall, or leathers from the top of the head to the rings of the bit; the fillet, over the fore-head and under the fore-top; the throat-band, which buttons from the head-band under the throat; the reins, or long-thongs of leather that come from the rings of the bit, and being cast over the horse's head, the rider holds them in his hand; the nose-band, going through loops at the back of the head-stall, and buckled under the cheeks; the trench; the cavesson; the martingale; and the chaff halter.

Pliny assures us that one Pelethronius first invented the bridle and saddle; though Virgil ascribes the invention to the Lapithae, to whom he gives the epithet Pelethronii, from a mountain in Thessaly named Peler.